A few months before Thanksgiving, I read about a little mini-series coming to AMC starring one of my favorite actors, Michael Shannon. And I also found out that it was an adaptation of a John Le Carre novel, The Little Drummer Girl. That drummer girl was played by a relative newcomer, although she’s about to show up everywhere (Outlaw King and Fighting With My Family), Florence Pugh. The cast was rounded out nicely with Alexander Skarsgard as an Israeli intelligence officer. Florence played Charlie, an actress, and is recruited by Michael Shannon’s Mark Kurtz for an extremely dangerous undercover mission to bring down Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist who is bombing Jewish targets in Europe. Overall, this was a spy series, but there were other nice elements, as well.
A six-part mini-series that aired two episodes a piece in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I think this series could have benefited from dragging it out a bit. Now, did I have to watch it the way they aired it? No, I could have recorded it and taken my time, but I digress. I have not read the novel, so I can’t fully judge here. Overall, it was a fine adaptation, although I think The Night Manager (starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Dibicki) did it better. With all that fine talent it is definitely worth the watch!