As the Cold War rages, ex-smuggler turned reluctant spy Harry Palmer finds himself at the centre of a dangerous undercover mission, on which he must use his links to find a missing British nuclear scientist.
It took two tries several weeks apart for me to get through episode one, and now I see that I had to allow Harry Palmer to grow on me, which he did.
I am not a fan of spy programming, because they seem so similar with their themes of conspiracy in the halls of power and heroes not knowing who they can trust as they try to save the world, or at least a corner of it.
But once I connected to Mr. Palmer, I had no trouble sticking with this series and enjoying it overall. Tom Hollander felt like the glue that held the story together. Affable but firm, he seems to be the guiding hand in the plot, at least until he encounters issues of his own. And the ensemble cast did what they needed to do to keep the story moving. I particularly appreciate the growth in importance of the Alice and Chico characters, who were instrumental for the show to pull off one of the necessary plot twists.
I didn’t quite buy the whole brainwashing plot thread, but I won’t go into detail as that would perhaps lead to unforgivable spoilers. Besides, I watch SF programming such as time travel movies, so I have no problem with, as they say, suspending my disbelief to enjoy the show. And even with the nearly cliche spy movie betrayals and mistrust, I recommend the show even for non espionage fans like myself.
