TV

"Tehran" is so damaged and yet it is difficult to look away from it

Glenn Close and Sean Taub steal the show, the endless suspense and the addictive pace: The Spy Series of Here 11 is back for a second season in a new formula, and even if it doesn't have much beyond the action and leaves quite a few flaws - the dizzying pace draws in

Nadav Menuhin

07/05/2022

Saturday, 07 May 2022, 22:08 Updated: 22:15

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"Tehran" Trailer Season 2 (Here 11)

It is no coincidence that the Public Broadcasting Corporation planned to launch the second season of "Tehran" near Independence Day.

If the British have James Bond, who is Agent No. 007, a sophisticated super spy in the service of Her Majesty - the Mossad fighter Tamar Rabinian is also marketed first and foremost as a national symbol that represents the values ​​of Israeliness: a combination of power and mind, audacity and improvisation, Wonder Woman who is also a hacker , At the forefront in the face of the most threatening enemy: the regime of the ayatollahs, whose best sons fall into its net again and again.

But Tamar is not alone in this game, and sometimes her opponents, herself or even the unconscious of the series, present a much less successful picture of this image.

The tension between these ends also accompanies the first episodes of the second season of the Israeli thriller, three of which were sent to journalists, and two of which premiered here at 11pm on Saturday nights (and have been available since Friday morning on the website and app here).

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Innocent citizens pay a price and no one cares.

"Tehran" Season 2 (Photo: Screenshot, Here 11, Apple TV Plus)

As you may recall, the first season of the thriller ended with a revelation of betrayal and a humiliating defeat, when it turns out that the Iranians were well prepared for the Israeli attempt to attack a nuclear facility and managed to thwart it.

Although Tamar (Niv Sultan) and her local lover Milad (Rabin Allenabi) managed to escape in time, the echoes of that failure - as well as the spy's guilt over the price her family members paid along the way - accompany the series' protagonists into the second season.

Now, along with the attempt to rescue all the pilots who were shot down over the skies of the Islamic Republic, Tamar decides against all logic to stay in Iran out of a desire to avenge the ultimate Iranian goal - the incoming Revolutionary Guards commander, the unnamed one who headed intelligence last season.

To this end, with the help of Millad, hard drug trafficking and personal charm, she sneaks into the rich and pampered young scene of Ramat Tehran III, and through them she will try to get closer to the regime's senior officials.

Sultan and Allenabi may still do a good job in the lead roles, but their characters continue to act intuitively, recklessly and recklessly and contrary to logic, in what is still one of the weak points of the series.

In the first few episodes it seems over and over again that Millad has a hard time figuring out what vortex he is getting into, and makes more and more bad decisions.

The decision of both of them to stay in the Iranian capital instead of fleeing the country given the opportunity - even though their identities are known to all!

- Expresses no less than a wish for death, even if another decision, of course, would have made it difficult to continue the plot.

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The most complex, human and interesting character.

Sean Taub as Farz Kamali, "Tehran" Season 2 (Photo: Screenshot, Here 11, Apple TV Plus)

But with all due respect to Shakira and Sik-Boy, the heart of the series lies with two other protagonists.

The first is Faraz Kamali (Sean Taub), the obsessive detective of the Israeli spy, torn between his addiction to work and his desire to be with his unhealthy wife, who has meanwhile returned to Iran after being abducted by the Mossad last season.

This is the most complex, human and interesting character in "Tehran", and Taub navigates it with the sensitivity and professionalism of a skilled craftsman.

In front of him is a new character - the senior psychologist who is also a British spy, Marjan Montzami, who apparently works with the new head of the Mossad, Julia Magen (Sarah von Schwarze, former head of the PMA, who replaces Menashe Noy despite a memorable performance of "Last season.") Hollywood actress Glenn Close, who plays her, steals the show almost too much of a scene with class, sophistication and endless charm.

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Steals the show.

Glenn Close, "Tehran" Season 2 (Photo: Screenshot, Here 11, Apple TV Plus)

If the first season of "Tehran" suffered from a sense of smear mixed with pretentiousness, a different mix, quite successful, makes up the second season: less talk, and much much more excellent action (and absurd at times).

The creators of the series have clicked the tension pedal here in a dizzying way, which is very, very fun.

There is hardly a dull moment here, in very rhythmic and fun episodes - even if there is not much beyond that in the series: the protagonists of the series are not particularly interesting, and the general plot is not very intriguing.

And yet: thanks to the action, and in general an impressive artistic design, "Tehran" is a refreshing and lively series.

The never-ending enthusiasm for espionage operations of course also hides other aspects, which the series does not address critically - and the intention to cross red lines by Mossad personnel.

The brave agents turn off the electricity in one hospital (!), And even shoot inside another hospital from them and operate a charge outside it.

Montzamy, the psychologist, also crosses several ethical boundaries - to say the least - in her treatments.

Even if they do not necessarily appear on screen, innocent citizens pay the cruel price of these actions, and it does not seem to employ anyone.

Ostensibly, there are those who are required to "not see with their own eyes" until the task is completed, but when you stop for a moment to think about what is happening, expect a sense of disappointment and contempt for the "good side" as well.

If in last-generation Hollywood cinema this theme comes up again and again in the context of superheroes, "Tehran" does not deal with this price almost at all.

In the meantime, Tamar Rabinian is expected to make many more plots in the enemy's home front, and probably also to her friends and rivals.

As the series gets longer it will be interesting to see if it does manage to weave from the various parts a bigger and more interesting story beyond the specific missions.

This will require more than the resourcefulness of one spy, but a much more glorious operation.

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