The Little Drummer Girl (2018) - Season 1

Last November I wrote a review about the first episode of The Little Drummer Girl, a British mini series based on the book of the same name by John le Carré from 1983. As I was curious I automatically recorded the whole season, but didn't have time to watch the rest of it. Until a week ago I stumbled across the episodes on my digital recorder and I decided to give the series another chance. At the time I wasn't really negative, but not really positive either. The first episode was a bit boring and some scenes were difficult to understand. Still, the series managed to grab my attention and eventually I watched the rest of the series in short time. Surprisingly, the story started to fascinate me more and more as the episodes progressed and now I am quite enthusiastic about the whole series. So I wanted to clarify my new opinion in this review about the whole season.

Even if the story is forty years old - it takes place in 1979- it is still quite relevant.

The young British Charmain 'Charlie' Ross (Florence Pugh) holds strong views and is aspiring to become a successful actress when she is recruited by a network of spies. She is asked to play the role of a lifetime, a role which will blur the lines between what is real and what is fiction and is not without considerable danger. Her recruiter is Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon), an eccentric Israeli spy who leads the investigation into a series of attacks on European Jews. Together with his team he is hunting down a world-wide operating terrorist cell but which remains elusive. The mysterious Peter/Gadi Becker (Alexander Skarsgård, True Blood) is especially summoned by Kurtz to help with the investigation and to guide Charlie, in particular. Charlie is supposed to become his most important link in this search. Not knowing what exactly she agrees with, she ends up in the middle of the struggle between the Israelis and the palestinians and is used as a pawn by both sides.



One of the reasons why The Little Drummer Girl doesn't immediately grab everyone's attention is the complexity of the story. If you are not familiar with the history of this issue, the amount of information is a bit overwhelming. Even if the story is forty years old - it takes place in 1979- it is still quite relevant. As to this day there is still a war going on between the Israelis and the palestinians. The series comes across as very current and this makes the story even more compelling.
Even though the humour is not really to my taste, I don't really care for literature and I am not really interested in Middle Eastern politics, I was still entertained.
In the end it is more than just about espionage and politics. Love is also a part of the story. Furthermore, the question of who is right or wrong in this situation is almost impossible to answer. The difficult but at the same time close working relationship between Kurtz and Gadi is a good example of this. I also want to mention in particular the chemistry between Gadi and Charlie, because the acting of those two when it comes to strength and conviction is the highlight of this series.

The Little Drummer Girl also has psychological thriller aspects that seem to increase towards the end of the season.

The terrorist cell under investigation is being led by one family, in particular two powerful brothers. The oldest (Charif Ghattas) appears to be the mastermind of the operation, while the younger one (Amir Khoury) contributes to the cause by giving lectures in Europe. In this way he tries to recruit sympathizers all over Europe and has already found many new western members for their group. The Little Drummer Girl also has psychological thriller aspects that seem to increase towards the end of the season. Charlie is struggling mentally with her double role and this is portrayed very well. You can feel her doubts and eventually you start to feel them too. In my review of the pilot I already mentioned the great acting and the wonderful scenes and filming locations, but also during the remaining episodes they do not disappoint.

You have to like a profound story which is certainly not light-hearted or easy to watch to appreciate this series. After watching the finale, the story continued to occupy my mind. The writers managed to create an old-fashioned but also an unusual atmosphere that really defines how the viewer will see this series.
After watching the whole season, this is in my opinion a must-see and the story even has a message. It makes you think about these kinds of conflicts and it shows both sides and the way terrorism is dealt with. I watched this series through the BBC, but now you can watch it through NPO Start Plus, the on-demand service of the Dutch public broadcasting network.
So if you are in the mood for something different and the story appeals to you, you should definitely give this series a chance. Just one tip: start with at least the first two episodes to get a good impression, because just the pilot alone gives a somewhat distorted view.