WATCHED - The Veil

It opens in a refugee camp in the depths of snowy winter, on some high wind swept border. A truck with food arrives, people jump on and start distributing its cargo to the ravenous crowd. Then someone in the crowd shouts that the women handing out food, Adilah (Yumna Marwan ) is a notorious member of ISIS and is responsible for numerous murders and atrocities. The mood changes quickly to a riotous mob set on killing her. The camp's troops save her, but hold her under guard, whilst it's decided what to do with her. 

A British woman, Imogen ( Elizabeth Moss ) turns up, she appears more interested in this alleged member of ISIS than the vital laudable work with the refuges. The camp is a barely contained tinderbox, and in the middle of a conversation with Adilah about leaving, a gang enters intent on executing her. Ruthlessly efficient, Imogen kills or maims them all, taking Adilah away. Imogen is a spy, tasked with trying to establish for sure whether Adilah is the head of a terrorist cell or not. 

Written by Steve Knight of Peaky Blinders fame, The Veil passes as an effective spy chase drama, though it is more than a little creaky in places. Both Imogen and Adilah are adept at weaving truth and lies together, so you cannot easily establish who is being honest here. And for most of this short series you are happy to go along with the 'is she isn't she' scenario. There are a number of points where the writing just indulges in extremely broad stereotypical cultural caricatures and the heaviest of heavy handed writing. This series would not stand the remotest chance of remaining credible were it not for the superlative performances the two leads put in.

Max Peterson ( Josh Charles) the CIA agent sent to extract information from Adilah, is described as the most American American you can imagine, brutal, insensitive and self righteously over assertive. The French are presented by him as time wasters, more concerned about having their lunch breaks than solving the case. Whenever, the plot wants to exhibit any depth or profundity, a character will reach for a meaningfully appropriate Shakespeare quote to over emphasize. Which lands like the stinking dead fish it is.

In the final episode, Imogen reluctantly seeks refuge with her old lover and mentor Micheal (James Purefoy). One can understand her hesitation, because Purefoy can never resist a posh bit of scenery chewing. Though admirably restrained for him, the storyline starts feeding him all these opportunities to be a devilshly irresistible ham. There are a series of interminable points in the final episode where the story could have been quite efficiently concluded. But one suspects they only learnt halfway through production, there wouldn't be a second series. 

Knight then, rather unnecessarily for the most part,  tries to close as many lingering loose ends as he can in the last half hour. So instead of one dramatic conclusion -The End - we get one after the other of a little self indulgent thread in the storyline being tied up neatly in a bow.  The Veil therefore concludes with a series of short explicatory farts, which leave an unsatisfactory stench lingering, even as the credits finally roll.

 CARROT REVIEW - 5/8