Tehran, season 2, bringing down the target

The thriller spy series, Tehran, returned for a second season. All 8 episodes are available now on Apple TV+. I thought season 2 was slower and less interesting than season 1. There were plenty of life threatening situations – poisons, bombs, guns, and jumping from rooftops – but it didn’t jell as well for me.

The two hackers at the center of season 1, Tamar (Niv Sultan) and Milad (Shervin Alenabi), were still together. They were trying to get out of Iran, but when Tamar’s aunt and uncle were killed she wouldn’t leave until she’d killed those responsible for their deaths. So while the spy battles between the Israeli Mossad and the Iranian Security guards went on, Tamar’s focus narrowed to a personal vendetta.

The former head of Iranian security, Faraz (Shaun Toub), and his ailing wife (Shila Ommi) were still an important part of the story.

There were several new characters needed to create the season two story arc. The most important was Marjan (Glenn Close). Marjan was a psychiatrist and a Mossad secret agent. She was constantly on the phone with her boss in Tel Aviv, Yulia (Sara von Schwarze).

The folks in Tel Aviv could hack any video camera anywhere anytime. They spent their days watching what Marjan and Tamar were doing and relaying frantic orders back and forth.

Tamar hatched a plan whereby she would befriend some guys from a gym. One of them was the son of the man she wanted to kill, General Mohammadi (Vassilis Koukalani). Tamar could be very cute when she flirted. She had no trouble reeling in the men she wanted to use.

The Mossad team around Tamar went along with this plan to kill General Mohammadi because they thought he was leading Iran in the wrong direction. It was far too easy for her to convince them to support her plan. It felt unbelievable.

I know governments have assassinated or deposed each other’s leaders throughout history, but this was just too flimsy for me. It changed it from matters of state to personal and I couldn’t imagine her superiors going along with it.

Tamar was a trained Mossad agent. Milad, on the other hand, was a nerdy, nervous hacker who wasn’t used to doing brave things. Between them, they messed up more often than they succeeded. Marjan helped out, but she often messed up as well. Before the end of the final episode, a whole gaggle of people were dead. Not necessarily only the characters you hoped would die.

The series looked fantastic. It was beautifully filmed. The music was meant to make the action exciting. All the actors were very good. I just couldn’t get invested in the plot.

If you watched season 2 of Tehran, I’d like to know what you thought of it.