Smart and stylish, AMC+’s “Spy City” captures a tumultuous time and place in world history: Berlin just before the forming of the Wall in 1961. The title of the show comes to life in the way writer William Boyd (“Chaplin”) and director Miguel Alexandre present an interlocking story of espionage that brings in multiple operatives from governments around the world. In 1961 Berlin, the Brits, Russians, Americans, French, and Germans vied for power as the city itself was starting to divide even before it literally did so with a wall that stretched dozens of miles. With the kind of complex plot that should appeal to fans of the work of John le Carré and a story of a defector that recalls Steven Spielberg’s excellent “Bridge of Spies,” this is engaging material filled with double-crosses, betrayals, and a general air of distrust. It’s no fun living in Spy City.
Few actors look more at home in a 1960s spy setting than Dominic Cooper, who almost seems to be producing his audition reel for 007 at times as Fielding Scott, an English spy spent to Berlin who is nearly killed in the show’s first scene, a clandestine meeting in a bathroom. The man who once played Howard Stark has the perfect face for this material, looking like the kind of actor who would have been a much bigger star were he born a few generations earlier. He blends physical ability with charisma and intellect perfectly in Scott, really carrying a very complex show without ever stealing focus as the program’s “biggest star.” He just fits – the period, the plot, the action, the romance, all of it.
After the meeting that opens the show ends in violence, Scott is forced underground to figure out exactly what’s going on. He emerges into a world 18 months later that’s even more dangerous when he tries to organize the defection of an East German scientist who claims to be able to leave with the pieces to a gyroscope that would greatly improve missile precision. As the description of the first episode says, “Everything goes disastrously wrong.” That’s an understatement.
“Spy City” is one of those limited series wherein each event in the premiere ripples through the rest of the episodes. The opening scene and the fate of “Beethoven,” the potential defector, send Fielding on a path that will lead him to suspect everyone around him, including his superiors, colleagues, and former allies. Berlin in 1961 was a place where there was danger around every corner, but one in Scott’s game could never know its source. The spy game at this time in history feels like a turning point in that allies were as likely to stab you in the front as go around the back.
The one person Fielding Scott might be able to trust is his romantic partner Severine Bloch (Romane Portail, who also looks totally at home in 1961 and does excellent work), but even she has ulterior motives, trying to track down the Nazi who killed her husband in World War II. There’s an absolutely phenomenal scene in the second episode in which Scott expresses how much he trusts her only to look over her shoulder to see who might be watching from the bushes, perhaps even someone allied with Bloch. “Spy City” is filled with clever little beats like this that enhance the atmosphere of distrust without calling too much attention to themselves with an over-use of style. It’s in the subtle things like a look over the shoulder or the way the show will change the axis of a dialogue scene to indicate a shift in trust.
Scott and Bloch are only two of the players in this spy game. Boyd uses several supporting characters to hint at how espionage leaves so much collateral damage in its wake. Leonie Benesch (“The Crown”) is fantastic as a woman being blackmailed by her superior into being an undercover agent. Her boyfriend Reinhart (Ben Munchow) has no idea that his freedom is predicated on her lack of it. It’s a fascinating undercurrent that weaves its way through “Spy City”—freedom for one person can often mean the opposite for another. In that sense, it doesn’t feel like it cribs from Le Carré as much as continues his thematic exploration.
It’s also a strong show in terms of craft. The period detail feels genuine enough to carry the material while also not being overly stylized like spy fiction has a tendency to do. Sure, there’s a lot of smoking, drinking, and sulking, but the production and costume design feel in service of the material instead of calling attention to itself. And it’s wonderful how many of the best set pieces in the show take place in public in broad daylight—parks, squares, markets, etc. So many spy shows feature characters meeting under bridges in the middle of the night, but “Spy City” deftly captures a city and time so ensconced in espionage that’s happening out in the open sunlight while the rest of the world goes about its business.
The mid-section of the season drags a bit when it feels like “Spy City” has a few too many characters and subplots around episode three, but it recovers nicely about halfway through Episode 4 and then barrels through to an ending that answers most of the questions of the season while finding an elegiac note to hit at the same time. When the wall went up, more than just a city was divided. People were torn from loved ones, work, and safety. And “Spy City” almost seems to capture how that physical wall existed just under the surface even before it was erected, almost making it a physical manifestation of the increasing divisions in Berlin and the world. When people in power start obsessing over vengeance, betrayal, and one-upmanship then a wall is almost inevitable. [B+]
“Spy City” debuts on AMC+ on April 15.