Saiyed Danish

Dominic Cooper steals the show as Fielding Scott. As a viewer I was eating his scenes out of his hand. Watching post-war Berlin on the screen, a city divided into four sectors, is both delighful and haunting everytime. A very gripping and poignant storytelling leading up to the construction of the Berlin Wall. The show is also about the unforgettable imagery of the city which pulls and absorbs you into its sorcerous and timeless world of mirrors and shadows. To virtually experience a time period which you were never a part of is nothing less than wizardry. And what a spectacular wizardry it this show! I'm especially always curious to see East Berlin. A city which no longer exists and hence lives on in our creative imagination. The checkpoints reminded me of the German webseries Deutschland '83, which is perhaps the only show known to me which had main characters from the East Berlin point of view. Also, since I'm coming here after watching The Defeated and A Spy Among Friends, I had some great expectations from the show and as a viewer I never felt disappointed for even a moment throughout the six episode run which I watched back to back. It was great to watch strong female characters in pivotal roles. Ulrike, Eliza and Severine were not just characters but the very centerpieces of the show. Severine's killing felt personal, especially after her tiring search of the evil SS officer who had killed her husband. Eliza's inability to cross the newly erected border was quite hurting and quickly reminded me of Bridge of Spies. After having done so much to make her dream come true, she chose not to leave without her lover. Ulrike's last unspoken meeting with Scott with a barbed wired border running in between, announced the end of free movement in the city and their sittings in that quaint and comforting house of hers. No more of those evenings of that cherished 'boredom'. But the separation didn't only symbolise enforced physical detachment but also of the blockage of fluidity of ideas and a mental sense of free thinking. The real visuals of families separated overnight due random border popping up from middle of the roads were disturbing like always. Spy City is a fine balance between a slow burn espionage drama (with some elements of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and a complex, edge-of-the-seat spy thriller wherein the protagonist navigates the inescapable maze of diplomacy and deception losing everyone he holds dear in the way. The greatest take away of the show is that it steered clear of any sort of toxic jingoism. The culprits were not solely the 'others', instead, the rot lied deep within. Udo Hoff was a terrifying character indeed. He represented all those Nazi monsters who were captured in 1945 but somehow were shamelessly hired again by people on both sides of the Cold War divide. The scene at the cemetery, of the conversation between M16 agent Scott and KGB's Comrade Kovrin at the cemetery was swift reminder of the fact that after all both were soldiers serving their own sides under changed circumstances, but not very long ago they were on the same side in the fight against Nazi war machine. 'Good Procedure' indeed. Danke. Love from India.