There's little about the spy game – at least, the filmed entertainment version of it – that would be unfamiliar to regular movie and TV viewers by now.
Yet the six-part German thriller Unfamiliar, a neat tale weaving several messy situations together, manages to keep things seem fresh and gripping by just getting on with its story instead of beating about the bush.
Six episodes seems to be the perfect length for the amount of story here, so kudos to debutant series creator Paul Coates, who has written for shows like EastEnders and Red Election for nailing it on his first try.
The show revolves around Meret (Susanne Wolff, Styx) and Simon (Felix Kramer, Dogs Of Berlin), former agents of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND.
Now "retired" (their agent identities presumed dead by most of the world), they anonymously run a safe house for intelligence operatives in Berlin while trying to raise their strong-willed 16-year-old daughter Nina (Maja Bons).
When a supposed client turns out to be a dangerous infiltrator sent by even deadlier types, Meret and Simon realise that certain decisions made in the field years ago have come back to haunt them.
Meanwhile, at their old outfit, intelligence analyst Julika (Seyneb Saleh) is trying to flush out a mole in its ranks planted by the Russians, whose notorious GRU operative Viktor Koleev (Samuel Finzi) has just resurfaced in Berlin.
It's way more tangled than it sounds: BND veteran Gregor Klein (Henry Hubchen) is then called back in to help, since he has history with Viktor. Gregor also happens to be Meret and Simon's former boss.
Meanwhile, Viktor has enlisted top operator Jonas Auken (Andres Pietschmann, Dark's Stranger), who's had his own run-ins with Meret, to find several folks on his hit list. See where this is going?
What I liked about Unfamiliar's approach here is that it clues us in early on the various connections, bad calls, good calls and suspicions of its numerous players while keeping certain elements a mystery right until the final episode.
This knowledge of how messed up the characters' shared history is (only I wouldn't exactly use "messed") does lend greater urgency to the proceedings as the screws tighten on all involved.
Some parts of Unfamiliar, unfortunately, bear recognisable hallmarks of plot-advancing contrivances. For example, Meret's sloppy restraining of a clear threat, just so we can have a knock-down, drag-out action scene; and Gregor's questionable choice of clearing the room just before the more painful parts of his backstory with Viktor play out.
Also, the proceedings lean too close towards soap opera melodrama at times, but there's always a betrayal or swerve to pull things back on track.
Still, these are mere quibbles against a whole that is slick and involving – not just in terms of action and intrigue, but in how long-buried secrets and lies can explode in various undesirable and spectacular ways once the first domino falls.
All told, a solid binge that lays enough of a foundation to leave us thirsting for a second season – as long as its makers resist the temptation to go bigger, louder and longer, because that's an all-too-familiar recipe for flubbing it.
All six episodes of Unfamiliar are available on Netflix.
Summary:
Cloak and swagger
