Review: The Veil Takes Women Playing Mind Games To The Next Level

The Veil on Disney+ isn’t your typical spy thriller. There are no James Bonds or Jason Bournes, no gadgets, very few guns, and no maniacal villains with scars or metal teeth. There are real threats, though—terrorists who shoot innocent civilians as well as their own agents who’ve outlived their usefulness with equal coldness and apathy. The fate of entire cities hangs in the balance and the only thing that stands between peace and armageddon is a woman with daddy issues. This is a gross oversimplification, but it also isn’t wrong. 

The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elisabeth Moss plays MI6 agent Imogen Salter, an operative who specializes in extracting information from targets by gaining their trust. When she’s assigned to ascertain whether or not Frenchwoman Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) is merely a lowly ISIS operative or the fabled Djinn al Raqqa, a high-ranking leader of the terrorist organization, she gets more than she bargained for as she faces off against a multilayered nemesis who’s every bit her equal. 

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Imogen races against time to stop a plot to bomb the East Coast of the United States while holding off CIA officer Max Peterson (Josh Charles), hilariously but accurately described as “the most American American America has ever produced.” Max’s cocky ‘America is the Greatest’ attitude bleeds into the way he treats Imogen and their counterparts at the French DGSI and it’s one of the best, most amusing parts of an otherwise intense and stressful show. Max’s philosophy of how to solve a problem is to throw money and guns at it, which is arguably the most American way to go about things. He doesn’t let little things like ethics or morals get in the way of his job, so when Imogen takes longer to extract information than his trigger-happy American patience can handle, he sets in motion a plan that pushes her against the wall.

There’s a significant body count, but the most intense part of The Veil is actually the relationship between Imogen and Adilah, a “frenemieship” of the highest order. Imogen says it best when she tells her lover, DGSI agent Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah), “even though (Adilah and I) are lying to each other, I feel like I’ve been more honest with her than with most people.” It’s this unique cat-and-mouse dynamic that laces the two women’s conversations, filled with untruths and confessions which are sometimes one and the same, that make The Veil such a compelling and unique watch. 

The six-episode limited series was created by Steven Knight, the man behind Peaky Blinders and last year’s All The Light We Cannot See on Netflix. Knight manages to plainly illustrate the good and the bad while infusing it with nuance through a spectrum of characters from the mysterious, cold-blooded killer Emir (Alec Secareanu), a terrorist associate of Adilah with multiple identities; to the obnoxious Max, ostensibly a good guy who won’t hesitate to do bad things; to Malik, a real sweetheart of a secret agent whose Achilles heel might be that he’s just too nice and cares for Imogen too much.

Imogen and Adilah serve as the series’ core dynamic, as both women are twisted reflections of each other working on opposite sides. The Veil humanizes Adilah by showing her love and concern for her daughter while still being careful to show the threat and dangers of extremism as the other terrorists callously eliminate associates and sacrifice their own lives for a perceived higher cause. Marwan plays Adilah with a pained and conflicted vulnerability that makes viewers question whether or not this is an individual capable of plotting the deaths of thousands. 

The Veil delivers an intense, nail-biting experience without the usual adrenaline rush of fistfights and shootouts, although Imogen proves more than capable when she thrashes several assailants with a bollard pulled from the sidewalk. “One of the drawbacks of my job is,” she tells Adilah, panting, “occasionally, I have to associate with people who are trying to kill me.” She then points to her subdued attackers, “but this is fucking extreme,” in a tone more annoyed than outraged. It’s impressive and funny because Imogen admonishing Adilah was almost like a woman berating her friend for bringing an unwelcome ex to a private party.

The series crescendoes into its finale this Tuesday (May 28) on Disney+ and we’ll find out if Imogen succeeds in stopping the Djinn al Raqqa. Everything comes to a head as she tries to keep a step ahead of both the CIA and the DGSI as well as ISIS and their implied secret benefactors in what promises to be an explosive—literally or figuratively—finale.