FBI Agent Frank Gaad

Frank Gaad runs the FBI's counterintelligence unit in Washington, hunting Soviet operatives with methodical, unglamorous diligence. Gruff and demanding, he rides his agents hard, distrusts shortcuts, and takes real pride in the bureau's work. He has no idea the enemy he's chasing lives across the street from one of his own men.

Richard Thomas plays Gaad as a company man without a hint of caricature—weary, exacting, occasionally very funny in his exasperation with bureaucracy and subordinates alike. The show trusts him to be genuinely good at his job, which makes the dramatic irony of the whole series sharper: the smartest man in the room is still looking in the wrong direction.