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The Agency centres around Michael Fassbender as Martian… yes, I thought, maybe with the actor’s Irish descent, the name is ‘Martin’ but a different spelling? No, it’s “Martian”, as in the alien. And no-one picks up on this?! That’s just weird.
Working for a covert organisation, he’d been living and working undercover in Addis, Ethiopia, for six years, but pulled out with 48-hours notice, despite being in a relationship with married Sami (Jodie Turner-Smith), and even when he arrives at his new flat, he can’t relax without checking it to see if it’s been bugged.
Now in London, as well as reconnecting with his daughter, Martian’s mission, with no option to accept or refuse it, is to train new recruit Daniela Ruiz Morata (Saura Lightfoot-Leon), before she goes to Iran, telling her how in order to do the job, she needs to meet and observe people, and identify relevant individuals to get the info she needs.
Elsewhere in the world, a man known as Coyote is driving drunk, crashing his car, with the police chasing after him before going AWOL, and CIA guy Owen (John Magaro) is after him, so he can stop the elusive individual from spilling the beans about various CIA operations.
Based on a French series which I’ve never seen, I’ve seen both of the two episodes released so far, the second of which features a chap called Alexei, who needs to be exfiltrated after his mission went wrong, but The Agency is weird. It’s a bit dull, but there are elements of it that I’m actually enjoying it, so I might well stick with it.
I’ll give it a third episode to see how things go, but I’m a bit late to the party with this one, as it just appeared on Paramount+ with zero fanfare, bad reviews, and not even the PR company giving it a mention, so nothing really bodes well for it.
And no-one queries why he has a weird name like Martian!
Oh, and Richard Gere is also in it at times, but as good as Gere can be, he’s 75 and would long since have retired from a job like this.
The Agency is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Paramount+ from tomorrow. There are two episodes initially, with further episodes added weekly, up to a total of ten.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45-60 minutes per episode (10 episodes)
Release date: November 30th 2024
Studio: Paramount+
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Zetna Fuentes, Philip Martin, Joe Wright, Grant Heslov
Producer: Simone Goodridge
Writers: Jez Butterworth
Adaptation: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, John Henry Richardson
Original series by: Eric Rochant
Music: Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
Cast:
Martian: Michael Fassbender
Henry Ogletree: Jeffrey Wright
Bosko: Richard Gere
Naomi: Katherine Waterston
Owen: John Magaro
Daniela: Saura Lightfoot-Leon
Sami Zahir: Jodie Turner-Smith
Dr. Koval: Sergej Onopko
Guo: Curtis Lum
Alexei Orekhov: Marcin Zarzeczny
Sandy: Violet Verigo
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.