Empowering espionage
Two new faces join the spy world of Berlin Station, writes Rick Bentley.
The second season of the contemporary spy series Berlin Station opens with some new faces being added to the story of Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), an undercover agent who has just arrived at the CIA station in Germany.
Ashley Judd and Keke Palmer join the previous season’s cast to be part of events that unfold as a New World Order has taken root and is steadily deepening.
Judd has been cast as the new chief of station, BB Yates, and Palmer plays young case officer April Lewis.
Judd was excited about becoming part of the series as soon as she read the description of her character because she gets to join a cast that features strong women.
‘‘I loved that BB Yates is such a leader. I really feel like my character is the type of woman that the world needs now, and to have the station chief of the CIA in Germany, a great ally of the United States, obviously since the end of the Second World War, was a wonderful opportunity, and having that person be female is way overdue,’’ Judd says.
‘‘And in addition to BB being a wonderful, strong female leader, the cast is populated with the likes of Keke, and Michelle Forbes, who is a fantastic actor and an experienced agent on the show, and then you saw [Esther Krug], and she plays the head of German intelligence.
‘‘So you have the four of us giving, through entertainment, a real look at what the world should actually be like in the 21st century.’’
Judd’s career is filled with roles where she has played strong characters, from Kiss the Girls to Divergent.
It’s taken a great determination on her part to find these roles because Judd has seen plenty of people who aren’t as excited as she is about women playing tough characters.
It’s in Judd’s nature to be attracted to this kind of strength going back to when she was at the University of Kentucky.
She was only a college student but that didn’t stop her from confronting a member of the board of trustees who had said something undeniably racist at a meeting.
She felt that his ongoing presence on the board was inappropriate and she organised a walkout of classes protesting his ongoing membership.
What her character will face in Berlin Station is a world where Germany finds itself on the precipice of a pivotal election as the far-right tide sweeps Europe.
Miller’s mission is to determine the identity of a nowfamous whistleblower masquerading as ‘‘Thomas Shaw’’.
Miller learns to contend with the world of the field officer as he dives deeper into the mystery and uncovers the threads of a conspiracy that leads back to Washington.
The series, written and created by, Olen Steinhauer whose spy fiction novels include The Tourist, unfolds in a world that has more of a cloak-and-dagger approach than the high-tech spying of today.
Executive producer Bradford Winters praises US commissioning network EPIX for embracing the more traditional spy story.
‘‘The fact that they wanted to go with a very character-leading spy drama, I think is a big testament to them,’’ Winters says.
‘‘In season one, we sort of happily surprised ourselves about halfway through the season when we found ourselves sort of taking a turn for a bit of a thriller in the middle of the journey, and at that point it was great because we found ourselves with a leg in each sub-genre, spy drama and spy thriller.
‘‘It really opened up the show creatively going forward to move back and forth between the two and to stand, just sort of straddle that divide in a way that it seems hard for shows and movies to sometimes do that.
‘‘We really entered the second season with that fluidity in mind, both drama and thriller, and constantly trying to shift back and forth between the two.’’
Either way is great for Palmer. The 24-year-old Illinois native, who has been acting since she was 9, describes becoming a part of the Berlin Station cast as a major leap for her career.
The singer/actor generally gets cast in lighter film roles such as Akeelah and the Bee ,orinTV productions like Grease: Live.
‘‘It’s completely different because it’s like this thriller, adventure, political type of connection, and it’s nothing like anything I’ve done before, and that’s exactly why I wanted to do it,’’ says Palmer.
‘‘And, then, also, the action element of it. April is an agent, so she’s on the ground. She’s doing things that I would love to do. So it’s cool to live through her.’’
Palmer has been stretching her acting skills in recent years with roles on Masters of Sex and Scream Queens.
Her work on the latter series gave Palmer her first opportunity to work in horror.
‘‘It’s a total different thing entirely, and that’s what I love. I’m always looking for a challenge, and to be a part of this show, and again, to be learning so much, it’s just a total different thing.
‘‘I enjoy doing horror, but I enjoy doing espionage work too.’’ – TNS Berlin Station 8.30pm, Fridays from November 3, SoHo.