Pledging ‘Allegiance’
NBC’s new spy thriller examines multiple levels of loyalty
We’re all bound to clash with our parents at some point in our lives, but chances are these instances aren’t matters of national security or international intrigue.
NBC’s new spy thriller “Allegiance” brings family values to a whole new level. Created by “The Adjustment Bureau” (2011) writer and director George Nolfi, the series revolves around the closeknit and well-to-do O’Connor family. When a past secret comes to light, their comfortable family life is suddenly far from comfort- able. “Allegiance” premieres Thursday, Feb. 5, on NBC.
In our post-9/11 world, with terrorist threats and attacks cropping up in the news on a regular basis, national security may be more of a hot-button issue in the Western world than ever before.
Hope Davis (“About Schmidt,” 2002) stars as “Allegiance’s” matriarch, Katya O’Connor. A loving wife and mother, Katya has a past she’s been keeping secret from nearly everyone in her life. Years ago, she worked as a KGB agent in her native Russia. When tasked with recruiting American businessman Mark O’Connor (Scott Cohen, “Necessary Roughness”) as a spy, the two wound up falling in love. She struck a deal with the Kremlin that she could marry Mark and move to America, with the understanding that Moscow could still call upon her services at any time in the future.
Since leaving Russia, Katya has built a happy life with her husband. They started a family and have been living like your average American couple, without so much as a peep from Moscow in years.
Unfortunately, Mother Russia chooses a particularly awkward time to come knocking.
Gavin Stenhouse (“Clash of Empires,” 2011) plays Mark and Katya’s idealistic 24-year-old son Alex, a fledgling CIA analyst. While his sister Natalie, played by Russian-born Margarita Levieva (“Revenge”), has followed in Katya’s footsteps, Alex knows nothing of his mother’s past. He’s been assigned to root out a massive terrorist plot against the United States, and here’s where things get sticky — it happens to be the very plot that a newly reactivated Katya has been conscripted to carry out. Not only that, but Moscow wants Katya to pull her very American son into the family business and turn him into a Russian spy.
The concept is not only timely, but works in multiple markets. Show runner Nolfi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the spy thriller “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), adapted the story from the Israeli drama “The Gordin Cell,” which takes place in Israel instead of America. The original series has also sold the rights to a Russian version of the show, as well as a South Korean version adapted to the current North-South Korean conflict.
Accuracy was a must for Nolfi, who has an active interest in geopolitical issues. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a bachelor’s degree in public policy, after which he went on to study political science at UCLA. According to an LA Times interview with the filmmaker, he called on dozens of contacts in the foreign relations world to make sure everything in “Allegiance” was as it should be.
“I saw an opportunity with this show to really look at how intelligence is conducted on the ground,” he said in the interview. “How do you debrief someone who’s unsa- vory? Where are the red lines for a nation-state supporting rogue activity? How do the FBI and CIA work together? Every other show I’ve seen is so inaccurate in its portrayal of things like that.”
The double layer of the family conflict is where Nolfi’s creative mind really shines through and is an angle that “The Gordin Cell,” which focused more heavily on the immigration theme, lacked. Katya isn’t just faced with the difficulty of choosing between loyalties to her native land and her adopted country — a conflict that would be difficult enough on its own — but she also has her own child thrown into the mix and must consider what’s best for him.
“She’s a mother with a very different skill set and who knows what lengths she’ll go to protect her family,” Davis said of her character in a New York Times interview. “She’s kind of a lioness, and when they come knocking at her door, she’s not about to give up her kid.”
“We like to call it a spy thriller with heart,” Cohen added of the parent-child scenario during NBC upfronts.
Additionally, the angle further blurs the lines between right and wrong, giving a candid look at multiple sides of the same conflict. Loyalty is a tricky concept when it lies in more than one place, and loyalties are all over the place in “Allegiance.” U.S. vs. Russia, family vs. U.S., Russia vs. family — there’s no easy road for any of the characters to take.
With the recently renewed tensions between the United States and Russia and the effects of 9/11 still very much a part of our lives, the peacock network’s latest spy thriller couldn’t be better timed. Follow the O’Connors’ struggle between blood and country when “Allegiance” kicks off Thursday, Feb. 5, on NBC.