TV Review: The Spy (2019). A solid spy drama with a powerful lead performance.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays Eli Cohen in The Spy
Image courtesy of Netflix

Tv Review: The Spy (2019) by Ben Jeffries (10/9/2019)

Season 1 (6/9/2019)

6 Episodes, 44-62 minutes

Drama, True Story

Streaming on Netflix

This six part mini-series from Netflix is a solid spy drama anchored by Sacha Baron Cohen’s strongest dramatic performance to date.

The Spy follows the real-life exploits of Israeli spy, Eli Cohen (Sacha Baron Cohen), as he infiltrates the dangerous world of Syrian politics in the 1960’s. It’s an incredible tale of bravery, self-sacrifice, and danger as Eli assumes the persona of Kamel Amin Thaabet and immerses himself in a hostile foreign nation. His work as a spy is vital to Israel’s self defense, but the longer Eli spends undercover the more he struggles to hold onto his true self. Sacha Baron Cohen gives his strongest dramatic performance to date in the role of Eli, anchoring the show with his committed portrayal of a driven man willing to sacrifice everything for kin and country.

Executive produced, written, and directed by Gideon Raff (Homeland), The Spy traces Eli’s career with Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, between 1960 and 1965. We follow Eli on his journey from neophyte trainee to his first posting in Buenos Aires, then on his dangerous journey to the Syrian capital, Damascus, where he would spend the rest of his career. Eli’s dangerous work sees him doing everything from smuggling classified information across borders in crates of pottery, sneaking around secret military bases in the middle of the night, and hosting parties for high ranking Syrian government officials. There are a few exciting action sequences dotted between the tense scenes of more traditional spy-craft, but for the most part the show runs at a steady, methodical, pace.

Eli is occasionally forced to take daring action to get a piece of vital information to his handlers quickly, but most of his work is slow and deliberate; building relationships with important people, ingratiating himself with powerful members of the military, slowly working his way towards the inner circles of power and greater access to information.

The show features all the attendant elements we’ve come to expect from a spy thriller: Eli is dispatched to Syria with a suitcase full of secret gear concealed in everyday items; there’s a Morse code transmitter hidden in an electric egg beater and plastic explosive inside his soap. He bribes his way past border guards, and attends fancy parties in fancier suits. It would be easy to think of this as a well crafted spy drama in the vein of a John Le Carre novel, but knowing that the show is “based on true events” makes it truly fascinating to watch Eli conduct his dangerous business.

Sacha Baron Cohen, best known for his many comedic characters, is excellent in the role of Eli. Cohen’s comedic characters, like the extravagant British rapper Ali G, and Kazakhstani tourist, Borat, have been popular but divisive; heralded by some as hilarious parody and by others as racist and obtuse, but regardless of how you feel about the content of his work, Cohen’s performances have always been thoroughly committed, and his turn as Eli Cohen is no exception.

In Eli, Cohen delivers a fully realised character with complex emotional reactions rather than a simple James Bond stereotype. There’s an authentic, fearful, tension to the character as he risks capture at every turn, but there’s also a side to the character that’s prideful of his success, who enjoys the danger of his work. There’s an arrogance to Eli as he sits, smoking a cigarette, and defies instructions to transmit secret messages to his handlers. Eli is a determined and highly skilled man, with the intelligence and willpower to bring his careful ploys to fruition. He’s also a loving husband who misses his wife, Nadia (Hadar Ratzon-Rotem).

In his role as a deep cover agent, Eli leaves his family and travels to Syria where he assumes the identity of influential businessman, Kamel Amin Thaabet. To maintain his cover and for his own safety, he is forbidden from calling or writing to Nadia, and his missions importance means that he’s away for many months at a time. Eli keeps his emotional ties to Nadia alive in secret, through the ritual of sitting down to supper. It’s their custom at home to sit down in the evening with a simple meal of two slices of bread and some butter as they talk about their day. Throughout the series, Eli revisits this ritual. In the kitchen of his lavish Syrian apartment, after a day of staring down Generals and wooing Ministers, Eli sits alone at the table with his bread and butter, a brief moment of familiar routine. It’s a scene that rests entirely on Cohen’s performance as Eli imagines the conversation he would have with his wife. There’s no dialogue, Eli never says a word, but as Cohen smiles and nods gently to the chair opposite he allows the audience to see Eli’s true self, revealing the characters warmth and loneliness. His use of posture and expression as he stares at the space where his wife would sit is precise, and the delicate performance turns a cute moment into a special scene that blends sweetness and loneliness while informing the character.

Raff developed The Spy from a book titled L'espion qui venait d'Israël (The Spy Who Came From Israel), written by Uri Dan and Yeshayahu Ben Porat. He successfully translates Eli’s daring espionage career to the screen but, in attempting to tackle the broader elements of Eli’s life, Raff stretches his adaptation a little too far. Interspersed with Eli’s various exploits as a spy, wooing diplomats, smuggling information, and taking clandestine photos, there are sequences set in Israel that follow Nadia’s struggle to keep the family afloat on her own while Eli is away. The strain Eli’s work puts on his family, especially Nadia, and the guilt he feels over it, is an important part of his story but in the compressed run of six episodes, The Spy doesn’t have room to spare for Raff to explore the material in a meaningful way. The scenes of Nadia struggling become gestures toward a story rather than a crucial element of Eli’s narrative, and a lot of the time they feel more like an attempt to keep Nadia from being forgotten by the audience as the show spends most of it’s time with Eli. It’s a fine performance from Hadar Ratzon-Rotem (Homeland) in the role of Nadia, there just isn’t a lot for her to do besides wait for Eli to come home, and be anxious about him leaving when he does.

The show’s take on Eli’s Mossad handler, Dan Peleg (Noah Emmerich), is a similar story. It’s Dan who recruits and trains Eli in the first place, and it’s Dan who is Eli’s advocate within the ranks of the Mossad as his superiors push for more and more from their most successful agent, enticed by the opportunity he represents. Dan is conflicted; he believes in the work, but he’s also carrying the guilt for the brutal killing of a young Mossad agent. Dan blames himself for the young man’s death and is haunted by the possibility of it happening to Eli. It’s through Dan’s character that The Spy tries to examine the morality of Eli’s work; the true cost of asking a man to give up his life for a cause without hope of thanks or acknowledgment, the toll it takes on his family, and at what point it becomes immoral to ask for more. Noah Emmerich (The Americans) gives a solid performance as Dan, conflicted, harrowed and stressed, there just isn’t room in the format to explore these big ideas at anything deeper than a surface level.

Raff might come up short when it comes to narratively exploring the different elements of Eli’s life, but he nails it visually. From it’s first frame The Spy is engaging to look at. Scene’s from Eli’s life in Israel, even one’s he’s not present for, are all presented in a super desaturated, hard lit, colour scheme that’s so drained of colour the image is almost monochrome. On the other hand, Eli’s Syrian life as Kamel is richly coloured, full of warm earth tones and soft sunlight. It’s a startling contrast that visually locates the story in both place, and mode.

Eli’s home life is simple and uncomplicated. It’s also a little empty. He has a loving wife and two lovely daughters who hardly know him. His wife works as a maid and Eli works as a book keeper at a department store. They occasionally go out to a parties at Nadia’s employers house. It’s an average, unexciting, existence and draining the colour from the image bleeds the scene of it’s vitality, leaving behind only the most drab, grey version of a life.

Eli Cohen attends a party thrown by
the Syrian Prime Minister
Image courtesy of Netflix

In contrast to his life in Israel, Eli’s life as influential Syrian businessman, Kamel, is exciting and dangerous. He risks his life daily, throwing parties to get close to high level military officers and diplomats, or sneaking into locked places to photograph documents and plans, chancing capture and death at every turn. The dangerous nature of his work brings the world to life around Eli, giving it the vibrancy and colour absent from his simple life at home. It’s a powerful aesthetic choice that adds a visual flair to the show as it contrasts the two modes of Eli’s life.

On it’s own The Spy would be a competent espionage drama, but the added intrigue of being based on a true story makes it especially compelling. It provides a window to a volatile period in the regions history, and presents it with visual flair and accomplished performances. The philosophical questions the show attempts to ask may go largely unanswered, but the core narrative of Eli Cohen’s incredible espionage career is compelling enough to make up for that shortfall. Eli Cohen is hailed as a national hero in Israel, the countries most famous spy, and between themselves Gideon Raff and Sacha Baron Cohen have managed to craft an entertaining piece of television that also does justice to the legacy of it’s inspiration.

7/10

The Spy Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Hadar Ratzen-Rotem, Noah Emmerich, Alona Tal, Moni Moshonov, Uri Gavriel, Nassim Si Ahmed, Waleed Zuaiter, Alexander Siddig

Created by: Gideon Raff

Written by: Gideon Raff, Max Perry

Directed by: Gideon Raff

a Production from: Legende Films, Orange Cinema Series, Netflix,

Distributed by: Netflix