‘Informer’ & Three More Edge-of-Your-Seat TV Series to Binge on Amazon Prime Video
Preview
The gripping new thriller Informer starts off with a literal bang. But executive producer Nicholas Brown wants audiences to know this is not just another hyperslick, high-octane espionage entry in the Peak TV era. “The characters have no idea they’re in a thriller,” he says. “It’s about how well-meaning actions lead to unintended consequences and tragedy. It’s a personal and human story told from the ground up.”
The six-episode series — which premiered to wide acclaim on the BBC last fall — centers on Raza (Nabhaan Rizwan), a young, aimless second-generation Pakistani living in east London.
After he gets busted on a minor drug charge following a night out with friends, counterterrorist agent Gabe (Paddy Considine) manipulates him into becoming a you-know-what. That means infiltrating a drug ring and getting close to the foot soldiers of a possible terrorist network. (“I don’t know any terrorists!” Raza tells his handler in exasperation. Replies Gabe, “Not yet, you don’t.”) Meanwhile, Gabe is hiding his own secrets from his nosy and ambitious new field partner, Holly (The Diary of a Teenage Girl’s Bel Powley, above, with Considine).
Informer
Inspired in part by the complex storytelling of The Wire, HBO’s 2002-08 police drama, Informer “strips the heart of the story back to the relationship between these two men in their different worlds and how these lives crash into each other because of outside forces,” adds Brown. The actors themselves come from different worlds: Veteran performer Considine is a Peaky Blinders alum; Rizwan is making his small-screen debut. Says Brown, “We wanted to cast someone the audience had never seen before, because Raza has to be a chameleon. And you completely believe him and feel for him every step of the journey.”
The episodes build to a big reveal: Who’s responsible for a terrorist attack in London? Brown isn’t saying, of course. (And no Googling allowed!) Just keep in mind, he says, that Informer’s narrative illustrates “what happens when you lie to those you love and the price that people pay to keep us safe.”
Informer, Series Premiere, Friday, Jan. 11, Amazon Prime Video
Other Nail-Biting Series To Stream:
You Are Wanted
On this German drama from 2017, someone has targeted hotel manager Lukas (Matthias Schweighöfer) with a cyberattack and framed him as a terrorist. Who did it? Why? Lukas aims to find out as authorities close in.
Seasons 1–2 Available, Amazon Prime Video
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
John Krasinski just nabbed a Screen Actors Guild nod for his portrayal of the fictional CIA officer. These eight episodes track the former Marine’s transition from office worker to butt-kicking hero.
Season 1 Available, Amazon Prime Video
Sleeper Cell
FBI agent Darwyn Al-Sayeed (Michael Ealy, below) goes undercover to infiltrate a U.S.-based terrorist group —run by a brutal extremist (Oded Fehr, 24: Legacy) — and prevent an attack on L.A. The tense 2005–06 Showtime series was nominated for five Emmys.
Seasons 1–2 available, Amazon Prime Video
