Should You Try It: The Agency on Showtime and Paramount Plus

Welcome to December. As the year winds down, we’re seeing the options for new shows start to shrink, too. That’s good, because it’s a busy time of year. With all your other obligations, you might need to be more selective about what shows to try. That’s why we’re here, to give you all the information you need to make an informed viewing decision about new shows. Today it’s a re-make of a French series.

Series: The Agency

Where to Find It: The first two episodes are now streaming on Paramount+. Subsequent episodes drop Fridays on Paramount+ and air Sunday nights on Showtime.

What’s It About: This series is an adaptation of the French series Le Bureau des Legendes, which aired from 2015 to 2020. It is a spy series, with this new adaptation focusing on a unit of the CIA that is stationed in London. Among the cast is Michael Fassbender, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Gere.

We center on Martian (Fassbender), an agent who is returning to the office after spending six years in deep cover in the field in Africa. While there, he made a connection with Dr. Sami Zahir (Turner-Smith), starting a relationship. When Martian is pulled quickly from the field, he has trouble saying goodbye. So does she. But is she all she appears to be?

Back in London, Martian finds himself quickly drawn into a sticky situation as another deep cover operative in Russia goes missing. The fear is he might have turned, exposing a number of missions. Can they get to the bottom of it all in time?

You Should Try It If: You’re a fan of a good spy series, a fan of the cast involved, or a fan of the original series.

One Man’s Opinion of The Agency

This 10-episode series will play out over the rest of this year and into January. We got the first two episodes released in a block this weekend to give you a taste and pull you into the world. That makes sense. It’s also a strong cast that is likely to grab your attention. The production here is solid, as is the world-building.

I love Fassbender as a lead. His work in The Killer last year was some of my favorite on film. He’s compelling here, too, but the early episodes are playing with the timeline and teasing things out at what feels like a glacial pace. I didn’t see the original series, so I don’t know where this is going. That makes this a bit of a slow watch at the beginning, especially compared to some of the more action-oriented spy series we have on the air currently.

There is enough here, though, to make me curious how this will resolve. I like the cast and the basic premise. The second episode picked up some of the action in a more interesting way, too, that adds to the tension and helps create more of a hook. So, if you’re on the fence after the pilot, I’d recommend at least watching episode two.