The Bureau: Season 3

The espionage drama The Bureau has been acclaimed as the greatest TV show ever produced in France (where it is called Les Bureau des Légendes) and this third season maintains the high quality of writing. It opens with Malotru (Mathieu Kassovitz), the legendary French undercover operative who betrayed the DGSE (the French secret service) to the CIA to save the woman he loves, held captive by ISIS in Syria while his boss Duflot (Jean-Pierre Darroussin)—in his last days before retiring from the service—battles the government to get him extracted (Malotru may be a traitor, but he's one of their own). The dense narrative extends across smugglers looting Syrian treasures, a former Russian informant in ISIS who wants out, and the CIA. Meanwhile Marina Loiseau (Sara Giraudeau), the fledging agent put in danger by Malotru's betrayal last season, leaves the agency due to panic attacks, only to be recruited by the Russians (who don't know her history). The Bureau is both a compelling human drama and a riveting portrait of complex inner workings of intelligence agencies and international espionage, with dramatic twists that are not beholden to the magical tech or elaborate conspiracies of most American spy TV shows, but rather hinge on the actions of agents who are constantly under threat of being compromised, betrayed, or simply caught up in circumstances beyond their control. Compiling all 10 episodes from the 2017 third season—which aired in the U.S. on the Sundance Now streaming service—this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)