Joseph Oldham, lecturer in communication and mass media at the British University in Egypt, and author of 2017’s Paranoid Visions: Spies, Conspiracies and the Secret State, tells the that there are parallels between the current spy thriller boom and other eras where the genre has especially thrived, such as the run-up to World War One, pre-World War Two and the early Cold War. “What I think these moments in history have in common with each other, and indeed with our present moment, is the background sense of great geopolitical tensions between major global powers running out of control, either with war looming directly ahead or with the threat of apocalypse constantly hanging in the background, and with the tensions getting displaced on to proxy wars and espionage.”
People’s levels of suspicion of those around them are also at a high – a University of Oxford study found that 27% of respondents believed that there was a conspiracy against them – and conspiracies are a repeated theme in this new selection of shows, such as The Night Agent – not, incidentally, to be confused with Le Carré’s The Night Manager, which is set for a second and third series almost a decade after the Emmy-winning adaptation in 2016.
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Netflix’s The Night Agent is a paranoia-stoked thriller focused on the White House in which, to borrow from horror film parlance, the call is coming from inside the house. Adapted from a novel by Matthew Quirk, season one saw low-rank FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) working to expose who in the presidential office was behind a staged “terrorist” bomb on the Metro, and series two places him on the run when the information he has gleaned from a mission is compromised, because of a leak in the CIA. Meanwhile Prime Target – featuring The White Lotus’s Leo Woodall as mathematician Edward Brooks – features similar machinations, when Edward finds himself hunted by unknown, sinister forces after he comes close to finding a pattern in prime numbers that holds the key to every computer in the world.
From a psychological perspective, however, people can be drawn to such shows because of the reassurance they in the end offer, cutting through the murk of geopolitics to unmask the real villains, and eventually making clear who is “good” and “bad”. “Spy dramas appeal because of the escapism and adrenaline rush they offer, along with the pleasure of following the hero’s journey, but one important element is how they fulfil our strong desire to resolve ambiguity and uncertainty. When we do, reward systems in our brain are activated,” says Dr Justin Spray, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society, and filmmaker. “The shows also appeal to our curiosity about the unknown and forbidden, but in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and polarised they also allow us to safely navigate – and seek an understanding of – issues of national and global significance.”
How the genre is being shaken up
Not that today’s spy shows can’t sometimes find a funny side to espionage too. Whereas ’00s and ’10s secret services thrillers like Spooks, Homeland and 24 played the drama extremely seriously, some contemporary spy series like Killing Eve, Mr & Mrs Smith and Black Doves have felt stylistically and tonally very different, folding in a fresh irreverence, self-deprecating characters and a black humour that is not usually found in this type of television, and that feels geared towards a younger audience.
