Pryce, Jonathan

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    ‘The Agency’ and ‘Black Doves’: Spy Dramas in Touch With Their Feelings

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    ‘The Agency’ and ‘Black Doves’ are part of a new crop of espionage series whose biggest battles take place within the hearts and minds of their agents.Ukraine and Russia are at war. Political instability and civil war rage in Sudan. Iran is ramping up its nuclear capabilities. The world is basically a mess in “The Agency,” the new espionage series that inundates the viewer with rapidly intersecting story lines set on an increasingly complicated geopolitical playing field.The series, which premiered last week on Paramount+ (with the Showtime tier), is part of a surge in spy shows that also includes “The Day of the Jackal,” on Peacock; “Black Doves,” premiering Dec. 5 on Netflix; and “Slow Horses,” which wrapped up its fourth season on Apple TV+ this fall.True to the genre, these series jet all over the globe (though mostly Europe) and unfold in high-tech command centers and in dark urban alleyways, via thrilling shootouts and furtive meetups. Some operatives pursue sanctioned missions as others go rogue. Multiple cats chase multiple mice, and it’s not always clear who is which.The most pitched battles, however, happen within the hearts and minds of the individual players. Even as the new spy shows reflect a fraught, tangled and mercenary post-Cold War world, the existential threats and conflicts are more interior, intimate and, in many ways, timeless.“It’s the agency,” a Central Intelligence Agency honcho (Jeffrey Wright) tells a field agent (Michael Fassbender) in “The Agency.” “Nothing is personal.” Nothing, that is, except everything.Jeffrey Wright, right, with John Magaro, plays a C.I.A. boss in “The Agency,” based on the French series “The Bureau.”Luke Varley/Paramount+ with ShowtimeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      ‘Slow Horses’ Review: Bucking the Odds

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      The sardonic British series about spies no one wants is as likable as ever in its fourth season. Is that enough?In the television universe, the arc of nearly every series bends toward repetition and gradual decline. The best and most original shows are not immune to this rule (if anything they are more prone to it), no matter how much we would like to tell ourselves otherwise or how willing we are to accept less vibrant versions of a great first season.I did not want to believe this would be true of the satirical British spy thriller “Slow Horses,” whose first two seasons on Apple TV+ were a terrific blend of mordant, melancholy comedy and absorbing action and mystery, not quite like anything else on TV. Maybe the third season, which felt more concerned with plot mechanics and violent set pieces than character, was a hiccup.Season 4, based on “Spook Street,” the fifth book in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, does represent a slight comeback. (Two of six episodes are at Apple TV+.) But it still has a feeling of going through the motions and casting about for new ideas. How many times can the beleaguered hero, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), chase and be chased through London railway and Tube stations? The wait for more of the squirmy, transgressive excitement of the early seasons continues.On the other hand, it is also true — as any number of fans, apoplectic as they read this, will tell you — that “Slow Horses” remains one of the most entertaining and well-put-together shows around. The motions through which it goes are good ones. (In accordance with another general rule of American TV, it is the inferior third season that has finally broken through at the Emmys, with “Slow Horses” up for nine awards including outstanding drama series.)The irresistible premise remains in place. River is one of a motley group of agents from the British intelligence service MI5 who have been exiled to a backwater called Slough House after catastrophically screwing up their careers. They are expected to keep quiet and do nothing, but under the leadership of their unsociable, unhygienic boss, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), they continually outsmart and outmaneuver their more reputable colleagues and prevent disasters from befalling the agency and the nation.The new season retains the obstreperous, excitable River along with the no-nonsense Louisa (an excellent Rosalind Eleazar), the Mutt-and-Jeff action team of Shirley and Marcus (Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan), the timorous old pro Catherine (Saskia Reeves) and the inexcusably gross, though often helpful tech whiz, Roddy (Christopher Chung). New to the team is J.K. (Tom Brooke), a cipher in a hoodie who does not add much, even when he grudgingly starts to open up later in the season.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Alan Eisenberg, Longtime Actors’ Union Head, Dies at 88

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      In his 25-year tenure at Actors’ Equity, he helped build Equity Fights AIDS and challenged the casting of the top roles in the hit musical “Miss Saigon.”Alan Eisenberg of Actors’ Equity Association was honored by the Actors Fund of America at a gala in New York in 2006. With him was the actress Lynn Redgrave.Peter Kramer/Getty ImagesAlan Eisenberg, a lawyer who during his 25 years as the top executive of Actors’ Equity Association helped to build its membership and stabilize the finances of its health plan, and also dealt with a highly publicized controversy involving the casting of the hit musical “Miss Saigon,” died on Oct. 7 in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He was 88.His wife, Claire Copley, said he died in a hospital of lung cancer.Mr. Eisenberg had worked at law firms for two decades before he was hired in 1981 as the executive secretary (his title was later changed to executive director) of Actors’ Equity, which represents theatrical actors and stage managers.In the 1980s, the union was confronted with the AIDS crisis, which had a particularly harsh impact on the theatrical community. Mr. Eisenberg was a champion of Equity Fights AIDS, the philanthropic fund formed within Actors’ Equity in 1987 to directly help members in financial need.Tom Viola, the executive director of the nonprofit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (the two organizations merged in 1992), said in a phone interview that Mr. Eisenberg offered “ballast and direction” to the “emotional understanding of what needed to be done” that was provided by the actress Colleen Dewhurst, who was president of Equity Fights AIDS from 1985 until her death in 1991.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.We are confirming your access to this article, this will take just a moment. However, if you are using Reader mode please log in, subscribe, or exit Reader mode since we are unable to verify access in that state.Confirming article access.If you are a subscriber, please More