Susan Granger’s review of “The Veil” (FX/Hulu)
Having established her versatility in “Mad Men” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Elisabeth Moss stars in “The Veil” in which she plays an enigmatic rogue MI6 operative determined to uncover a mysterious enemy agent, the mastermind behind an upcoming ISIS terrorist attack on the United States.
Her quest begins in a remote Syrian refugee camp near the border with Turkey, where several women identify and accuse Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) of being the ISS agent who tortured them and murdered their families.
Using the pseudonym Imogen Salter, the MI6 agent ‘rescues’ Adilah and begins to subtly quizzes her to try to determine if she is – indeed – the cold-blooded killer known as Djinn al Raqqa, a shape-shifting genie, renown in folklore.
Imogen firmly believes that it she can befriend Adilah, she can uncover essential details of her deadly secret mission. Gradually, Imogen and Adilah discover enough intriguing similarities in their damaged backgrounds and experiences to inspire exchanging confidences, particularly about children and families.
Problem is: Imogen’s Muslim lover Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah), an intense French-Algerian agent reporting to Magritte, France’s Directorate-General for External Affairs (Thibault de Montalembert), and aggressive CIA agent Max Peterson (Josh Charles) want to capture Adilah first and ask questions later.
Created by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders,” “All the Light We Cannot See”), the unpredictably action-filled, six-episode thriller miniseries starts out strong and then kind of slowly strings the viewer along – intrigued by Elisabeth Moss’s and Yumma Marwan’s convincing adversarial performances.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Veil” is a suspenseful 6, an acting showcase streaming on FX/Hulu – with the possibility of a second season yet to be confirmed.
