28 October (2018-10-28) – 2 December 2018 (2018-12-02)
The Little Drummer Girl is a British television espionage drama based on the 1983 novel of the same name by John le Carré. The six-episode series first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2018 and on AMC in the United States during November 2018.[1]
Premise
In 1979, an aspiring English actress is recruited by Mossad to infiltrate a Palestinian group plotting terrorism in Europe.[2]
Alexander Skarsgård[6] as Gadi Becker,[4] a mysterious man whom Charlie encounters on holiday in Greece and who becomes her holiday fling. He is then revealed as an Israeli intelligence officer.[5]
Florence Pugh[7] as Charmian "Charlie" Ross,[8] a radical left-wing English actress in her early 20s who in 1979 is sucked into espionage.[5]
Max Irons as Al, Charlie's on and off boyfriend, a self-righteously political and big-headed actor.[5]
Katharina Schüttler as Helga, a radical left-wing revolutionary who helps Michel recruit disillusioned European women into his network.[10]
Adel Bencherif as Tayeh, the commander of a Palestinian terrorist camp.
Bethany Muir as Sophie, an associate of Michel.
Charif Ghattas as Khalil Al Khadar, a Palestinian terrorist leader.
Iben Akerlie as Anna Witgen, Michel's girlfriend and accomplice.
Mark Stanley as Arthur A. Halloran, an unstable American trainee in the Palestinian camp who helps to train other foreign volunteers to become bombers.
Ricki Hayut as Professor Irene Minkel, a liberal Israeli academic and peace campaigner who is targeted for assassination.
In 1979 West Germany,[2] the Palestinian terrorist Michel and his Swedish accomplice and girlfriend Anna Witgen kill the eight-year-old son of an Israeli diplomat with a semtex bomb. Senior Mossad spy Martin Kurtz is dispatched to Europe to hunt down and eliminate the Palestinian terror cell, which is led by Michel's wily older brother Khalil. Through interviews with the German police and eyewitnesses, Kurtz decides that Michel romantically entices idealistic but vulnerable young European women whom he grooms to help carry out attacks. He decides to play Michel at his own game by recruiting a girl of their own in order to get to Khalil. Under Kurtz's orders, a Mossad team led by Rachel posing as a tourist manage to kidnap Michel on the Greek-Turkish border while he is smuggling semtex in his red Mercedes-Benz W123. Meanwhile, left-wing English stage actress Charmian "Charlie" Ross and her troupe tour Greece as part of a corporate "charity job." While Charlie and her fellow actors are visiting a beach, she takes an interest in a mysterious handsome man, who is actually an undercover Mossad agent called Gadi Becker. Gadi has earmarked Charlie for Kurtz's plan. After treating Charlie to a date at the Parthenon, Gadi introduces Charlie to his Mossad team including Martin.
In Athens, Martin subjects Charlie to an "audition", asking her questions about her past. When Charlie convincingly lies about her family background, Martin decides that they can use her acting talents to infiltrate and eliminate Khalil's terror network. He reveals that they know she had attended a talk given by Michel and meetings held by radical political groups proscribed by the British government. Meanwhile, the captive Michel is held at a Mossad safehouse in Munich where he is tricked by his Mossad captors led by Martin's lieutenant Shimon into believing he is in an Israeli prison. Using a combination of drugs and psychological pressure including a faked letter from Michel's sister Fatmeh and a faked photo of a captive Khalil, Shimon's team discover that Michel was supposed to deliver the semtex shipment to Salzburg in Austria. Back in Greece, Gadi coaches Charlie into posing as one of Michel's girlfriends. As part of the training, Gadi role-plays as Michel to create a convincing backstory of Charlie's fake relationship with him. Charlie exacts a promise from Gadi to tell her more about himself in return for her work as a spy.
As part of her rookie mission, Charlie is tasked with smuggling the semtex inside Michel's red Mercedes through Yugoslavia and into Austria. Gadi and the rest of the team monitor Charlie's movements from a safe distance. Meanwhile, Shimon's Munich team discovers that Michel has lied about the drop-off point. Shimon breaks Michel by revealing that his imprisonment was a set-up and secures the true drop-off zone: an Austrian town called Kleinalm. After being informed by Gadi about the change in destination, Charlie arrives in Kleinalm where she parks the car in the town square. Michel's girlfriend Anna drives the vehicle but is intercepted and captured by Mossad agents. At first, Charlie enjoys the thrill of the mission but after arriving at the Munich safe house, is horrified by the treatment of the drugged-up Michel. Nevertheless, she continues with the mission after Gadi shows her the memorial of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and writes fake love letters to Michel to perpetuate the ruse that she is one of his many lovers. Charlie then returns to London to await contact with Khalil's local associates. Back in Munich, the Mossad team eliminate Michel and Anna in a staged motor accident.
Back in London, Charlie continues her spy training under the tutelage of Gadi, who outfits her with a transmitter. Charlie is eventually contacted by Michel's associates including lawyer Anton (Jeff Wilbusch) and Helga (Katharina Schüttler). While meeting with them in a caravan, she first learns of the deaths of Michel and Anna. Her grief-stricken and angry reaction to Michel's death convinces Anton and Helga that she was in love with Michel and is also sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. While initially shocked about Michel's killing, Charlie develops romantic feelings for Gadi. Later, Helga and her associates kidnap Charlie and smuggle her to Lebanon where she meets Michel's sister Fatmeh and Tayeh, the commander of a Palestinian militant camp. Charlie manages to convince Fatmeh that she was romantically involved with her brother. While Martin is pleased with the progress of the mission, Gadi is concerned about Charlie's well-being due to his feelings for her.
In Lebanon, Charlie is taken to the Palestinian militant camp with other foreign volunteers where she is trained to become a bomber. A disillusioned American trainee named Arthur accuses her of spying but she turns the tables on him, and he's shot to death by guards trying to flee. Charlie also becomes closer to Fatmeh who introduces her to more friends outside of the camp. After an Israeli journalist and his family are assassinated by Palestinian terrorists in Lyon, the Israeli Air Force bombs the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and the blast is witnessed by Charlie. Back in London, Martin's Mossad team discover that Khalil and his team are planning to assassinate liberal Israeli academic Irene Minkel, who is visiting London Polytechnic to give a lecture. Having gained Fatmeh and the militants' trust, Charlie is given the mission of assassinating Minkel. Returning to London, Charlie passes the suitcase carrying the bomb to the Mossad team only to discover that it's a decoy. Later, Charlie is taken to meet Khalil, the cell's mastermind.
Charlie romantically ingratiates herself with Khalil, gaining his trust; and Martin realises that there is a better way – to leave Khalil unharmed, but to let him rise in the Palestinian hierarchy, having access to his thinking and plans all the time through Charlie. She delivers the suitcase bomb to her Mossad handlers who are working with British intelligence led by Commander Picton. The Israeli and British police services stage a fake explosion and spread disinformation that Professor Minkel was killed. Under orders from her Mossad handlers, Charlie returns to Khalil, claiming the mission was a success. The two make love and share a bed. The next morning, Khalil becomes suspicious and interrogates Charlie into confessing her deception. He inadvertently releases a distress code that Mossad had given to Charlie, prompting Gadi to intervene and shoot Khalil dead, leaving Charlie distraught over her feelings for Khalil. Mossad operatives track down and kill Khalil’s European associates including Anton and Helga, eliminating the remains of the cell, while Tayeh's camp is destroyed in an airstrike. Though conflicted about her role in Martin's plan, Charlie is rehabilitated in an Israeli hospital and then meets up with Gadi in Germany to begin a new life.
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 95% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The critics' consensus reads "The Little Drummer Girl marches to a steady beat of assured plotting, extraordinary art direction, and a uniformly terrific cast that makes the show's smolderingly slow burn pace bearable."[19] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 18 reviews, signifying "generally favorable reviews".[20]
Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair praised Florence Pugh's acting but criticized elements of the story.[21]
Alan Sepinwell of Rolling Stone awarded The Little Drummer Girl 3.5 out of four stars, praising the acting and lush presentation but criticizing what he regarded as the show's "convoluted" story. He observed that it followed the formula of the critically acclaimed The Night Manager television series, an adaptation of another one of Le Carré's novels.[22] Judy Berman, reviewing for TIME, praised the TV series for its suspense, exploring moral dilemmas and the legacy of British foreign policy in the Middle East, and for having nuanced characters on both sides.[23]
Troy Patterson of The New Yorker described the series as a "subtly nutty geopolitical thriller distilled to an exercise in psychological suspense". He also praised Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon's performances as the main protagonists Charlie Ross, Gadi Becker, and Martin Kurtz.[24] Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture described the series as "a lavishly produced, intelligent, tasteful mixed bag, more interesting to think about than to watch."[25] Jesse Schedeen of IGN awarded the series 8.2 out of 10, praising Pugh's "mesmerizing" performance and Park Chan-Wook's strong directorial vision for overcoming its storytelling flaws.[26]
