The FX on Hulu espionage miniseries “The Veil” offers an impressive showcase for star Elisabeth Moss, delivering a reliably excellent performance as British intelligence agent Imogen Salter, who’s tasked with finding out information from a possible rogue ISIS operative. Imogen and Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) play a game of deception and betrayal as they evade spies from multiple international agencies while traveling from Syria to Paris and beyond.
Creator Steven Knight delivers a fast-paced thriller over the course of six episodes, making great use of the familiar elements of the espionage genre. With the finale of “The Veil” out this week, viewers looking for more powerful female spies and/or more from Moss have plenty of options. Here are seven great shows like "The Veil" to check out after the finale.
'Homeland'
The most obvious point of comparison for Imogen Salter is CIA agent Carrie Mathison, the often unstable protagonist of this long-running spy series. Like Moss, star Claire Danes imbues her character with a mix of vulnerability and ingenuity, and Carrie’s emotional investment in her missions is often what leads to her success. Carrie frequently crosses lines with her targets, but she gets the job done in a way that no other intelligence operative can.
The quality of “Homeland” varies over the course of its eight seasons, especially after the departure of Damian Lewis as the potential double agent Carrie is surveilling as the show begins. But it’s always driven by Danes’ fantastic performance, making Carrie one of the most compelling TV characters of the past two decades.
Watch on Hulu
'The Little Drummer Girl'
A miniseries based on a book by legendary spy novelist John le Carré, directed by South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook and starring Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgard should not be this underrated. This stylish, engrossing six-episode series is set in 1979 at the height of Cold War tensions. The Cold War is just a backdrop for the main focus, though, with Pugh as Charlie Ross, an English actress recruited by Mossad to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell.
The international conflict remains sadly timely, but “The Little Drummer Girl” is just as much about Charlie’s inner conflict, as she grows closer to the people she’s meant to be bringing down. Pugh is fascinating as the young woman who blurs the lines between acting and reality, whose convincing performance could mean the difference between life and death at any moment.
'Top of the Lake'
Moss plays a different type of investigator in this dark, intense Australian series. Moss’ Robin Griffin is a police detective who travels from Sydney to her rural hometown and becomes involved in the investigation into a pregnant 12-year-old girl’s disappearance. Like Imogen, Robin is emotionally troubled and gets too close to her case, in this instance because nearly everyone involved is someone she’s known her entire life.
Oscar-nominated director Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) gives “Top of the Lake” a solemn, contemplative tone, taking on potentially salacious topics without ever giving into sensationalism. Moss anchors the show with a sensitive, affecting performance, making Robin far more than just a detective piecing clues together. She solves the mystery, but the personal cost means that her life will never be the same.
Watch on Hulu
'The Americans'
Possibly the best drama series of the 21st century, “The Americans” stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as a pair of Soviet covert agents who go deep undercover in the Washington, D.C., suburbs in the 1980s. They go about their everyday lives as a married couple with two children while also engaging in clandestine missions for the Soviet government, attempting to acquire government secrets and sabotage U.S. intelligence efforts.
The domestic and espionage elements are equally important, and what makes “The Americans” so brilliant is the way it mixes the two until the main characters can’t tell where their “real” identities end and their cover stories begin. Rhys and Russell are phenomenal, playing with audience sympathies as agents working to cripple American power. The storylines remain tense and complex throughout all six seasons, often leading to devastating outcomes.
Watch on Hulu
'Killing Eve'
While Imogen has a closer personal relationship with Adilah than is officially sanctioned, she has nothing on the title character of this often campy spy drama. Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) begins the series as a meek MI5 analyst, but her obsession with the assassin known as Villanelle (Jodie Comer) takes her out of the office and into the field, where she places both herself and her colleagues in danger.
Villanelle is equally obsessed with Eve, and their toxic quasi-romance remains the core focus across four seasons, even as they repeatedly attempt to kill each other. “Killing Eve” starts out as a heightened version of an espionage thriller and gets more ridiculous as it goes along, but Oh and Comer keep it grounded in an emotional bond that is both inexplicable and undeniable.
Watch on Netflix
'Alias'
Imogen is said to be an expert at undercover work, but she can’t come close to Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), who is a double, triple and even sometimes quadruple agent at certain points during the five seasons of “Alias.” Sydney’s alliances frequently shift as she works for various different agencies and sub-agencies, pursuing increasingly convoluted conspiracies often perpetrated by the very people she trusts the most.
Even as “Alias” delves into ancient mystical lore in its later seasons, it remains a thrilling spy series centered on Garner’s gritty but empathetic performance as Sydney, along with talented supporting players including Victor Garber and Lena Olin. Creator J.J. Abrams went on to helm major franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek, but he honed his world-building skills with this action-packed, twist-filled series.
Watch on Disney Plus
'Agent Carter'
A somewhat underappreciated gem of the pre-MCU Marvel TV era, “Agent Carter” stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, the secret agent introduced in the movie “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Set in the 1940s, the show follows Peggy’s adventures on the fringes of the Marvel universe, investigating dangerous technological threats and uncovering villainous plots against national security. She takes it all on with grace and humor, giving “Agent Carter” a welcome lighthearted tone.
Although Peggy eventually made her way back to the big screen, “Agent Carter” was a casualty of shifting priorities at Marvel, ending after only two seasons. Still, those seasons represent some of the best Marvel screen stories since the MCU began, and they can be easily enjoyed without any knowledge of the wider world of MCU movies.
Watch on Disney Plus
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