Television rating|The Veil is neither believable in its roles nor in its story, writes Harri Römpötti.
Handmaid’s Tale -series (2017–) raised Elisabeth Mossin a star who you would think gets to choose his role. The sixth season of the series is expected next year.
Moss has had some great roles, maybe the best Josephine Deckerin in the movie Shirley (2020), in which she played author Shirley Jackson. But the main role in the series The Veil (2024) is a hoot.
Moss must have been attracted by the unusual role. It’s not very often that women get lead roles as action heroes. In Veil, Moss plays Imogen Salter, who works for MI6, the same British secret service as James Bond.
Famous female spies, real or fabricated, have been scarce since Mata Hari in World War I. While Hari seduced the men, Imogen beat them to death.
Imogen doesn’t have double zero or other numbers, but she does have pseudonyms. The real name Violet is glimpsed in the series only in passing.
Also The Veil -the villain of the series is a woman, the French Algerian Adilah (Yumna Marwan), who is suspected to be Sabaine Al Kubais, a cruel officer of the Islamist organization Isis.
Along with the Afghan Taliban, Isis probably oppressed women the most fanatically. It doesn’t sound believable that there would be a woman at the top of it.
Although it’s refreshing to see women in leading roles in action entertainment, that’s not the only implausibility of the series. The stumbling starts right from the beginning.
The French intelligence agency DGSE asks Imogen for help because she is the best spy in the world. Such a line sounds like it was invented in a sandbox.
Imogen single-handedly picks up Adilah from a refugee camp in Syria and sets out to take her towards Turkey and Western Europe. The purpose of Touhu is to milk information about the terrorist attack from Adilah. Americans are lagging behind, even though they threaten to own the world.
Series behind it is a British screenwriter Steven Knightwho may be remembered as the author of a couple of films, Stephen Frearsin Dirty Pretty Thingsin (2002) and by David Cronenberg Eastern Promisesin (2007). Knight’s best-known work is on TV Peaky Blinders series (2013–2022).
Knight has written lead roles for women before. Susanna Whiten directed drama runner Woman Walks Ahead (2017) is based on the true story of the painter Caroline Weldonin and of the chief of the Lakota Indians Sitting Bull about friendship.
The Veil takes place in a childlike fairy tale world. The French and the British are cooperating as if Brexit never happened. The Russians lurk in the background, but nothing is known about the war in Ukraine.
ISIS is said to have also murdered women and children, but its religion or politics are not disclosed. The description of the organization remains more superficial than Bond– the Bad Bad Guys of the movies, who are working on world conquests.
Leaps have charmed with a relaxed pace, but At The Veil the narrative struggles. In the end, the melodrama becomes ridiculous.
The Veil, Disney+.