Do not miss ‘A Spy Among Friends’
Featuring a cast to die for, or even spy for, the U.K. limited series “A Spy Among Friends” (9 p.m., Sunday, MGM+) arrives on these shores.
Based on the novel of the same name by Ben Macintyre, “Friends” revisits the oft-told take of the Cambridge spies, agents at the top of British intelligence who were secret spies for the Soviet Union.
The series begins in 1963, a full decade after the 1951 revelations about Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. After they departed for a hero’s welcome in the USSR, suspicions immediately fell on their Cambridge classmate Kim Philby (Guy Pearce, “L.A. Confidential”). The spy scandal not only rocked intelligence, it caused the American CIA to see Britain as a leaky and unreliable Cold War ally.
While Philby managed to convince authorities otherwise, he continues to act as a Soviet spy until 1963, when new, incontrovertible evidence emerges. While some at MI6 are convinced he must be arrested, or even shot, immediately, he is whisked to the thenstylish city of Beirut for interrogation at the hands of an old friend, Nicholas Elliott (Damien Lewis, “Homeland,” “Billions”).
Not to give too much away, but Philby manages to give Elliot and U.K. agents the slip and secretes himself aboard a freighter bound for Russia.
After this setup, “Friends” unfolds as a tale of parallel debriefings, filled with accusations, misgivings, revelations and flashbacks. Elliott is debriefed by the nononsense Lily Thomas (Anna Maxwell Martin, “Bleak House”) who voices suspicions that he may have been in cahoots with the vanished spy. Meanwhile, Philby is grilled by Russian agents aboard his escape vessel, who need to determine if he’s being sent to Moscow as a double — or even triple — agent spying on behalf of the West.
Fans of John le Carre novels should pounce on “A Spy Among Friends.” Viewers of “The Crown” will enjoy its period costumes, sets and details as well as its evocation of a British upper class facing uncertainty as the sun sets on the British empire.
“The Crown” touched briefly on this story in an episode when Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) discovers that her art curator, Anthony Blunt, had been a spy and collaborator with Burgess, Maclean and Philby.
While it lacks the action of an 007 thriller, “Friends” features a storyline including James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming (Edward Baker-Duly). Stephen Kunken appears as American spy legend James Jesus Angleton, a figure who became so obsessed with moles in the agency that he was later accused of undermining the counterintelligence efforts of the CIA.
MGM+ is the premium cable service previously known as Epix.
Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Oscars (8 p.m. Sunday, ABC, TV-14), or as some might call it, the 95th annual Academy Awards.
Once known for glitz, glamour and sophistication, these proceedings have come to spotlight the film industry’s identity crisis as digital technology has supplanted film and as television and streaming platforms have cannibalized movie theaters’ once-reliable audience.
Well before COVID-19 kept people out of cinemas, many viewers had begun to shun them in favor of Netflix. And some have never returned.
This year’s nominees for Best Picture symbolize the industry’s paradox and the evening’s conundrum. Should the Oscars reward big movies like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” for selling billions of dollars of movie tickets, or extol the virtues of little-seen films like “Women Talking”?
Time was, an Oscar nod for an obscure picture might spark another theatrical release. But “Women Talking” has already been streaming on Prime Video.