The Veil: Has Disney+ found this decade’s answer to Homeland?
Disney+’s new spy drama certainly boasts a potent combination.
The charismatic star of The Handmaid’s Tale and Top of the Lake teaming up with Peaky Blinders writer Stephen Knight for a globetrotting tale that feels like this decade’s answer to Homeland.
But while The Veil, which has the first two episodes of its six-part run debuting on the Mouse House’s streaming service on Tuesday evening, offers plenty of intrigue, the jury remains out as to whether it’s truly compelling viewing.
Sporting a British accent, Elisabeth Moss is a veteran government agent
(it’s not exactly initially clear who she’s actually working for) who specialises in undercover work. When me meet her, she’s being praised as “invaluable” by a businessman who definitely seems the wrong side of shady. “I doubt you’ll feel the same way in a moment,” she replies, “when Interpol arrives.”
When he then asks the inevitable,
“Who are you then?”, she has an instant, withering comeback. “The person who has memorised your every move and word for the last 37 days – everything that’s very wrong and highly illegal.”
Once he’s in the hands of the authorities, she calls into her handlers with the triumphant, “all done – no muss, no fuss”, before requesting a day in London before her next assignment in Istanbul and that “I’d like my name to be Imogen”.
Her subsequent arrival at a refugee camp on the Syrian-Turkish border is greeted with both delight – and bemusement – by aid workers there. There had been no advance word of her arrival, but they could definitely use her help, especially after a recent incident involving a mob attempting to mete out justice on a woman they suspected of being a high-level Isis commander. Only UN soldier intervention had stopped a hanging, although, despite now being in protective custody, fears for her safety abound.
After reporting into her French Directorate-General for External Security handler, Imogen is determined to find a way to speak to Adilah (Little Birds’ Yumna Marwan) directly, if only to ascertain whether the former Parisenne model really is the monster many claim and, if so, she has any knowledge about an imminent attack.
With shadowy figures temporarily abducting Adilah’s daughter back in France and the most “American American America has produced” – Josh Charles’ (The Good Wife) ruthless CIA officer
Max – also anxious to take control of the situation, The Veil becomes a crosscountry chase, as Imogen abandons her initial Istanbul directive and embarks on an ambitious, almost 4000km road trip. What follows is the undoubted highlight of the early action, as she and Adilah bicker about belly-dancing, test each other’s truths, form an unlikely bond and quickly discover just how dangerous their proposed journey is.
Mostly delivering her trademark frostiness, albeit with a different accent to usual, Moss’ character here does take a while to warm to – and she’s no Carrie Mathieson – but there’s a penchant for cynical black humour that, if continued to be mined, could well come up trumps.
Likewise, Marwan and Charles’ characters feel a touch underwritten, but with their undoubted talent and, depending on what twists and turns Knight has in store for us, don’t rule out The Veil ultimately lifting into something that truly grips.
The Veil begins streaming on Disney+ on the evening of Tuesday, April 30.