Betrayal is a five-part series offered by Netflix. A conspiracy around the world of British intelligence agency MI6, made so popular by John le Carré, one of the great masters of storytelling, and given so much scope in TV series and feature films.
And the first thing to point out is that Matt Charman, his screenwriter, has little to do with Le Carré, although it is true that the undersigned has nothing to do with Gabriel García Márquez. But the difference between the first two affects viewers: the opening chapters are confusing. We believe the world of spies is built on opacity, but when it comes to telling a story about it, it’s handy for anyone who thinks about it to understand.
Starring Charlie Cox, Oona Chaplin, Olga Kurylenko and Ciarán Hinds, the series improves in the final chapters: the confusing initial plot is ordered in the name of a growing plot in which the CIA, MI6 and Russian agents behave as we do behave as expected of them, meaning that the end justifies the means. Intrigues, murders, poisonings… nothing new. Suffice it to recall the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a former member of the Russian secret service, who was poisoned with polonium in 2006 from contaminated tea he had been drinking in a central London hotel. The European Court of Human Rights has held Russia responsible for the murder. Ten years later, a British public inquiry concluded that the assassination was “probably authorized” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Of course, some time later a series was made about the David Tennant case. One thing is clear: If you don’t inspire a series, you are nobody.
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