Tradecraft: NBC's ENEMY WITHIN Explores Interagency Espionage Antics

Interagency espionage rivalries are all the rage on network television these days. We're getting closer to the premiere of Whiskey Cavalier, the show I've been most looking forward to this season, which takes a romantic, comedic look at the relationship between CIA and FBI agents. Hulu (which, I know, isn't network), of course, had The Looming Tower this year (currently racking up awards nominations and mentions on critics' year end lists), a very serious exploration of the disconnect between America's various intelligence agencies leading up to the massive intelligence failure of 9/11. Now NBC is gearing up to use the FBI/CIA rivalry as a backdrop for what Deadline describes as "a fast-paced thriller set in the world of counterintelligence," The Enemy Within.

The Enemy Within boasts an impressive spy pedigree. Covert Affairs creators Matt Corman and Chris Ord produce (along with Gotham's Ken Woodruf), and the cast includes Morris Chestnut (Legends), Kelli Garner (Pan-Am), Raza Jaffrey (Spooks/MI-5), and Coral Peña (24: Legacy), along with Jennifer Carpenter (who apparently voiced Black Widow in some animated Marvel short, so that counts as some spy cred, right?) Here's how NBC describes the series, which is expected to premiere mid-season:

In this fast-paced, spy-hunting thriller, Erica Shepherd (Jennifer Carpenter) is a brilliant former CIA operative now known as the most notorious traitor in American history serving life in a Supermax prison. Against every fiber of his being but with nowhere else to turn, FBI Agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut) enlists Shepherd to help track down a fiercely dangerous and elusive criminal she knows all too well. For Keaton, it's not easy to trust the woman who cost him so much. While Shepherd and Keaton have different motivations for bringing the enemy to justice, they both know that to catch a spy... they must think like one.

TV Trailer: WHISKEY CAVALIER

ABC announced this week that it had picked up the previously reported spy pilot Whiskey Cavalier to series. And they also unveiled a trailer! Bear in mind, this is one of those long, sort of cumbersome upfront trailers (designed with advertisers in mind, not audiences)... but it still looks awesome! This is exactly what I want from a network spy series. I really hope the show turns out to be as much fun as the trailer! Fulfilling the ancient prophecy that all the stars of Felicity would one day be spy stars (hey, Scott Speedman had his shot in xXx: State of the Nation, remember?), Scott Foley stars as a mostly by-the-book FBI agent just coming off a breakup who's assigned to partner up with a freewheeling CIA agent played by Lauren Cohan (who also stars in the upcoming summer spy movie Mile 22, whose trailer also dropped this week). Action, hijinks, and sexual tension ensue. And based on his memorable several seconds in the trailer, Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) looks to have reinvented his career, brilliantly transforming himself from a ho-hum leading man to a scene-stealing character actor. I can't wait to see the show!

Tradecraft: Networks Pursue Spy Comedies

Apparently spy comedies are hot this season. Two separate networks are developing them. CBS's is called Need To Know, according to Deadline, and is a traditional multi-camera sitcom set at the CIA. The pilot was co-written by Scott Weinger (a writer on Galavant and Black-ish, but perhaps best known as the voice of title character in Disney's Aladdin) and Zach Ayers (State of Affairs), based on Ayers' own experiences working for the CIA's top secret training video department. Actor Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory, Florence Foster Jenkins) and actress Jocelyn Towne will produce through their company Wildline Entertainment. 

Meanwhile, according to a separate Deadline story, ABC has won a bidding war with a put-pilot commitment for action-comedy Whiskey Cavalier, starring Scott Foley (Scandal), written by David Hemingson (The Catch) and produced by Bill Lawrence (Rush Hour, Cougar Town). According to the trade, "Whiskey Cavalier follows the adventures of FBI agent Will Chase (codename: Whiskey Cavalier) — played by Foley — who, following an emotional break-up, is assigned to work with CIA operative Francesca “Frankie” Trowbridge (codename: Fiery Tribune). Together, they lead an inter-agency team of spies who periodically save the world (and each other) while navigating the rocky roads of friendship, romance and office politics." Personally, I really like the idea of an Avengers-style will they or won't they male/female duo adventure series set against the backdrop of inter-agency rivalry! I hope this one moves forward.

Tradecraft: ABC Orders Spy Dramady Starring Toni Collette

Deadline reports that ABC has ordered the spy dramady Unit Zero to pilot. Unit Zero was created by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and producer Lindsey Shockley. Shockley wrote the hour-long pilot. Toni Collette (Velvet Goldmine), who's been on a spy kick lately with roles in XXX: Return of Xander Cage (currently in theaters) and the upcoming Michael Apted thriller Unlocked, will star. According to the trade, "Unit Zero follows Jackie Fink (Collette), a brilliant but unassuming CIA engineer and single mom, as she leads a team of desk jockeys into the field as secret agents. Overlooked in the workplace, their invisibility makes them perfect for the CIA’s most covert missions." So it sounds kind of like Spy for television... which is certainly not a bad thing.

Tradecraft: ABC Buys Whistleblower Thriller Canary

I'm not entirely sure from the scant description that Canary is a spy show, but I'm making an educated guess that it is. Deadline reports that ABC has bought Prison Break co-E.P. Zack Estrin's pilot Canary. According to the trade, "Described as 'Homeland meets Erin Brockovich,' Canary follows a woman who risks everything to help a whistleblower come forward with secret information that will impact the lives of millions." What makes me think it will be a spy show? Well, the Homeland name-check, for one, plus the story similarities to Citizenfour director Laura Poitras' relationship with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, plus the general Snowdenmania of our time. (In addition to the Oliver Stone movie Snowden due out at Christmas with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the title role, James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are developing their own Snowden movie, and Matt Damon cites the whistleblower as his and Paul Greengrass's chief inspiration to revisit Jason Bourne.) Of course, for all we know Estrin's character could be blowing the whistle on Big Pharm or tobacco or the telecomm industry. We'll probably have to wait and see if ABC ends up shooting the pilot, which Estrin will write, before we learn more.

TNT Goes Spy in November With Agent X, Legends Premieres

TNT has finally set premiere dates for its fall spy shows. According to Dark Horizons, the Sharon Stone/Jeff Hephner series Agent X (the pilot for which the network ordered way back in January of last year) will premiere on Sunday, November 8. And the eagerly anticipated, retooled second season of the Sean Bean series Legends (formerly a summer show) will premiere the week before, on Monday, November 2. I have a good feeling about Agent X, which centers on an elite secret agent (Hephner) who reports directly to the Vice President (Stone). Maybe the tux in the picture is misleading, but I feel like this could be the sort of small screen James Bond type of spy show that's more or less missing from the otherwise spy-filled television landscape. And I'm certainly looking forward to the return of Legends, the Howard Gordon-produced adaptation of the Robert Littell novel, which concluded its engrossing first season on a game-changing cliffhanger.

Tradecraft: Fox Buys Spy Pilot From Undercovers Producer

Deadline reports that Fox has ordered a spy pilot script from Peter Berg’s (The Kingdom) company Film 44. The untitled hour-long drama was written by novelist and producer Elwood Reid (Undercovers, Hawaii Five-0). According to the trade, the "high-octane character drama ... follows the woman with the most lethal mind in America, a brilliant and ruthless military professor who is recruited by a former student to help a covert branch of the CIA deal with high-priority targets."

Watch Sundance's Deutschland 83 Series Premiere for Free on iTunes

Did you miss the premiere of Sundance's fantastic new Cold War spy series, Deutschland 83? Well, don't worry! You can download the series premiere for free on iTunes. And I definitely recommend doing so. This German import is something special, and I'll have my full review up in the next few days. In the meantime, here's the official synopsis from Kino Lorber:

A coming-of-age drama set against the culture wars and political events of Germany in the 1980s, Deutschland 83 was filmed across several locations in Berlin including the Berlin Stasi-Museum, located on the former grounds of the headquarters of the GDR Ministry for State Security

The series follows Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) a 24-year-old East Germany native who is sent to the west as an undercover spy for the Stasi foreign service. Hiding in plain sight in the West German army, he must gather the secrets of NATO military strategy. Everything is new, nothing is quite what it seems and everyone he encounters is harboring secrets, both political and personal.

Tradecraft: Disney Channel Orders Spy Comedy

It's not just the primetime networks who are getting in on the spy action this season. Deadline reports that Disney Channel has ordered a half-hour spy comedy called K.C. Undercover. According to the trade, the live-action, multi-camera series "focuses on K.C. Cooper [played by mononymous Disney star Zendaya], a high school math whiz who’s training to be an undercover super spy, following in the footsteps of her parents. Each episode finds the Coopers balancing typical family issues while performing undercover missions to protect the country." I'm on record as being a fan of the teen spy genre (and Disney Channel was home to one of the best teen spy shows ever a decade ago, the animated Kim Possible), so I'm definitely curious to check out this family series when it premieres in early 2015.

Tradecraft: CBS and CW Pass on Spy Pilots

While ABC greenlit Agent Carter and NBC picked up two new spy pilots, CBS and its sibling network the CW both passed on their spy pilots. (I don't believe Fox had any in contention.) Deadline reports that CBS passed on Nikki Toscano's Red Zone (although drama Scorpion sounds like it might possibly have some espionage overtones), and the CW passed on the Kurtzman/Orci spy show Identity. Identity sounded very similar to Allegiance, which was picked up at NBC. Identity followed a young woman who reconnected with long-lost family members when she needed an organ transplant, only to be recruited by the CIA to be their eyes and ears inside the family, who they suspected of ties to terrorism. Allegiance is about a young man working for the CIA whose family is revealed to be Russian sleeper spies. I was particularly looking forward to Red Zone because of its stellar cast, which included Anthony Lapaglia, Kim Dickens and Aimee Garcia. Lapaglia played a former CIA operative now working as a high school football coach pulled back into action after a deadly terrorist attack in Washington D.C. According to the network's synopsis, he was "forced to investigate closer to home," which makes Red Zone sound a bit similar to Identity and Allegiance as well.

Both networks also lost existing spy series. Nikita ended its run on the CW this season, while CBS cancelled freshman drama Intelligence.

Tradecraft: ABC Picks Up Marvel's Cold War Spy Series Agent Carter, Renews Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (UPDATED)

I'm afraid I fell behind on last week's flurry of network pickups. I was working all weekend, and now I'm catching up. But NBC isn't the only network to greenlight new spy series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC not only renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but also picked up another Marvel espionage series, Agent Carter starring Hayley Atwell. Set in the early days of the Cold War in 1946, Agent Carter follows Atwell's Peggy Carter, Captain America's unrequited love interest from Captain America: The First Avenger as she works for the covert agency SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), the Marvel Cinematic Universe's equivalent of the OSS and predecessor to S.H.I.E.L.D. Presumably over the course of the series, we'll witness the birth of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well, since it was revealed during Atwell's old-age makeup cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that she was one of the founders of the organization (in its MCU incarnation, anyway). Ensuring tight continuity with the Marvel movies, Captain America and Winter Soldier screenwriters Stephen McFeeley and Christopher Marcus wrote the first episode and will executive produce the series along with Marvel's Jeph Loeb (author of such classic comics as Batman: The Long Halloween and Spider-man: Blue). Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, creators of the short-lived but highly entertaining Reaper, serve as executive producers and showrunners. (Another promising sign!)

If you've seen the Marvel One-Shot short Agent Carter (available on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray and DVD), then you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect from the show, which was ordered straight to series without a pilot... and the short is really pretty great! While the official synopsis says that "Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life -- Steve Rogers," I've seen nothing so far to indicate whether or not Dominic Cooper (Fleming) will reprise his Howard Stark role from the movies and the short. What the trade does offer is that "sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Agent Carter will be a short-order series and likely used as a 'bridge show' to air during the second season hiatus of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with both series ultimately being tied-in together."

After a promising start, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. disappointed me for most of its first season, but finally started to live up to its potential following the closely tied in events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. (I was delighted when we finally got an action scene with Coulson's flying Corvette, but it still wasn't the full-blown chase scene I so desperately crave...) I look forward to seeing it come into its own in Season 2. But even more, I look forward to seeing the irrepressible Hayley Atwell in a period spy series! While what I'd love to see most would be a S.H.I.E.L.D. series set in the Sixties (the Golden Age of Steranko's Nick Fury comic book), I'll settle pretty happily for the combination of one set now and (even better) one set in the late Forties! Atwell was excellent in a similar role in another 1940s-set spy miniseries, Restless (based on a novel by recent James Bond author William Boyd), playing a British agent operating in the United States on the eve of America's involvement in WWII.

UPDATE: Hayley Atwell confirmed that the Agent Carter series order is for eight episodes, which will bridge the two halves of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season.

Read my S.H.I.E.L.D. primer here.

Fox and M. Night Shyamalan Offer New Twist on The Prisoner

I had heard about M. Night Shyamalan's new Fox series Wayward Pines, and I knew it was being billed as his homage to (or ripoff of, depending on your point of view) Twin Peaks, but I didn't realize until watching this trailer unveiled today that it would be equally inspired by The Prisoner. Or so it looks. I'm honestly not sure if that makes me want to see it, or especially keen to avoid it. We've already had one bad remake of The Prisoner (though at least that introduced us to Hayley Atwell) and Shyamalan hasn't impressed me since Unbreakable. But for better or worse, here's a look at Shyamalan's tale of a "secret agent" (as everyone keeps calling Matt Dillon's Secret Service agent) who wakes up to find himself sequestered as a prisoner in a mysterious village full of eccentric characters.

State of Affairs Trailer

NBC has released a long-form trailer for one of the spy pilots the network recently ordered to series. Here's an extended look at State of Affairs, the Washington-set Katherine Heigl CIA drama. Alfre Woodard, Adam Kaufman, Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain, Tommy Savas and Leslie Odom, Jr. costar, and Joe Carnahan (The Blacklist, The A-Team) directed the pilot. The network is still searching for a showrunner. State of Affairs will air in the Blacklist slot, Mondays at 10pm following The Voice, starting November 17. I think this looks pretty good! Clearly taking some cues from Zero Dark Thirty, I like that this series looks to keep its analysts in Langley (or Washington), while SAD or special forces carry out the missions overseas. And from the looks of things, it does so in a pretty thrilling manner! (I would expect no less of Carnahan.) How far into the season do you think we'll get before Heigl's out in the field herself? I hope the writers resist that urge. We already have Sydney Bristow and Annie Walker.

Tradecraft: NBC Goes Spy Crazy With Pilot Pickups

With network upfronts coming next week, a number of pilot pickups are already being announced. This season saw more spy pilots in contention for series orders than I can ever remember, so it will be interesting to see how many actually make it to the air. NBC is the first out of the gate with spy orders, and amazingly they've picked up both of their spy pilots, plus an international conspiracy thriller that sounds sure to include an espionage angle. Deadline reports that NBC has picked up State of Affairs, starring Katherine Heigl and Alfre Woodard, and Allegiance (formerly known as Coercion), starring Hope Davis and Gavin Stenhouse.

In State of Affairs, Heigl plays CIA analyst Charleston "Charlie" Tucker whose duties include briefing the President (Woodard) daily on developing crises around the world. Charlie also has a personal relationship with the President, having once been engaged to her son before he died in a terrorist attack. According to the trade, "Charlie survived that attack and now is determined to bring the perpetrators to justice."

Allegiance was developed by Bourne series veteran George Nolfi, who wrote and directed the pilot based on the Israeli format The Gordin Cell. No doubt its series order has something to do with the success of The Americans on FX, because like that show Allegiance focuses on a Russian sleeper cell operating in the United States. But while the cable show is a Cold War period piece, Allegiance is very much contemporary. Stenhouse plays Alex O'Connor, a young, idealistic CIA analyst on the Russia desk, who learns that his affluent parents, Mark (Scott Cohen) and Katya (Hope Davis), are really deep cover Russian sleeper agents freshly reactivated with the goal of turning him as well. NBC previously explored a series based on The Gordin Cell last season, when Peter Berg developed it as M.I.C.E. That version didn't go anywhere.

Additionally, the network has also greenlit the international conspiracy thriller Odyssey, starring Anna Friel and Peter Facinelli. Odyssey follows multiple storylines around the globe all building to one massive industrial military complex conspiracy involving a multinational corporation secretly funding Al Qaeda terrorists. Although the main characters are a soldier, a lawyer and a hacker, a series with that premise seems bound to eventually dip into the Intelligence alphabet as well.

Tradecraft: State of Affairs Elects Alfre Woodard President

NBC's Katherine Heigl CIA series State of Affairs has cast its U.S. President: Alfre Woodard. Deadline reports that Woodard (My Own Worst Enemy) will play the Commander in Chief that Heigl's CIA attaché briefs daily on world crises. Additionally, the trade blog also reports that Leslie Odom, Jr. (Person of Interest) will play Mitchell Manning, the President's Chief of Staff. Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) directs the pilot. Last year he directed the pilot for The Blacklist, and that not only got picked up to series, but went on to become one of the biggest hits of the season. Will he do it again?

TV Review: TURN (2014)

While there are a lot of spy shows on television right now, and a lot more in development, AMC delivers a different sort of spy drama in TURN. Different because of its unique setting, at least… but also pleasingly familiar in a lot of ways. In the ways that mean the most to aficionados of the genre.

TURN is set in 1776 against the backdrop of the American Revolution. The Continental Congress has declared independence, and an insurgency against the British rulers is raging. In the Long Island town of Setauket, farmer Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell) doesn’t want to pick sides. He wants to stay neutral, he wants the war to end, he wants to tend to his crops, and he wants to watch his baby son grow up and not have to fight. But fate has other plans for him. His complicated personal relationships and a rash decision to smuggle his cabbage across the Long Island Sound to Connecticut result in on offer from American patriot Ben Talmadge (Seth Numrich) to spy for General Washington, providing news of troop movements and other vital intelligence from within the British stronghold of New York. It’s the same sort of offer that Harry Palmer’s always grumbling about—the sort Abe can’t really refuse. Abe is given the option of spying for the patriots or jail time for his smuggling activities. But one gets the sense that there’s already a budding insurgent inside Abe’s soul, and it might not have taken blackmail to get him to take up the cause.

While Abe is married to Mary (Meegan Warner), who seems to genuinely care for him, he still carries a torch for his ex-fiance, Anna (Heather Lind)… but she’s now married to tavern owner Selah Strong (Robert Beitzel), a patriot sympathizer to whom Abe owes money. For Anna's sake, Abe finds himself stepping into an altercation with British soldiers in Selah’s bar. The altercation gets Selah sent to jail, but Abe’s father, Richard (Kevin McNally, The Contract), a British loyalist close to garrison commander Major Hewlett (Burn Gorman, Torchwood), manages to get Abe off the hook. Selah makes Abe promise to take care of Anna while he’s in jail, and it’s for her sake that he seems to have some patriot sympathies even before Talmadge presses him into service. The same smuggling that got him into that predicament with the Continental Congress also gets him into trouble with the Redcoats, and once again his father steps in on his behalf. The only way Abe can avoid jail time is by taking a public oath of loyalty to the Crown, which he does… even as he’s secretly embarking on his new career as a spy against the British.

The biggest flaw in the pilot is that it introduces so many characters that they’re a bit hard to keep track of and in some cases difficult at first to tell apart. (And I’ve only mentioned a handful of the many featured players!) But with all these characters, obviously, there’s plenty of human drama to drive the story even without the spy plot. But it’s the spy plot we’re here for, and in that respect TURN doesn’t seem as different as you might think. While the technology has certainly changed over the years, the basics of espionage and treachery have remained the same since the dawn of time, and spy fans will be thrilled to find the makings of a labyrinthine le Carre-style plot of spymasters and agents, assets and couriers, tradecraft and double-crosses, and even rudimentary gadgetry. (The British make use of a cool, if very basic, decoder.)

Once I figured out who was who, I found the pilot of TURN to offer highly compelling character-driven spy drama in a unique and fascinating historical context. Seeds are sewn for an exciting and harrowing story to come, with interesting characters on both sides of the conflict. I will definitely be tuning in again next week.

AMC has also put up a free digital prequel comic that serves as a good aid in figuring out who's who, and how the different characters relate to one another. Read it here.

Tradecraft: State of Affairs Adds to Cast

The previously announced Kathrine Heigl CIA drama pilot at NBC, State of Affairs, is casting Heigl's Agency co-workers. According to Deadline, Heigl (Killers) stars as Charleston Whitney Tucker, a key CIA attaché who counsels the president on high-stakes incidents around the world. The trade blog reports that Adam Kaufman (Without a Trace) and Sheila Vand (Argo) will play Lukas Wright and Grace Hough, respectively, fellow CIA analysts on the President's daily briefing team, and Cliff Chamberlain (Chicago PD) will play quirky Agency linguist Brett Welker. I like that amidst all the spy dramas we've seen lately (and all the spy pilots contending for timeslots next season), this one explores a fairly unique aspect of Agency operations. While there are a lot of shows about field agents, not many follow the officers who brief the President on world events. There's plenty of room for drama at the intersection between Intelligence and politics. I'm curious to see how they play it.

Tradecraft: El Rey's "Latino James Bond" Show Gets Title, Star

Last summer when Sin City and Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez announced he was launching a new English language network targeting young Latino audiences, he also anounced that one of the fledgling El Rey network's first shows would be a spy series co-created with Alias and Mission: Impossible 3 writer Bob Orci. Today Deadline provided more details about the series. First off, it's got a title now: Matador. As someone who writes about spy shows and spy movies, I personally wish it weren't the same title as another movie with spy connections, the excellent 2005 Pierce Brosnan assassin comedy The Matador, but I guess that doesn't really matter. A good title is a good title, even if it's already taken within the genre. On top of a title, Matador has its stars. Relative newcomer Gabriel Luna will play the lead, Antonio "Matador" Bravo, a Bondian superspy who works for a "little known branch of the CIA" and, like I Spy's Kelly Robinson before him, operates under the cover of being an international sports star. Not a tennis pro and, confusingly, not a matador either, Bravo is a playboy soccer star. Australian actress Nicky Whelan (Franklin & Bash) will co-star. Orci's regular collaborator Alex Kurtzman has also come on board now (the trade lists him as a co-creator), and, as previously reported, Rodriguez himself will direct the pilot. Best of all, we haven't got long to wait to see this Matador! El Rey have slated it to debut this July, following the World Cup. I'm really looking forward to this one. While we've got some excellent serious spy shows on TV right now (like The Americans and Homeland), there's not really anything Bond-y out there at the moment. And Orci and Kurtzman worked on the best Bondian TV series of recent vintage, Alias. So this could be very cool.

TNT's Agent X Adds to Cast

A few weeks ago we learned that Sharon Stone would topline TNT's spy pilot Agent X playing a newly minted U.S. Vice President who discovers that her job comes with a top secret sideline: protecting the Constitution in times of great crisis with the aid of her Chief Steward and a secret operative designated 'Agent X.' Now the cable network has rounded out the cast, filling the other leads—some with notable spy veterans. According to Deadline, Jeff Hephner (Chicago Fire) will play the title role of John Case, codenamed Agent X. Gerald McRaney (who even managed to be awesome in the lackluster Undercovers, his last spy series) will play Malcolm Millar, "the refined Chief Steward of the Vice President’s mansion, and keeper of its many secrets." (Her Alfred?) Homeland's Jamey Sheridan will play FBI Director Stanton, who's described as "patronizing and disdainful" towards the VP. (Perhaps he's just resentful, since he himself held that office on his last spy show.) The trade blog also reports that Mike Colter (Zero Dark Thirty, Salt) will play the Speaker of the House, tasked with oversight of the ultra secretive Agent X project, and (in a separate story) that Peter O'Fallon (Leverage, House) will direct the pilot.

Tradecraft: The Missionary Dead at HBO

This is some bad news. I was looking forward to the prospect of a Berlin-set Cold War spy series from (in part) Malcolm Gladwell, but apparently it's not to be. Deadline reports that the cable network has decided not to move forward with its pilot The Missionary, which has been in the works since 2010. C'est la vie. At least we've got a lot of other Cold War spy series on the way right now to keep us preoccupied, what with The Americans returning to FX, The Assets debuting on ABC, The Game on BBC One, Legacy on BBC Two (which has already aired in the UK as part of their fall Cold War season), and of course that epic 18-part adaptation of Len Deighton's Bernard Samson series that's in the works! (If that one happens, it will eclipse all others anyway...)