This series might almost be entitled "How I, a heroic, chronically underappreciated supermom, single-handedly caught the CIA's mole."
Granted, that would be a little harsh, because "The Assets" turned out to be considerably more watchable and suspenseful than I'd expected. But it highlights the series' main flaw.
It's based on Sandra Grimes' book, written with fellow CIA staffer Jeanne Vertefeuille, and Grimes was also a consultant on the series. In a way that feels embarrassingly self-aggrandizing, it makes Grimes not only the heroine of her own story -- the hardworking mom who, with pluck and persistence, against all odds, captures traitor Aldrich Ames ("I'm not giving up!" she declares. "Someone betrayed us, and I'm gonna get him!") -- but also turns her into a paragon of virtue. We see her burning the midnight oil, working late even to the point of endangering her marriage, sleeping on the office couch ("Sandy worked all weekend... She didn't leave the building!"), figuring out that there's a mole, mulling over lists of possible suspects, crumpling paper and going back over her lists, working out the problem, relying on her infallible woman's intuition.
By the end, all her insights vindicated, she's become a nationally lauded TV figure and bestselling writer. Her admiring husband tells her what a superwoman she is: "I'm so proud of you, Sandy," he gushes. "You are my hero." (Feel like gagging?) Her admiring boss credits her with initiating the counterintelligence investigation: "You were right," he admits, and in a later episode, "You're right!" In fact, as one of the commenters here noted, in this series she's ALWAYS right, always the smartest one in the room. Her admiring partner tells her that she has the talent to be "the best case officer in the agency." (Feel like gagging again?)
I didn't read Grimes' book, and I don't know how truthful this account is, but it's irritating. This sort of simplification, this focus on a single heroic female, felt false in "Zero Dark Thirty," about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and it feels false here. At one point Grimes modestly assures her boss that the capture of Ames was a team effort, but this seems mere lip service, since the story is all about her.
And insofar as the series focuses on her, it's a bore, because she's simply not interesting -- especially as played by Jodie Whittaker, the weakest note in an otherwise superb, virtually all-British cast playing Americans.
P. S. Did people in the early 1980s really say "That's why they pay me the big bucks?" I don't know the answer, and it's a small thing, but like other aspects of this series, it felt false.
Granted, that would be a little harsh, because "The Assets" turned out to be considerably more watchable and suspenseful than I'd expected. But it highlights the series' main flaw.
It's based on Sandra Grimes' book, written with fellow CIA staffer Jeanne Vertefeuille, and Grimes was also a consultant on the series. In a way that feels embarrassingly self-aggrandizing, it makes Grimes not only the heroine of her own story -- the hardworking mom who, with pluck and persistence, against all odds, captures traitor Aldrich Ames ("I'm not giving up!" she declares. "Someone betrayed us, and I'm gonna get him!") -- but also turns her into a paragon of virtue. We see her burning the midnight oil, working late even to the point of endangering her marriage, sleeping on the office couch ("Sandy worked all weekend... She didn't leave the building!"), figuring out that there's a mole, mulling over lists of possible suspects, crumpling paper and going back over her lists, working out the problem, relying on her infallible woman's intuition.
By the end, all her insights vindicated, she's become a nationally lauded TV figure and bestselling writer. Her admiring husband tells her what a superwoman she is: "I'm so proud of you, Sandy," he gushes. "You are my hero." (Feel like gagging?) Her admiring boss credits her with initiating the counterintelligence investigation: "You were right," he admits, and in a later episode, "You're right!" In fact, as one of the commenters here noted, in this series she's ALWAYS right, always the smartest one in the room. Her admiring partner tells her that she has the talent to be "the best case officer in the agency." (Feel like gagging again?)
I didn't read Grimes' book, and I don't know how truthful this account is, but it's irritating. This sort of simplification, this focus on a single heroic female, felt false in "Zero Dark Thirty," about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and it feels false here. At one point Grimes modestly assures her boss that the capture of Ames was a team effort, but this seems mere lip service, since the story is all about her.
And insofar as the series focuses on her, it's a bore, because she's simply not interesting -- especially as played by Jodie Whittaker, the weakest note in an otherwise superb, virtually all-British cast playing Americans.
P. S. Did people in the early 1980s really say "That's why they pay me the big bucks?" I don't know the answer, and it's a small thing, but like other aspects of this series, it felt false.