Love this show - shortage of good spy shows

It's not of a calibre of Le Carre or "The Americans," but "Mossad 101" on Netflix turned out be very entertaining if at times a bit implausible.

It's about the training of a Mossad class from intake to graduation. It's not always rugged and a bit like "suburbanites who wanna be Mossad guys" at times that makes you roll your eyes a bit at some of the characters.

But the tension in the story is well done and it is filled with twists and turns and surprises along the way all the way from the first moment. Keeps you guessing. And the main protagonist is a complex guy and you never know if he's a good 'un or a bad 'un. Which makes good tv.

Also, on MHZ Choice if you you get that, the updated version of the "Hamilton" series from Sweden is out with Mikael Persbrandt as the title character. Unfortunately, they appear to have made only two 1:30 hour films. But they were pretty good.

He is a Swedish James Bond type complete with naval uniform, etc. License to kill. The stories are pretty good but the temptation to make the evil empire of the U.S. the core of every cliched bad action that happens to anybody and everybody in every scene isn't very original.

But it's great watching Persbrandt be da-man.

The Sandbaggers. George Smiley plus a little action on the side. predicted the exact way the Berlin Wall would come down 10 years ahead of the fact.

And as a spoof, Sleepers (1991) was one of the all time best black comedies, right up there with Dr Strangelove as being totally wacko and also possibly 100% accurate.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

Yeah, Spooks was/is iconic!

Although on rewatch the older eps that focused less on fancy tech and more on the personal costs of being on the job (as well as showing the degrading of their emotions the longer they betrayed people and had to lie) were more meaningful to watch. The early eps were so low tech, haha.

Just Colin and Malcolm being inventive and they had some fun gizmos.

Spooks is the best, especially the seasons with Richard Armitage. Lucas North is one of my favourite characters within the spy genre. I don't think Berlin Station is giving him much to work with in terms of his character. After Spooks, I know he's capable of so much more.

Thanks! I did catch The Game when it arrived on BBC a couple of years ago. Was watching for a second series but not sure if one ever arrived. It had promise.

Haven't done X Company. So will check that out. Definitely. Until then, can always reach for a dog eared copy of a Le Carre Smiley paperback--you know, the kind that sells for 35 pence in Oxfam. But all classics for sure.

I mentioned it elsewhere, but "Mossad 101" isn't bad. It's a bit "trendy" in look and feel but not as toe curlingly implausible as "Quantico" which was only good for laugh out loud mocking after only one cocktail. The Hollywood "crew" that made up the training folks were laugh out loud silly.

The thing with "Mossad 101"--the story of one Mossad training class from start to finish--- on Netflix is that there are so many twists and turns and surprises and switcharounds that by the end I needed brain transplant. It was non-stop surprises...

But it was NO Israeli "Hatufim" series, the gold standard (IMHO only) for authenticity and that "we filmed this in people's houses" and "everybody just wore the clothes from their closets" verisimilitude. Not a spy thriller in the traditional sense, but close enough--loads of intrigue around Mossad and Shin Bet etc. and Arab foils.

If you haven't run across it, it was the original Israeli series upon which "Homeland" was based. But when I saw "based," very loosely. So much better and SO much more moving, emotional and tragic. Just devastating at times. It stays with you for a long time.

We needed a third series to round it off, but the writer sold out (sorry) to Hollywood evidently, went to do "Homeland" and we never got 100% answers about everything still wrapped in mystery. But that doesn't diminish the power of the story.

In "Hatufim" (I think it's "Prisoners of War" too), I recall the soldiers were captives for 17 years. Not 7. Which in itself ups the ante of the saga.

Another great show about spies and intelligence and how it operates domestically is a Canadian (CBC) series than ran two seasons called Intelligence. It was extremely popular in Canada when it aired and its sudden, inexplicable cancellation was fraught with rumors suggesting the United States might have had something to do with it because, as usual, the Americans didn't come off very well in the series and one storyline had the Americans attempting to find ways to claim Canada's water rights. For the most part, however, the film focused on the international drug trade being run out of Vancouver by a weed impresario, Jimmy Reardon, and showed how those in intelligence actually sanctioned Jimmy's business in exchange for his cooperation as a CI. Another running storyline dealt with the rise of shady banks and an op to expose them using Russian madam and her brothel of lovelies.

This show ran on Netflix for a few years and it was wildly popular. Fascinating to look at the Americans from a Canadian viewpoint, their view of the CIA, etc. I'm sure there was some uncomfortable feelings from govts about the show--it was authentic and wildly entertaining.
If you can find this show onine, it's a guaranteed excellent watch. At the end of season 2, you'll crave for another season and be hard pressed to figure out just why this show was cancelled. Hit somebody's nerve, for sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_(Canadian_TV_series)