Season 1 - 8 episodes (2026)
Watch the trailer
Created by: Susanna Fogel, David Iserson
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Haley Lu Richardson, Adrian Lester, Artjom Gilz, Vic Michaelis, Nicholas Podany, Petro Ninovskyi, Andrew Richardson
Rated: TV-MA
Plot
Two secretaries at the American embassy in 1970s Moscow become CIA operatives after their husbands are killed, uncovering a Cold War conspiracy behind the tragedy.
Verdict
It's very easy to compare this to other, similar shows. It's checking off the boxes from a lot of more successful shows, namely The Americans or The Night Manager. It ends on a huge cliff hanger, and as of yet hasn't been renewed for a second season. If that doesn't happen, it reduces the reason to watch this. It certainly has potential, and the leads are likable characters if unlikely spies. It can be funny but that's usually at the expense of how serious this should be. It's never as intense as I thought it would be considering the subject. The core of the show is two inept spies stumbling through missions and somehow succeeding.
It depends.
Review
I appreciate that even the production logos before the show begins are period correct.
Other than their husbands working for the American embassy in Russia, Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson) couldn't be more different. Bea is educated but tends to over-analyze. Twila is fearless yet chaotic. Their husbands die in a plane crash with the reveal they were spies in the first episode. Bea wants to stay in Russia and become an intelligence officer to figure out what happened. Twila wants to stay as the government was paying for her housing. Being women, no one would ever suspect them as spies. Together they have the skills to be a good agent. Bea speaks fluent Russian, and Twila remains calm under pressure. The Russians would never send a woman spy, and they'd assume the Americans wouldn't either. A person of interest (POI) is a person under surveillance, everyone else is a person of no interest (PONI). Bea and Twila are of no interest to the Russians, and that's exactly why the CIA plans to use them.
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| E1: Haley Lu Richardson, Emilia Clarke play Twila Hasbeck, Bea Grant |
There cover is working at the embassy as secretaries which they don't love. Bea is a reluctant spy. She balks at going out with a KGB agent, but that's the job and they need Russian contacts. Twila coaches her on how to lead Vasiliev (Artjom Gilz) on without leading to more.
In episode four Bea has to forge a painting so they can sell the real one to fund paying an informant. This has a comedic bent as the pair struggle through missions. Twila manages to acquire cyanide for an informant, but she accidentally kills the asset in the process. Twila is told her husband was the mole. We know the CIA has a mole, but this could be misdirection from the asset.
In the next episode Bea wonders if her husband could have been the mole. With all of the spy craft, how can you trust anyone? All of them have reasons to lie, especially Russians looking to defect. Anyone with information has value, but it's not always easy to confirm intel.
Unlikely as it seems, Bea and Twila made good agents because no one suspects them, and they complement each other well. By the end of the season, that's changed as their cover is blown. I don't know how they could continue as agents in another season, but if this does get another season it seems the mole in the CIA will be a big part of the plot. The other part would have to be the Russians aware at least in part of their activities as the pair were captures in the final episode. If this doesn't get another season, this ending will be underwhelming.
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