2022 is not even a month old yet, and fans of the spy thriller genre already have multiple new entertainment choices to enjoy that don’t rely on the usual testosterone-heavy sausage fest. For those who love spy movies and television shows, there is plenty of entertainment. The 355 — a new movie that hit theaters earlier this month (and which is Available on-demand beginning Friday) wherein all the main spies are women. Netflix will release the first season of Season 1 on Friday. From the Cold, a new spy drama that — at least to me, on first blush — has a fair amount of AliasIt takes energy to achieve it.
This is to say that it looks great. Sometimes the dialogue is too cheesy. There’s an abundance of twists, big fight and action scenes, and a veneer of the supernatural. Jenny, also known as Anya, is the protagonist. “The Whisper,” a former Russian superspy who’s apparently retired. She now lives in suburban New Jersey as a mother. Terrorist acts in Europe led a CIA man o force her out of retirement to stop them. To be brought in from the cold.
From the ColdNow streaming on Netflix
Margarita Levieva is a fantastic actress playing Jenny. In fight scenes, she is more than capable of holding her own. She is sincere even when she performs scenes that have only wooden dialogue.
Like a moment when the CIA man and a computer guru (doesn’t every spy team have one?) Explaining a mission to her. The computer guy boasts proudly: “Because I’m lit, I was able to find the weak link in that hospital security.”
In the meantime, here’s how Netflix summarizes the series within its press materials.
“During a European vacation with her daughter, an American single mom’s life is turned upside down when the CIA forces her to confront her long-buried past as a Russian spy who was also the product of a highly classified KGB experiment granting her special abilities. After a mysterious string of manic and murderous incidents suggests someone with her exact abilities is targeting innocent people, Jenny (Margarita Levieva) is forced out of hiding to stop this villain or risk losing the family and new life she has built.”
Do you need to watch it?
Do you think this is one that you should check?
I’m going to give it a qualified yes. It’s a yes, that is, if you don’t mind espionage thrillers and shows you basically have to turn off your brain for. The. Mission Impossible movie franchise. Then there’s the BondMovies, to a degree. Movies are short on substance but high on style and spectacle.
You might prefer a deeper, more complex story with characters that are similar to John le Carrre. This one might be too boring for you. I mention le Carre, because the title here calls to mind le Carre’s most famous work. It is one of the most acclaimed spy novels ever written: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The Netflix series is not like that. However, it does have its moments.