I sought a viewing escape (from my wife's decorating show reruns) and found this series' storyline:
"The turbulent and complicated life of an intelligence officer, John Tavner, whose latest assignment is to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The assignment requires him to forgo all safety nets and assume a perilous non-official cover."
I was in. It looked like it would carry me away from the pandemic.
What seemed like the trappings of an American James Bond, John Tavner enters cover as John Lakeman and begins pursuit of his objective. What transpires is the same pallette of frustrations of many who feel like they work in the middle rungs of vast vertical organizations. The toll on Lakeman is a mix of physical risk, intellectual strain and he soon becomes more human than any Bond.
The events as he pushes on deliver the viewer messages that are really absent from the typical spy/Bond flick and become mesmerizing as they weave the general plot into a fantastic, rich story that makes you just want more...like Tavner as Lakeman must, but never reveals with his unbreakable and completely flawed character character, up against a flawed situation.
Patriot provides closure, but not enough to keep you from having questions regarding as many of the fine plot threads you detected while watching. You commiserate the accumulated weariness of being consumed by work objectives and are drawn into the evolution of his challenges. You begin to see how the aid of others is more important than some sci-fi widget provided by Q to James Bond.
It's been a long time since I watched a program, movie or series that produced such a rich and engaging experience. This series produced a hunger for programming of similar quality and reward for my time invested viewing. I suspect disappointment will result for a while. Jellyfish paradox.