10 Shows to Watch While You Wait for Season 3 of ‘The Agency’
Paramount+’s spy thriller The Agency returned for its 10-episode second season in June, following CIA operative Martian (Michael Fassbender) as he dealt with the fallout of becoming a double agent to save the woman he loves, Dr. Sami Zahir (Jodie Turner-Smith).
Season 2 ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger, leaving Martian’s fate uncertain and fans wondering if The Agency will return for Season 3. While Paramount+ has yet to officially renew the series, there are plenty of espionage thrillers packed with undercover missions, double agents, political intrigue, and high-stakes action to help fill the void.
Here are the best shows to watch while you wait for The Agency Season 3.
The Agency, Season 1 & 2, Streaming Now, Paramount+
The Bureau
Might as well go directly to the source. The legendary French series Le Bureau des Légendes upon which The Agency is directly based. The gritty thriller follows Guillaume Debailly, code name “Malotru” (Mathieu Kassovitz), who returns to Paris after spending six long years undercover in Syria and breaks the rules by keeping in touch with a married lover from Damascus.
The Day of the Jackal
Based on Frederick Forsyth’s classic 1971 novel and the acclaimed 1973 film adaptation, The Day of the Jackal is a relentless cat-and-mouse thriller that follows a highly elusive assassin and the intelligence officer determined to hunt him down across Europe. Eddie Redmayne stars as the Jackal, a methodical master of disguise and expert sniper who carries out high-priced assassinations.
Slow Horses
Apple TV’s Slow Horses is a dark spy comedy-drama series about a team of rejected MI5 agents and their crude, messy boss, Jackson Lamb, played to perfection by Gary Oldman. Based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron, the series blends razor-sharp with high-stakes espionage as its seemingly washed-up agents repeatedly find themselves at the center of dangerous intelligence conspiracies.
Lioness
Created by Taylor Sheridan, Paramount+ thriller Lioness follows a CIA officer managing a covert program where female operatives befriend the family members of high-value terrorist targets. It stars Zoë Saldaña as Joe, alongside Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman. The show is inspired by the real-life U.S. military “Task Force Lioness” and Female Engagement Teams from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Berlin Station
Written for the small screen by spy novelist Olen Steinhauer, Berlin Station is a contemporary espionage thriller centered on a CIA analyst sent to Germany to identify an agency whistleblower. Starring Richard Armitage, Rhys Ifans, and Richard Jenkins, the series blends Cold War intrigue with modern intelligence op and political conspiracies to create a gripping drama.
The Americans
Loosely inspired by the FBI’s 2010 arrest of real-life Russian “sleeper” agents living in America, FX’s The Americans is a Cold War spy drama about two KGB operatives posing as an ordinary married American couple in the 1980s. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, undercover Soviet spies who run a neighborhood travel agency, raise two unsuspecting children, and carry out dangerous covert missions while trying to maintain the illusion of suburban family life.
Black Doves
Starring Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire, Netflix’s Black Doves is the story of Helen Webb, a seemingly normal wife to a politician who secretly works as a spy for a shadowy organization called Black Doves. It was loosely inspired by real-life British undercover police spy scandals involving fake identities.
A Spy Among Friends
The Cold War drama A Spy Among Friends explores the real-life betrayal of high-ranking MI6 intelligence officer Nicholas Elliott by his lifelong friend and colleague, Kim Philby, who was secretly a double agent and top-tier mole for the Soviet Union as part of the infamous Cambridge Five. Guy Pearce, Damian Lewis, and Anna Maxwell Martin starred in a miniseries that was based on the non-fiction book of the same name by historian Ben Macintyre.
Homeland
Based on the acclaimed Israeli series Prisoners of War (Hatufim), Homeland follows Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a brilliant but troubled CIA officer with bipolar disorder who becomes convinced that Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), a U.S. Marine sergeant rescued after eight years in captivity, has been turned into a sleeper agent.
Bodyguard
Brit series Bodyguard starring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes about a British Army war veteran with PTSD who works as a protection officer for London’s Metropolitan Police. He is assigned to guard politician Julia Montague, whose policies he despises, leaving him torn between his professional duty and his personal beliefs.
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