In September 2020, Apple TV+ internationally premiered the Israeli spy TV series, Tehran. Israeli director Daniel Syrkin (The Gordin Cell) directs the eight episodes of Season 1. Season 2 premiered on May 6, 2022, on Apple TV+.
Season 1 of Tehran introduced viewers to the Jewish Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), who goes undercover in Tehran, Iran, to hack into the Iranian defense system and disable a nuclear reactor. When the mission goes sideways, she is stuck in Iran, the country of her birth, with a false identity that she must maintain if she is to survive. As she continues the mission with a Plan B, she connects with her homeland and the local freedom fighters there. All the while, Revolutionary Guard head of investigations Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub) knows there's a spy in Iran, and he's determined to hunt her down.
Season 2 continues Tamar's story as she still cannot escape Iran, Faraz is still on her tail, and her mission has failed. Yet not all hope is lost as Marjan Montazeri (Glenn Close) poses Tamar with an offer: commit to carry out a new mission, and Montazeri's resources will help Tamar get out of the country. Tamar's lover and partner, Milad (Shervin Alenabi), is determined to find them their own way out of Iran, driving a rift between him and Tamar.
While you're waiting to get into the next installation of the Emmy Award-winning series, or after you've binged Season 2, check out our list of the top nine shows that are just as thrilling and fast-paced as Tehran.
False Flag (2015-Present)
The Israeli drama show False Flag (or Kfulim) premiered in 2015 and ran for three seasons. Israeli director Oded Ruskin, who worked on the Amazon Original Series Absentia, directs. History served as inspiration for the show, as False Flag is loosely based on the Mossad's alleged assassination of Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh, who co-founded the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic militant group Hamas.
The target in this series is Iranian minister of defense Farhead Sulimani. Five average Israeli citizens (Ishai Golan, Magi Azarzar, Ania Bukstein, Angel Bonanni, and Orna Salinger) wake up to find themselves framed for the kidnapping and death of Sulimani. Evidence supposedly supports that the minister's death was a secret Mossad mission. How many, if any, of these suspects are truly innocent?
False Flag Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Hulu.
Suspicion (2022)
For an English-language adaptation of False Flag, check out Apple TV+'s 2022 British thriller series, Suspicion. The series was created by Rob Williams (The Victim).
Suspicion follows a similar plot in which five British citizens (Kunal Nayyar, Georgina Campbell, Elizabeth Henstridge, Elyes Gabel, and Tom Rhys Harries) are accused of having kidnaped Leo Newman (Gerran Howell), who is the son of the powerful American Katherine Newman (Uma Thurman). Those accused of the crime realize all five of them were in New York at the time of Leo's abduction, and all five claim to be innocent despite the serious charges brought against them. The suspects must band together as the world comes to judge them guilty merely by accusation, ruining their personal and professional lives.
Suspicion's one and only season is streaming on AppleTV+.
Queen Sono (2020)
Netflix's first South African original series premiered in 2020, introducing audiences to Queen Sono. South African Tswana comedian Kagiso Lediga created, produced, and helps direct the series.
Queen Sono (Pearl Thusi) is a spy and skilled asset for a South African intelligence agency known as the Special Operations Group (SOG). She is a reckless, clever spy who completes her missions, all while balancing a messy personal life. While helping protect the African continent, she searches for the truth about who killed her mother, anti-apartheid activist Safiya Sono (Lady Skollie), and why.
Queen Sono is streaming on Netflix.
The Spy (2019)
To watch a true story of espionage, check out Netflix's semi-biographical miniseries The Spy, which premiered in 2019. The series is based on the real-life story of Mossad agent Eli Cohen and the 1969 book The Spy Who Came from Israel (L'espion qui venait d'Israël) written by Urin Dan and Yeshayahu Ben Porat. Israeli director Gideon Raff created and directs the show.
The six-episode series follows Eli Cohen (Sacha Baron Cohen) as he becomes Israel's top spy in Syria. Adopting a new identity as Kamel Amin Thaabet, he infiltrates Syrian society, becomes Deputy Defense Minister, and even gains the trust and friendship of future Syrian president, Amin al-Hafiz (Waleed Zuaiter). Unfortunately, the long-term undercover mission takes its toll on Eli, as he starts to forget where his true identity ends and the Kamel identity begins, and his family in Israel starts to suffer in his absence.
The Spy is streaming on Netflix.
The Little Drummer Girl (2018)
While not a true story, BBC's The Little Drummer Girl is based on John le Carré's novel of the same name and is heavily inspired by real-life politics and international conflicts. South Korean director Park Wan-chook, who directed The Handmaiden, directs.
Charmian "Charlie" Ross (Florence Pugh) is an English actress in the late 1970s when she meets Gadi Becker (Alexander Skarsgärd) while spending a summer in Greece. She becomes romantically involved with him only to discover he is a Mossad agent. She then finds herself recruited by Israeli intelligence to help stop a Palestinian terrorism plot in Europe. Charlie's journey into espionage tests her relationship with Gadi, her loyalty to the cause, and her understanding of sides in this war.
The six episodes of The Little Drummer Girl are streaming on AMC+.
Homeland (2011-2020)
The Primetime Emmy Award-winning and two-time Golden Globe Award-winning series Homeland premiered in 2011 and ran for eight seasons. The American show is based on Gideon Raff's Israeli television series Prisoners of War, and Raff helped produce Homeland's adaptation of his original material.
Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is a CIA agent who is passionate about protecting the United States as she is reassigned to the Counterterrorism Center. When Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), a U.S. Marine who's been MIA for years, is unexpectedly rescued from the compound of a terrorist, Mathison grows suspicious that he is no longer the patriot the rest of the country believes him to be. Mathison faces resistance and red tape as she studies Brody's every move, convinced he may have been recruited to the terrorist's cause while in captivity.
Homeland is streaming on Hulu.
The Americans (2013-2018)
Joe Weisberg, who worked on the TNT series Falling Skies, created the Cold War spy drama The Americans. The show premiered in 2013 and after six seasons, it had won four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Peabody Awards.
After President Ronald Reagan's inauguration, two KGB spies are planted on U.S. soil, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys). They pose as a happily married couple in suburbia with their two children while covertly carrying out missions for Soviet Union intelligence. Meanwhile, the Jennings' neighbor, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), is an FBI agent and poses a regular threat to the KGB's espionage.
The Americans is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Quantico (2015-2018)
In 2015, ABC premiered Quantico, the first American network series to feature a South Asian female lead actress. Joshua Safran, who is known for his work on Gossip Girl, created the series.
The three-season series follows Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) in the past when she is attending the FBI Academy at Quantico, and in the present, as she is framed for a terrorist attack and goes rogue to prove her innocence. Viewers follow Alex's journey from novice to expert, the lives of her fellow FBI agents, and the terrorist conspiracy that threatens to ruin her career and livelihood.
Quantico is streaming on Netflix.
Undercover (2019-Present)
Netflix co-produced the Dutch-language crime drama series Undercover, which began streaming on Netflix in 2019. Nico Moolenar, who wrote for the television series Vermist and the film Ferry, created the show. Undercover is loosely based on real-life undercover operations.
Bob Lemmens (Tom Waes) and Kim de Rooij (Anna Drijver) are two agents who are tasked with infiltrating a complex Limburg drug operation, which deals with ecstasy. Bob and Kim overcome their differences to pose as a couple at the campsite where the kingpin Ferry Bouwman (Frank Lammers) vacations with his family. As the agents grow closer with Ferry and his wife, Danielle Bouwman (Elise Schaap), the mission teeters between barely succeeding in exposing both agents and potentially granting them both brutal death sentences.
Undercover is streaming on Netflix.