5 Reasons You Should Spy on ABC's The Assets

The Assets, ABC’s new limited series debuted Jan. 2 and runs until we all turn to the Olympics (or not). If you loved FX’s The Americans, the Reagan-era spy drama that made many year-end best lists, you will also love The Assets.

The limited series is based on the book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed, by Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, the two CIA counter-intelligence agents who caught Ames. The Assets is a fascinating period drama about how the Cold War ended and who helped to bring it to a close. If you missed the first installment, watch it at ABC.com, but this series has to be watched at the edge of one’s seat from beginning to end.

5. Spies

Whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning exposed just how deep spy culture still goes in the U.S. The CIA is bolder and broader than ever. From James Bond to Sydney Bristow, Jason Bourne to Carrie Matthison, we love spies on the big and small screen. Aldrich Ames is one of the most compelling. In The Assets, Paul Rhys chews the scenery as Ames with an icy gusto.

4. The Cold War

It’s been 30 years since President Reagan ordered Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down that wall" and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall provided coda to the Cold War. The war on terrorism seems more harrowing, but The Assets puts the Cold War in horrifying perspective. Torture and killing were de rigeur.

3. Moles, Double-Agents, Assets

Benedict Arnold, Belle Boyd, Mata Hari, Josephine Baker (yes, the famous bisexual chanteuse was also a spy in the French resistance), the Rosenbergs–double-agents compel us when they’re on our side, repel us when they aren’t.
 

2. Life and Death

Spying is a dangerous business. The Assets presents Sandra Grimes’ double life: wife and mother versus spy and spy-catcher. Talk about multi-tasking. Former CIA agent Valerie Plame says it’s an extraordinarily difficult life for women. The Assets shows just how difficult–and dangerous.
 

1. Sheroes

Aldrich Ames was the worst of the worst–a Soviet mole for the KGB whose actions killed ten assets outright and put still more in danger. Who brought him down? Two female counter-intelligence agents:  Sandra Grimes (Jody Whittaker) and Jeanne Vertefeuille (Harriet Walter). Yes.