SERIES REVIEW – This fast-paced, suspenseful, intelligent and original Netflix limited series will make you realize that you can trust anyone. Daredevil’s Charlie Cox stars as a MI6 undercover agent with a dark past who is unexpectedly appointed to head the organization and is held in thrall by former Russian agent Olga Kurylenko, among others.

It’s no secret that Netflix likes to pump out content, for better or worse. Critical and commercial successes like Stranger Things, The Sandman, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and now the hugely successful Wednesday have dominated the streaming service’s original content roster and helped maintain its status as Netflix competes with the ever-expanding offerings of streaming services.

These TV series stand out from Netflix’s sea of constant new releases, which tend to rely on more generic plot threads and casts, most of which you haven’t even heard of or stumble upon until long after they’ve ended naturally or violently.

While Treason may not set Netflix on fire like The Addams Family or The Hawkins Residents of Indiana State, this solid spy thriller is definitely a worthy addition to your viewing list. And it’s especially dear to my heart because I love a taut spy thriller.

Tight, five-part spy thriller with Daredevil actor

Treason, from Academy Award-nominated writer Matt Charman of the historical thriller Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance, is another project that places its characters in a web of carefully crafted and intricate lies. The taut, five-episode drama stars Charlie Cox, best known as the title character in Daredevil. The iconic Marvel hero’s captivating performance has kept audiences’ attention and earned viewers’ trust, though surprisingly, there have not been many other meaningful, meaty roles for Cox to sink his teeth into.

In Treason, the British actor plays Adam Lawrence, a trusted MI6 agent who has been steadily rising through the ranks for 15 years. When Sir Martin Angelis (Ciarán Hinds), the head of MI6, is poisoned in a restaurant and becomes unfit to carry out his government duties, everyone puts a contingency plan in place and he takes on his new role and responsibilities.

MI6 quick briefing

The pilot cleverly begins with Adam talking to his young son Callum’s (Samuel Leakey) class about what exactly it is he does. This is not only a clever way of explaining the hierarchy of MI6 to a possibly unknowing audience but also establishes the bond he has with his son. This amiable introduction to Cox’s character is soon interrupted by the infamous phone call informing Adam of the poisoning, which brings his guest lecture at Callum’s school to an abrupt end.

While the entire organization must immediately adapt to the new reality, Cox’s young lead agent character is the most upside down. Although he does his best to bury his anxiety, the stresses and distractions of his new position as head of MI6 inevitably surface. Cox cloaks his performance in a layer of confidence, but it is clear to the viewer that Adam is insecure about something.

From Russia, with “love”?

But it is not just the big new job that is stressing Adam out. It’s that his complicated past becomes an even more complicated present. The Russian spy named Kara (Olga Kurylenko) who poisons the MI6 boss actually has a personal and professional past with Adam that no one knows about. Not only does she return 15 years later to “cash in her chips” and get answers from Adam about who killed his men on a mission in Baku, but her return also adds to the family’s shattering dynamic.

Adam’s wife Maddy (Oona Chaplin) soon notices his change in his new position, including abruptly leaving the cinema with the kids to take a work call and late-night browsing through secret documents on his computer. Even when Adam is physically present with his family, he is miles away in his mind.

A unique twist on a familiar story

Stories about someone’s partner being skeptical about their partner’s secret, high-level work are nothing new, and frankly, they’re pretty dull. Usually, the partner is underdeveloped, left on the surface as a plot device and a brief respite from the main attraction. All this can become repetitive and annoying quite quickly. Treason, however, adds a unique twist to the tried and tested formula by adding complexity to Adam’s wife, Maddy and linking her to other agents. Yes, Cox’s story is what moves the narrative and sucks you in. How is the new head of MI6 the very person suspected of being a double agent for Russia? But Maddy is the one you’ll find most interesting, as she proves to be a formidable threat to Adam’s job security. She’s been in the military, knows a lot about how international affairs work, and knows how deadly it can all be. The fact that Maddy has served with a woman named Dede (Tracy Ifeachor), who now holds an important role in the CIA and has resurfaced in search of Adam, is just icing on the cake of this convoluted story.

The constantly shifting balance of power between Maddy, Dede and Kara is what makes this spy thriller stand out from the rest. Cox’s performance is consistently strong from start to finish, although the storytelling is relatively stagnant. Once it becomes clear that he is not as morally and ethically fit for the job as his credentials suggest, and that he is suspected of being a double agent who has committed treason (all of which is revealed in the first episode, and even in the trailer), the interest and intrigue in his character wanes somewhat.

In the web of three women

It becomes clear that the excitement and unpredictability is really the three women, each with their own agenda. Dede wants to squeeze every possible clue out of Maddy, who is trying to understand her husband’s role in the madness and whether or not he has or is having an affair with Kara. Although Kara initially appears to be a flat antagonist with a single goal (to disrupt the status quo of our messy protagonist), she surprisingly becomes the most dynamic character in the series. Several different situations allow him to show his more sympathetic side, and we are given hints of a traumatic past that the series gradually lifts the veil on.

Although it would have been great as a continuous, longer series, Treason works very well as a compact five-episode story. While Cox, who struggles with his own demons, flaws, and missteps as both an MI6 agent and leader, is gripping, it is the constantly fluctuating loyalties of Chaplin, Kurylenko and Ifeachor and their relationship with Cox’s character that makes this spy thriller truly gripping.

-BadSector-