Television series
Spycraft
Spycraft is a snappy docuseries examining the gadgets, codes, and technical innovations that have shaped espionage from the Cold War to the present day. It's digestible and visually clever, treating spy tech as both historical artifact and storytelling device. Perfect for anyone who loves James Bond aesthetics but wants the real-world engineering behind them.
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The Spy2019
Sacha Baron Cohen in a taut, genuinely gripping miniseries about Israeli agent Eli Cohen infiltrating Syria. It's tense, meticulously crafted, and proves spy stories work best when they're about actual people making impossible choices.
But It's heavy and sometimes bleak, with no explosions or lighter moments. If you want glamorous espionage, this delivers something far more human and bruising.
The Americans2013
Two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American couple in the 1980s. Masterfully written, unbearably suspenseful, and asks what loyalty really means when your entire life is a lie.
But Six seasons is a commitment, and the middle stretch bogs down. It's also deeply grim about the human cost of the work it depicts.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy2011
Gary Oldman's quiet, methodical le Carré adaptation is a masterclass in Cold War paranoia. It trusts you to follow its intelligence and rewards close attention with devastating emotional payoffs.
But It's glacially paced and deliberately obscure about plot details. If you're expecting action or clear answers, you'll be frustrated.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Lives of Others2006
Both examine how the tools of espionage reveal character; Spycraft shows us the tech, this shows us what happens to the people wielding it when the machinery works perfectly.
A Stasi surveillance officer in 1980s East Berlin begins to question his work. Devastating, intimate portrait of how power corrupts and how conscience survives in totalitarian machinery. It's about spycraft as a moral catastrophe.
But It's a slow burn that demands patience and emotional openness. The sadness isn't relieved by action sequences or clever twists.
More like this (7)
Bridge of Spies2015
Spielberg and Hanks on a true story of a lawyer negotiating a prisoner exchange during the Cold War. Smart, measured, and focused on the moral calculus beneath the spycraft.
But It's procedural and deliberately un-sensational. Expecting thrills will leave you cold.
Code 4042020
A resurrected MI6 agent with experimental memory implants partners with a modern cop in a near-future London. Clever premise, strong cast, genuinely funny without winking at itself.
But It got cancelled after two seasons, so the story doesn't fully resolve. The tone bounces between comedy and thriller, which won't suit everyone.
Slow Horses2022
Gary Oldman leads a team of MI5 misfits assigned to a dumping ground department. Witty, propulsive, and packed with character work that makes every agent feel real and flawed.
But It's dense with plot threads and British institutional knowledge. You have to stay alert or you'll lose the thread.
Operation Avalanche2016
Found-footage CIA thriller about a young operative who stumbles onto a secret that could reshape the space race. Audacious, tense, and genuinely original in its approach to the spy genre.
But The found-footage style isn't for everyone, and it gets increasingly baroque. Some will find it clever; others will find it exhausting.
Atomic Blonde2017
Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent in 1980s Berlin, with a screenplay sharp as glass and action sequences that function as pure kinetic storytelling. Fun, stylish, and smarter than it looks.
But The plot is deliberately thin and the twists are secondary to the spectacle. If you need intricate espionage plotting, look elsewhere.
Citizenfour2014
Spycraft celebrates the ingenuity of spy tech; this shows what happens when that same technology is turned inward on citizens. It's the flip side of the medal.
Laura Poitras's documentary following Edward Snowden in Hong Kong as he reveals the NSA's mass surveillance programs. Real-time espionage unfolding as it happens, with genuinely shocking stakes and clarity about what's at stake.
But It's not cinematically polished and some stretches involve waiting in hotel rooms. Watching it means confronting uncomfortable truths about surveillance you may prefer not to know.
A Dark Song2016
Both understand that espionage stories work when you care about the partnership at the center; this strips away all the gadgets and complications to show you that essential skeleton.
A widow hires an occultist to perform a dangerous ritual in an isolated Irish cottage. Not a spy film at all—it's mystical and intimate—but structurally it's about two agents with hidden agendas learning to trust each other under pressure. Haunting, patient, and deeply moving.
But It's slow, strange, and explicitly concerned with grief and spiritual longing rather than plot momentum. If you go in expecting a thriller, you'll be baffled.
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Cast
Dylan BerryNarrator