Persevered and managed to get through it but my God it was hard going. The American actress who played Nessa was dreadful, monotone and wooden, she showed no emotion except bursting into tears in virtually every episode. The actress who played the Palestinian was so hard to understand , we had to keep rewinding to try and catch what she was saying. It might be authentic to use foreign actresses but it would be nice if they spoke clearly and it doesn't help that they speak in a half whisper. The plot was good although made way too complicated and long.The 'Nessa' character just seemed to be too tolerant and good to be true after all she went through, it just seemed unrealistic.

well i had originally planed to watch it in a day after 4 episodes i got caught up in other things and later I just did not care very much for the show.Because for me the show was going no where and early 4 episodes were too slow paced.But after 2 months i thought of giving it another chance.And I have to say if you can get past the slow paced beginning the later episodes are wonder treats.This is one of the best modern spy thriller in years. best thing about the series is,it knows what it's doing and takes us in the territory of modern political spy thriller with some strong writing and directing.it gives us every angle of it's story.Apart from being a well written spy thriller it's also human drama with unbiased storytelling which has no theatrical heroes and villain.We see from different angles that,every character have their own faults and virtue,every side have there own story which leads to a gripping but very humane conclusion that makes this show a worthwhile.

After the first couple of episodes, I thought about stopping, as it was difficult to follow what the heck was going on. But I hung in there, and boy was I glad. Basically, in the first episode, all these things happen, all these characters are introduced, and you have no idea why. The story then continues in episodes 2-6 basically giving the back story of why episode #1 happened. This all leads up to a shocking climax in episode #7, with a nearly-as-shocking episode #8. I've never been a huge Maggie G. fan, and I think she's OK in this, but nothing great. Since I'm American, I have no way of critiquing the authenticity of her English accent, but it seemed fine to me. Alternatively, Stephen Rea is great, and I will echo another reviewer and say that he pretty much steals every scene that he's in.If you're reading this and feel that the first couple of episodes are difficult to slog through, I'd say hang in there, and you will be rewarded at the end.

A decent story spoiled by en erratic script going unnecessarily to and fro with lines hinting but not saying, a director in love with still life and pauses (to make an Antonioni it takes an Antonioni), an over-acting actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal must think she is sort of an Eleonora Duse, always posing and sniffing and grimacing). Even the good ones, like Stephen Rea, are compelled to stay frozen all the time pretending they are the most intelligent people in the world. Andrew Buchan (Ephra Stein) is cornered into an absurd love story with the nowadays usual and gratuitous sex sessions. Alltogather very very boring, the only plausible thing is that almost everybody is bad or stupid, quite similar, even though unwillingly, to real life.