The Agency

Based on the French series Le Bureau des Légendes, Paramount+ show The Agency is an espionage thriller centred around the US government department responsible for training special agents for deep undercover assignments. Co-produced by George Clooney, directed by Joe Wright, and featuring the likes of Michael Fassbender, Richard Gere and Jeffrey Wright, there’s an impressive amount of star power involved in this project. Unfortunately, viewers will have to sit through a tedious first episode before seeing what these big names are capable of.

The show primarily follows Martial (Fassbender). He’s one of the higher-ups whose job is to prepare new agents for their missions. Alongside getting a fresh-faced recruit ready for an important assignment in Iran, he’s also been estranged from his daughter for years after being undercover himself while being involved in a relationship with a fellow agent. However, events only become more complicated when one of their operatives is believed to have been compromised, which could spell catastrophe for US security.

Although its rich collection of plot threads shows the makings of a gripping and intricate thriller, the main issue with The Agency is that it gets off to an incredibly slow start. Everything moves at a glacial pace and is presented in cinematography that comes across as sterile and bland. While this could have worked as a slow-burn style delivery to ease viewers into the drama as it begins to simmer, robotic acting from Fassbender stops any thrills from materialising.

It’s only in the second episode that the pieces start to click. With the severity of the situation growing, an urgency is added to Fassbender’s performance, which injects some much-needed momentum to proceedings. The presentation likewise begins to make more sense in context with the escalating tension, its detached nature now emphasising the harshness of the violence in this episode’s most effective sequences.

After a sluggish introduction that leaves a poor first impression, The Agency soon develops into a taut drama that has the potential to become something genuinely great.

Andrew Murray

The Agency is released on Paramount+ on 29^th November 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Agency here: