The Little Drummer Girl (2018) - First episode

Espionage in 1979: the theme seems just as nostalgic as the images themselves. Like stepping into a detective story, the new series The Little Drummer Girl tells a story that is probably already familiar to some. After the novel and adaptation to a film, it was time for a mini series. The BBC and AMC have decided to join forces and produce a six-episode series. I wasn't familiar with the story, although the title did ring a bell. Without too many expectations I started watching the first episode and the one thing that immediately stood out was the fact that several well-known actors participated in this production. This definitely contributes to the quality, although that's not all that matters.

In my opinion, The Little Drummer Girl falls under a somewhat alternative genre and I am not sure if I like that particular genre.

The story begins in two countries where two totally separate lives are being led. In the UK we meet Charlie (Florence Pugh), a young British actress who receives a unique offer to perform in Greece, together with her troupe. Enthusiastically, they accept, but once they arrive, they start to notice some weird things. A mysterious man seems to be following them and a woman called Rose (Kate Sumpter), who they have met before, unexpectedly pops up again. The group of friends approach the stranger and soon Charlie seems intrigued by this man who calls himself Peter (Alexander Skarsgård). Without revealing a lot about himself and his motives, he succeeds in attracting Charlie. When he asks her to accompany him to Athens, she accepts out of curiosity. It turns out that this will eventually take her into the lion's den.



The series takes place all over Europe: the focal point is a terrorist attack in Germany, we see Charlie making the trip from Britain to Greece and there's a team of Israeli spies who are active in Turkey and other places. Clearly, a lot of effort has been put into creating a certain kind of atmosphere and they succeeded. Music, images and even a ticking clock during the first few minutes of the episode contribute to this atmosphere. All this in combination with the acting forms a wonderful whole. Despite the good acting, there is one point of criticism: some of the actors have such a heavy accent that they are difficult to understand. Furthermore, in the beginning so many different names are bandied about that at some point you hardly know who is who. Thankfully the characters all look completely different so in this way you can keep them apart.

I am curious about what happens next, but I caught myself yawning a couple of times during the episode.

In Germany a Jewish family are the victims of a bombing. A special team from Israel is flown in to investigate this attack. This team, which is being led by Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon), soon see a link with other terrorist attacks. Similar bombings occurred in Milan and Zurich and the perpetrators are supposed to be a couple of palestinian brothers who are targeting families all over Europe. They make use of young, pretty girls who they recruit for these jobs so they can keep out of range. Kurtz has a plan to catch the brothers and involves a small army of spies to help him achieve this. The mysterious scenes are combined with small history lessons about the time this story takes place. It's a nice gimmick, but doesn't make the series more interesting. The pace is a bit slow to my taste and it becomes a bit boring in the long run.

As reticent Skarsgård was in the movie The Legend of Tarzan, the same goes for this show. Still, he is not bad to look at – probably of interest to some viewers, wink, wink - and again he knows how to portray a fascinating character without too many words. However, this was not enough to keep me interested. In my opinion, The Little Drummer Girl falls under a somewhat alternative genre and I am not sure if I like that particular genre. I am curious about what happens next, but I caught myself yawning a couple of times during the episode. So I was certainly not on the edge of my seat. Still, I give this series a sufficient grade, even if it's only for the strong acting and beautiful locations which were being used. It is, however, not a series I would recommend to most of my friends.