‘The Agency’ Season 2 series review: Michael Fassbender and love in the time of espionage

When the senior MI6 official Jim, played with twinkly-eyed ferocity by Hugh Bonneville, tells Martian (Michael Fassbender), “Nobody is you, not even you,” he reveals the one true thing about the CIA agent. Martian has been undercover so long, assuming so many identities so completely that he has lost his sense of who he is. 

The people around him, including his daughter Poppy (India Fowler), his lover, anthropology professor Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith), his mentor and boss Henry (Jeffrey Wright), his handler Naomi (Katherine Waterston), and his psychologist Blake (Harriet Sansom Harris), are not sure of his intentions or loyalty. “Martian casts no shadow; he should have been in the Cold War,” Naomi says of Martian.

“I have got too good at hiding stuff,” Martian tells Poppy ruefully. Is he an alien, like his codename suggests? Is he a matchstick man, like the matchsticks he uses to visualise three moves ahead in the grand intelligence chess game? Is Martian a pawn in the hands of the CIA’s London Station Chief Bosko (Richard Gere), like the figurine of the little drummer boy he breaks in two when he decides not to save an operative?

There are those who look up to Martian as well, including Danny (Saura Lightfoot-Leon), a newly minted agent undercover in Tehran looking to unearth Iran’s nuclear secrets, and case officer Blair (Ambreen Razia) who tries on Martian’s “face”, much to her colleague, Owen’s (John Magaro) horror.

At the end of Season 1, Martian agrees to become a double agent for the British in return for Samia’s freedom, and Danny has entered Iran as a geophysics graduate on an exchange programme. Season 2 opens two months later, with a botched attempt at Samia’s rescue by the British. At a party, Danny meets the hot-headed playboy Hassan (Keanush Tafreshi), the son of a powerful government official, and his girlfriend, Darya (Medalion Rahimi).

A still from ‘The Agency’ Season 2
| Photo Credit:
Paramount+

Just as the Agency is congratulating itself for getting a CIA asset to head the Russian mercenary group Valhalla, comes footage of the said asset getting his head bashed in with a hammer. Further investigation reveals the executioner to be an American, codenamed Viking (Clayne Crawford) and a mission is put together to hunt and kill him. Viking’s sister, Robyn (Tessa Ferrer), seems to be a way in.

Like Season 1, there are different missions in play, from Martian’s desperate measures to free Samia, who is being used as a pawn at the highest levels, and the hunt for Viking, to a mole hunt in the CIA’s London office and Danny’s increasingly dangerous mission in Iran.

The action seamlessly moves from London, Antwerp and Tehran to Khartoum, Bangui and Kaga Bandoro in the Central African Republic, Kinshasa and Manama. The visual palette switches from the cool blues of the crystalline cube of the U.S. Embassy in London, with its windows covered with eco-friendly sails, to the burnt orange of the Iranian desert, the neon of the Tehran party scene and the lush greens of the CAR.

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The use of mirrors, reflections and blurred images behind frosted glass provides visual clues for the murky goings-on. The writing is as sharp as the proverbial razor and instead of being mere information dumps, reveals character. There is Martian saying, “Feelings are just another enemy,” Samia with, “You can’t bargain with fate,” Bosko commenting, “Let’s make sure Owen is the cheese not the mouse or Viking’s chilling, “swim up river, find the devil.”  

The acting is excellent, with everyone turning in pitch perfect performances. Underneath all the lying, death and diamonds is the bedrock of love — as the theme song, Jack White’s cover of “Love is Blindness”, proves. It is for love that Martian is willing to upend his life, as Henry tells Samia, “it seems he found something he loved more.” There are other loves — from desperate, dangerous passions to sweet tenderness, and brittle, transactional relationships.

If there is a problem with the show, based on the French television series, The Bureau, it is the lessening of tension. There are only so many times Danny can be captured and released, Samia terrified, tortured and then given fresh clothes and make-up, people dismissed for being traitors and reinstated, before we stop being invested in the proceedings.

Season 2 ends with another almighty twist and while there is no official confirmation for Season 3, makers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, should look at presenting higher stakes for the characters to maintain the tension in this otherwise wonderful espionage thriller.

The Agency is currently streaming on Jio Hotstar

Published – June 29, 2026 05:41 pm IST