Borat gets serious, Burr gets off track
The Spy (Netflix)
(out of 4) The Spy is fashioned as a piece of old-school, throwback entertainment, but it arrives just in time to usher in what many Hollywood types say is the next trend. It’s the idea of a return to more genres, and more character-driven work, that might find a place to shine in an entertainment world where superheroes have sucked up all the air.
Of course, old school can be another way to say sleepy, and the first episode of this slowburn look at spycraft almost lost me, but thankfully things pick up along the way in this six-part limited series. Inspired by the true events surrounding Eli Cohen, an Israeli Mossad agent who as a deep-cover agent infiltrated the highest levels of power in Syrian society in the ’60s, this stars Sacha Baron Cohen — yes, Borat — doing very nice work.
This portrayal paints the secret agent as a man whose eagerness to succeed is his downfall. Although, as this is from the Israeli point of view, he is portrayed as a hero, with a coda at the end about what in real life remains unresolved about the case.
The Spy shines because it is a measured look at the spook game, and although there is the clichéd Bond moment where Cohen gets his secret spy gadgets, the 007 he most resembles is the one from the early Ian Fleming novels, where he was still a man with fears and emotions, as opposed to a super-agent caricature. This is in the same orbit as The Americans, but with a sharper focus.
“Noticeable spies get killed,” says Dan, his handler played by Noah Emmerich, who leads a good supporting cast highlighted by Hadar Rotem, who has the essential but thankless role of Nadia, Cohen’s wife who struggles with his months-long absences. Alexander Siddig also shines in the role of the Syrian security chief who is suspicious of Cohen.
The pace works, in the end, and it’s impressive how the tension is built with very little gunplay, until the blowout moments where coups occur. There are some episodes with great cat-and-mouse scenes, as well as the behind-the-scenes power struggles over whether to keep him in danger or bring him back.
While he never fires a shot, Cohen the actor particular shines where he shows the man caught between his two identities. Bill Burr: Paper Tiger (Netflix)
(out of 4) Like Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr is one of the biggest standup comedians in the world and, despite their many talents, their attempts to make sense of a more woke world weigh down their most recent specials like lead galoshes. You kind of want to say to these guys, “Yes, the world has changed but you can still say whatever you want, there just might be consequences, but the best defence of all is to just make it funny.”
Burr shot this in Royal Albert Hall in London, and clearly hopes a British audience may be a bit more receptive than what he feels is an ever-woke and oft-triggered American society. I may be reading too much into it, but the opening quarter — where he takes on male feminists, and the giant problem of how to deal with women who still like rough sex in a #MeToo era — seems like he almost loses the audience, particularly when a member yells back “ask her consent.” Burr roasts the speaker for misunderstanding his point, but it felt like he was floundering at this point.
The thing is, while I did disagree with Burr’s takes — and he has currently become a favourite of right-leaning sites that clearly don’t — the bigger sin is a lot of the top half of the special just isn’t very funny. This is very much his manly man’s response to the world now, but part of the issue is that it comes off as a bit insincere. I’m not saying every comic has to believe what he’s saying, but he has to sell it in the performance.
It’s not a total disaster, although bits about Michelle Obama and Stephen Hawking are a bit wooden. Burr rescues the special by turning the focus on himself, starting with a story about when he felt he was sexually harassed. From there he goes into his family life and things get a bit more personal, exploring in particular his relationship with his wife and his hopes for their young child. So while he, like every comedian, struggles to make sense of a changing world, a good lesson is to stick with the worlds that they really know, still make some sense, and can mine for some pretty good jokes.