Those of us who can’t wait for Steven Knight’s upcoming Peaky Blinders movie can content ourselves with something of a consolation prize in the meantime. Ahead of his revival of the Shelby gang from Small Heath, Knight has also written a globe-trotting spy drama called The Veil that’s now just days away from premiering on FX with Hulu — and as a hardcore fan of the genre, I for one am counting down the days.
Starting Elizabeth Moss as a spy caught up in a web of secrets (I know, I know — aren’t they all), The Veil, according to FX, “explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London.” Without giving too much away, one of the two women has a secret, while the other is simply on a mission to reveal that secret before thousands of lives are lost.
“I can change into anything — become 100 strangers,” Moss’s MI6 agent Imogen Salter declares, somewhat ominously, at one point in the trailer. She’s described as “unpredictable” and “erratic.” Meanwhile, intelligence is developed uncovering a plot to kill half a million people, and Salter’s target is found in a camp near the Turkish border.
Back at the CIA and the French DGSE (France’s equivalent of the CIA), handlers must set aside their own differences and work together to avert a potential disaster. Pulse-pounding spy action, shady characters, sumptuous European vistas — what’s not to like?
I must say, we’ve had a great run over the past year or so of spy dramas helmed by fantastic lead actresses, from Apple’s Tehran to Kleo on Netflix. As for new shows, June will see the debut of the limited series The Gray House — about a Civil War-era female spy ring, produced by Kevin Costner — at the 63rd annual Monte Carlo Television Festival. With its strong cast that includes not only Moss but Yumna Marwan, Dali Benssalah, and Josh Charles, The Veil looks like another great addition to that list.
The show, by the way, was also named one of IndieWire’s 12 most anticipated new series of 2024 based on the cast alone.
