Spy City

I am a fan of cold war movies, so I sat through this whole series hoping it would get better as it went along. It was suspenseful enough, and suitable for binging, but full of plotholes and, for what are supposed to be savvy spies, many decisions of key characters reflected poor judgment. All the usual cold war plot lines are here -- steamy romances (complete with unnecessarily relatively graphic sex scenes and (updated for 2021), a requisite gay relationship), double agents, evil Russians, ex-Nazis, illicit breakins, and betrayals. Good was in your face good, and evil was in your face evil, with no gray areas or morally conflicted characters. The cinematography was good (filmed in Czech Republic), the busy music less so (other than the protest songs written by a young east German). The lead character did not fit the part of a British M16 agent from that era, and what was supposed to be his middle-aged romance interest looked too young, too wrinkle-free, and too glamorous to be believable as a 1961 spy, and she also came across as ridiculously emotional. Resolution of the key plot mystery in the last episode is too quick, too pat, not believable, and too confusing, and for me the series had a disappointing ending.

Summary Spy City is a great series that recovers the classic and sober spirit of the spy movies and series of the time and place in which it takes place, the divided Berlin of 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, with all the secret services in dance and characters remarkable. Review Fielding Scott, an English spy (Dominic Cooper), is sent to Berlin in 1961 to rehabilitate himself as an agent and oversee the defection of an East German scientist to the West. This mission will give rise to the search for a traitor within the secret and diplomatic services of the allies. Obviously, Spy City refers to Berlin, the city occupied and divided between the US, UK, France and East Germany under the orbit of the USSR, a key scene of the Cold War between Western powers capitalists and Soviet socialism. The series remarkably recovers the spirit and style of the espionage stories of that time. The period reconstruction is so successful that at times we seem to be watching a Bond movie or an episode of The Avengers shot in that decade. The story is sober, the description of the characters adjusted, the plot intriguing, there is no self-awareness, the murders are very crude but without relish in the violence and the dialogues can reach moments of great subtlety for what they suggest. And something fundamental at this point: the characters speak in their native languages. The story is a true festival of secret services and diplomats from the UK, USA, France and the Soviet Union: agents from MI6, the CIA, French spies, the Stasi (the secret service of the German Democratic Republic) will be present. , the KGB and recycled Nazis, with their approaches, negotiations and misgivings. Agent Fielding Scott's original mission derives from the unveiling of increasingly important and compromising issues with enormous political scope. His painting conforms to the genre, is far from Manichean, depicts very well the changing links between spies and their services and presents interesting characters, such as the French spy Madame Bloch (Romane Portail), Eliza Hahn, a Stasi spy (Leonie Benesch, de Baylon Barlin y The Crown), the photographer Ulrike Farber (Johanna Wokalek), the CIA agent Conrad Greer (Seumas F. Sargent), the head of the KGB in Berlin Viktor Kovrin (Nark Zak) and Scott himself, obsessed with clarifying the incident with the one that opens the series.

August 6, 2022 - Spy City really made it worthwhile for me continuing to subscribe to the service I viewed it on. I didn't know anything about the series but gave it a try and was extremely pleased with it. What I liked about the series - 1) The acting is very good,2) good directing, 3) the production values are very good, including extremely short video clips of street scenes and News footage from the 1960's. Which is the time period the plot takes place. 4) Very good and involving plot. 5) None of the usual tropes and memes that are seen in most drama series currently being produced. 6) While the actors making up the main cast are apparently well known. I didn't recognize any of them. This made the series more interesting to me, because there were no actors that seemed to be in every other film and TV series. I was stationed in Germany during the time that the events in the series took place, and I think the production company did a great job of recreating the time period.

Well, if you're intelligent enough to understand what's going on in this series, then, congrats, you're a Diplomat. You're probably gonna enjoy every inch of it, from the very first episode, or the second. Despite the plot is simply pale, but we must say that the characters, Wardobe, Props and the ones who did the setting in genersl did pretty good job, really..so amazing. You will find yourself amazed on how 60's really looked like, especially in Berlin. I was having a hard time catching up with the characters until Kovrin's attention came up in a meet with Udo olf, at the Russian HQ on east Berlin ep.3. To be frankly, I really like kovrin's character, its really keeping the series alive. Too sad for the French lady, Madam Bloch she really deserved some more screentime, Lol. Yah, and the ending...should be better than that, but, its just an end for a new season, so, no big deal😌😌