Tehran is an Israeli series. A Mossad agent on her first spy assignment is sent undercover into Tehran. She’s a hacker. Her goal is to disable the military’s radar temporarily so Israeli planes can bomb a nuclear plant without being shot out of the sky.
Tehran is a top notch spy thriller. It’s action packed. The main character Tamar (Niv Sultan) is a kickass woman warrior. It’s nailbitingly tense. There are twists and surprises that create many obstacles to getting the job done. There are double agents and double crossers, sweethearts and secret lovers.
It’s a big cast, with action in Israel and Iran. I’ll only highlight a few of the characters.
Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub) is an Iranian security officer. He happened to be in the airport when Tamar sneaked into the city disguised as an airline employee. This guy was a thorn in the side of the Israelis during the entire series. Even though his wife was in the midst of a medical emergency, he never left his job.
Tamar’s cover was blown almost immediately. A travel agent named Masoud (Navid Negahban) was her contact and helper, but wasn’t always able to help. He failed to get her to a safe house on the first night. He was a tough character to defeat though.
She sought refuge with her aunt Arezoo (Esti Yerushalmi) but left after one night – she put them in too much danger.
Tamar had cultivated an Iranian hacker on the dark web. She sought him out. Milad (Shervin Alenabi) lived a complicated life in a commune, but he offered Tamar shelter. He was a dissident, among other things, and agreed to help Tamar with contacts inside the electric company. Why the electric company? Because for some reason the electric company had a back door connection to the military’s radar software.
Tamar and Milad became close, although it was a bumpy ride. Their affection was real and not the act of a spy seducing a civilian.
A number of operatives in Israel called the shots via phone and computer connections. Yael (Liraz Charhi) was always on the line. Gorev (Menashe Noy) was giving orders from afar, too.
In 8 episodes there were many characters and subplots. The attempt to hack the Iranian military cyber network was full of roadblocks, some of them life threatening. No matter which side of the battle a character was on, they would do anything to protect the people they loved. I thought that was a little jab in the idea that we even have wars when all people are just alike. (Don’t yell at me about that, I know nobody wants Iran to have the bomb.)
The series contains Persian, Hebrew, and English dialog. Interestingly, the series was mostly shot in Athens, Greece. There were many long distance overhead shots of Tehran and other cities that were no doubt the real locations.
Every episode was directed by Daniel Syrkin. The series creators were Dana Eden and Maor Kohn. The series is streaming on Apple TV+. There’s an interesting behind the scenes video about the series.
Even if you don’t get Apple TV+ and can’t watch this series, take note of the name Niv Sultan, because I think American audiences are going to be seeing more of her.
Check out the previews.
Did you watch this series? What did you think of it?
Nice series, nothing special. Will not make me subscribe to appletv. In fact, the main actress was the weak link in my opinion.
LOL. I’m always looking for interesting new women actors or directors. I thought Niv Sultan fit the bill. Too bad you found her weak.
“Kick ass warrior woman…” are you kidding me? I feel like the theme from Monty Python should be playing every time I watch this. She has failed at almost every mission she had and has come very close to getting caught numerous times, only being saved by others. But she sure has gotten other people killed.
I have a review of season 2 of this series coming next week. The plot of season 2 is even less credible.
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