The Little Drummer Girl is a 6 hour miniseries that was jointly developed by the BBC and AMC. In the U.S., AMC aired it in three two-hour blocks. Based on a John Le Carré novel, the plot is typical Le Carré – cryptic, and slow to unfold at first. But it’s absolutely worth the wait.
English actress Charlie is smart, but adrift, and vaguely dissatisfied with her life. Due to prior left-wing sympathies and a chance meeting, she gets recruited by Israeli spies to infiltrate a cell of Palestinian terrorists. Not understanding what she’s getting herself into, she takes on the role of a lifetime.
Our story takes place in the 1970s, so Charlie is decked out in all sorts of groovy, colorful outfits, a visual contrast to the dark subject matter. But wardrobe aside, the parallels between the terrorist situation then and now are unmistakable and give the story an unsettling timeliness.
My husband and I were transfixed throughout the series, sad when it ended, and had numerous discussions about its intricate plot points. The 6 hour length is perfect – long enough so that the story can unfold in some detail, but not too long, like the many series that go on for years and requires too much of a commitment.
The acting by the three leads – Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgård – is flat-out fantastic. As the story slowly builds, it becomes apparent that there are no “good guys” and “bad guys” – all the principles in this have, well, principles, as well as moral failings. Little separates the Israeli spies from the Palestinian terrorists but history and the vagaries of fate.
The Judge 