Probably the worst cast show I've seen. Pity .....

Let me say up front that I like well acted, well written spy dramas especially those based on true stories. And no, I don't want James Bond, a slow burn is just fine by me.

I looked forward to this series as I knew nothing of the Aldrich Ames story. That alone made me binge watch the series as the storyline was interesting and for most part well told.

But seriously what a poor cast. I'm not belittling the various actors capabilities just their suitability to their respective roles. Especially, their interpretation of the personalities of the characters they played.

I've never watched a more unappealing lead actor than Paul Rhys as Ames. I don't care if that was the real life guy's persona or not, it just made for terrible TV. Whether he was staring into space when asked a question or mumbling something incoherent with perspiration running down his neck, Rhys was just downright awful. Seriously, if the real life Ames had behaved around his colleagues like Rhys did, he wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes. Thank God the series wasn't made as a whodunnit. Rhys's palpitations whenever being spoken to would've been the most obvious "outing" of a mole in TV/cinema history. Personally, I would've been quite happy for him to be caught in Episode One.

As for Jodie Whittaker, what can I say ? I thought she was excellent in Broadchurch (as well as hot) but I didn't like her at all in the Assets. From the moment she uttered her first line with her phony, unnatural American accent she was doomed. I found myself for the rest of the series listening to her accent rather than listening to what she was saying. When she occasionally lapsed into something that sounded something between American and Yorkshire it became quite comical. And her personality grated also. Sure she was a driven person but at times she made wish that Ames would get away with it. That's saying something considering how much I disliked Rhys's portrayal of Ames.

As for some of the Russian characters, give me a break. The shortass KGB tough guy came across as something between Bob Hoskins and Danny DeVito. And the guy who defected from Russia before doing a runner back to Moscow looked and sounded like a big mouth Serbian tennis dad. I'll finish on the CIA character Jeanne Vertefeuille. My God, could they have made her look less attractive if they tried ? She looked like Norman Bates's mother from Psycho. Yet at the same time they portrayed Ames's Columbian wife as some sort of supermodel

Overall, I was really disappointed. In better hands the series could've been great TV. Instead, largely due to terrible casting and character interpretation we were presented with a wholly unsatisfying saga where even the heroes who toiled for years to get their man, were unattractive and totally undeserving of empathy from the viewer.