Netflix's "The Spy" and "Elite: Season 2"

How far would you go for your country? How do you keep two identities a secret and keep them straight? Welcome to the life of Eli Cohen a spy for Israel. He's a man plucked from a department store to be an uncover agent for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. His mission is to get deep inside the highest ranks of Syrian society and steal their secrets.

Sasha Baron Cohen finally has a chance to spread his wings. It's his prime opportunity to shed his Ali G and Borat personas. In many scenes, you can see the struggle Eli must go through especially as women are throwing themselves at him and he thinks of home and his family. The most dramatic being after transitioning out of his Kamel identity and being confronted at a department store. (No spoilers)

The series uses color in interesting ways. Often the only scenes that become vibrant are when Eli is deep undercover as Kamel. When the story cuts back Israel the scenes are dim and desaturated. This is to reflect Cohen's mental state at the moment. The life of Kamel is exciting and bright and Israel dull and uninspiring.

Text quickly becomes important to the series: Syrian letters transform to english, words are written around the room as the character scratches them out and the messages Cohen sends back are translated from Morse code to English.

The only real downside is the season is too short. Some of it feels a little rushed, a little overdramatic and maybe if there were 8 episodes Cohen could have more time to flesh out the character. In the end, it's a great drama, an amazing true story, and a pretty good spy series. Not James Bond, but still plenty of good sleuthing.

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