The Veil is an action packed spy thriller about a terrorist attack. At its core, it’s a story about two very different women who are on opposite sides, yet discover they have a lot in common. With Elisabeth Moss as Imogen and Yumna Marwan as Adilah, the two main characters are fascinating and multi-dimensional.
The Veil is a road trip story. It begins in Syria, moves to Turkey, France, and finally England. The entire trip is a cat and mouse game between the two of them. We never know what is true and what is a lie. Sometimes we don’t know which side various characters are truly on. The outcome is unpredictable.
Imogen, at least that’s her name on this mission, works for MI6. She’s sent to a refugee camp in Syria to see a woman suspected of being an ISIS commander, the mastermind behind an upcoming attack. Adilah claims to be a nobody who wants nothing more that to be reunited with her daughter.
Imogen is meant to get information out of Adilah that will reveal what that expected terror attack on the U.S. is and where it will be. Imogen’s style of working is to get people to trust her and get the information she needs out of them by building rapport. She has a very different way of doing her job than any other spy story character you’ve ever seen.
Imogen offers to get Adilah out of there and take her back to her daughter.
Imogen is working with French intelligence officer Malik (Dali Benssalah). He also happens to be her lover. When word of the possible terrorist attack gets to U.S. intelligence, the CIA sends Max (Josh Charles) to France. Now there are three intelligence agencies working on this mission. They do not work well together. They are like kindergarteners destined for a bad report card.
The trip from the mountain camp to France and finally England is full of danger to both of the women. There are plenty of action scenes. The women reveal more and more of themselves to each other, lifting away the veils, as it were. Steven Knight created and wrote the series. He did a masterful job of revealing secrets and twists throughout the series. As a viewer, you are always in for a surprise.
Elisabeth Moss and Yumna Marwan made a great team as the main characters. They had good chemistry and were both devious and dangerous.
The Veil reminded me a little of Killing Eve. The cat and mouse game between the two women had the same sort of feel. Imogen should have treated Adilah as an enemy agent and instead behaved in unexpected ways to help and protect her. There was no sexual tension between the women, however.
The full series is available now on Hulu. Directing was shared equally by Daina Reid and Damon Thomas. If you watch it, I’d love to know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.