Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

An Israeli Agent Finds Herself Stranded In 'Tehran' In A Gripping New Spy Series

An Israeli Agent Finds Herself Stranded In 'Tehran' In A Gripping New Spy Series

A Mossad agent is charged with crippling the Iranian power grid. After a deadly snafu, she must survive in a city not exactly known for its hospitality toward Israeli spies.
For nearly a century, spy stories were a male preserve, one dominated by the likes of James Bond, or - at the classier end - John le Carré. That has finally begun to change, especially on television. Whether you're talking about Homeland, The Americans, The Bureau or The Little Drummer Girl - le Carré's one story centering on a heroine - we've entered a period when some of the most gripping series on TV tell stories about women going into the cold.

And things are mighty cold in Tehran, a new eight-episode Israeli show premiering on Apple TV+. A big hit in Israel earlier this year, this thriller about a spy mission gone wrong isn't merely suspenseful. It's a glimpse of how one ancient culture portrays another ancient culture - particularly one that's currently its avowed enemy.

Israeli star Niv Sultan stars as Tamar Rabinyan, a tech-savvy Mossad agent who's been smuggled into Tehran to cripple the Iranian power grid before an Israeli air assault. But after a deadly snafu, Tamar must escape into the night - then figure out how to survive in a city not exactly known for its hospitality toward Israeli spies. Though she doesn't know it, she's already being pursued by a crack Iranian security agent named Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub).

As Mossad officers back in Israel plot to get her out of Iran, Tamar keeps on the move. Her restless motion brings her into contact with an array of Iranians - honorable judges and corrupt cops, drug dealers and dissidents, Iranian Jews who have converted to Islam and Muslims who work for Israel. Predictably, she finds someone with whom to share a romantic spark - a dissident hacker played by Shervin Alenabi who is a tad ... slippery. Meanwhile, the relentless Kamali keeps after her.

Now, even the best spy stories often sacrifice plausibility to keep the audience hooked. Here, Tamar often behaves in a way you might expect of an ingenue rather than a Mossad agent with enough brains and martial arts skills to be infiltrated into Iran. You keep wondering why a female spy on the lam would keep wearing her headscarf rather immodestly when Tehran is a city in which there's nothing suspicious about a woman covering her features.

While the many twists do keep the show gripping, what makes it interesting is seeing how an Israeli production depicts Iran. At first, it appears that we might be dealing with a kind of geopolitical horror show. We watch Israeli tourists freak out when, because of a malfunction, they unexpectedly need to change planes in Tehran, a place that is initially made to feel alienating and spooky.

Yet the show quickly grows more complex. Tehran makes it clear that the Mossad is capable of unsavory violence, and it pointedly avoids reducing Iranians to monsters, carefully making a distinction between the people and their government. Struggling to stay safe, Tamar encounters a wide range of personality types and attitudes toward the mullahs, from zealous supporters to passionate dissidents to ordinary people who are quiescent or trapped. I've read reports that some viewers in Iran felt the show was too sympathetic to those in the regime.

In any case, the show's best and most complicated character is Tamar's nemesis, Kamali, played by Shaun Toub, a superb actor you may recognize from Homeland and the film Crash. Kamali takes obvious pleasure in being a ruthlessly good security agent. Yet his dedication to his country is matched by his adoration of his wife, a witty charmer who's getting an operation for cancer. By turns brutal and tender, Kamali discovers that his private feelings don't always mesh with his political beliefs.

You find a similar inner conflict in Tamar, who's a far cry from a sardonic killer like 007 or an erratic genius like Carrie Mathison in Homeland. While her moral ambivalence makes her less exciting - her features are tinged with mournfulness - it also makes her more like you and me than the larger-than-life spies we're used to seeing.

This is only fitting. Even as the series builds toward an explosive finale, it wants to use the spy genre to suggest something grounded and thoughtful about the weight of history. At its best, Tehran does that. It gives us a story about characters who, caught amid shifting personal and political identities, must decide who and what they truly care about most.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×