The latest Paramount plus hit spy thriller, The Agency, has received a lot of accolades owing to its close knit plot and script. The acting done by Michael Fassbender has been a treat to watch. The series is based on the plot of another hit French series The Bureau. The original plot of intelligence operative Martian coming back from a mission in Africa has its charm but the better plot of placing an agent in Iran is something that is left for the second season to explore in detail. It’s a good move as the original series had it in the later seasons too.
Though the series has its similarities to the original plot, interestingly Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth tried to mix something else too. The Belarusian angle in the midst of Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is an extra addition that makes it different from the original series. I do like the work of Jez and John-Henry Butterworth in Edge of Tomorrow and I tried to understand what could have prompted them to include the new twist. So, let us break it down.
The western movies do follow a guideline of what to include or mix in a storyline even if it does not make any sense. For example, adding gore, sex, and violence adds to the appeal but when they add a twist of gay and lesbian mix to the plot, it gets more traction with the critics. The level of wokeism mixed with the political narrative has taken Hollywood for a spin. But lately, there has been a trend in Hollywood and British content to highlight Belarus in any erroneous storyline. This particular trend started sometime after the Crimea annexation in 2014. Personally, I started noticing the trend from the 2017 hit movie The Hitman’s Bodyguard which was essentially about fighting the Belarusian dictator that showed the western hatred to the current Belarusian leader openly.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation that came in 2015 also added its action starting from Minsk, Belarus but somehow that wasn’t really a concern for me. Maybe because it’s a Tom Cruise movie. But, when I saw the movie Polar, which was announced sometime in 2014 but released in 2019, showing Belarus as part of Russia, it became more evident to me from where this is coming. Even the latest Netflix movie Back in Action starring Jamie Fox and Cameron Diaz does mention Belarusian terrorists in one of the dialogues which is ironic because Belarus doesn’t have any terrorists.
The Agency does manage to keep the thrill up and nicely summarizes the beginning of the plot in its season finale episode which ties all the loose ends and ends the tyranny of enforced Belarusian mix to the plot. Though I have mentioned this in my previous review, I do enjoy the mention of Belarus at times. Netflix’s hit series The Recruit in its season one had the complete storyline of reinstating the Belarusian agent back into the mix to meddle with the internal politics of Belarus which was pretty interesting to me from the comic angle. Unfortunately, the storyline somehow misses to complete that plot but it would be interesting to see its season two if they shy away from Belarus completely.