The Big Picture

FX on Hulu’s
The Veil
ultimately fails due to its limited episode count.
The show’s characters lack depth and complexity as a result of time constraints.
A rushed plot reveals key information prematurely, missing out on the opportunity for deeper story development.

As a genre, spy shows will seemingly always be a wealth to mine. The espionage industry, with its necessity for secrecy, or rival agencies competing to apprehend the same target, lends itself to the high stakes and drama that television demands. Even the pursuit of deep undercover work, in which you rarely know the real truth about a person until it’s either unearthed or confessed, holds an inherent degree of suspense in most instances. Unfortunately, not every spy show can exist on par with some of the best to ever do it, like FX’s The Americans. That network’s latest production, The Veil, which is set to debut on Hulu later this month and hails from writer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Taboo), largely misfires. What should be a complex cat-and-mouse game between its leading duo ultimately rushes through dropping its biggest bombshells.

The Veil (2024) Follows the relationship between two women playing a deadly game of truth and lies. One woman has a secret, and the other has a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.Release Date April 30, 2024 Cast Elisabeth Moss , Karol Steele , Alec Secareanu , Thibault de Montalembert , Yumna Marwan , Dali Benssalah , Josh Charles , James Purefoy Seasons 1

What Is ‘The Veil’ About?
The Veil wastes no time at all in introducing us to its main characters right from the jump. Imogen Salter, played by The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elisabeth Moss, is a seasoned MI6 agent who’s just come off another successful mission when she gets word of her next assignment, courtesy of the French intelligence agency DGSE. At a refugee camp, tucked away in the mountains on the Turkish and Syrian border, a woman named Adilah El Idrissi (Yunma Marwan) has been detained on suspicion of being an agent of ISIS. However, it’s not only Imogen who has been tasked with securing Adilah and transporting her into safer territory; the CIA has sent its best operative, Max Peterson (Josh Charles), to accomplish the same task. In case Imogen’s assignment couldn’t possibly become more entangled, her DGSE handler, Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah), is also her on-again, off-again lover, who finds himself constantly torn between his loyalties to his own country and his undeniable connection to Imogen.

However, the story doesn’t just end after Imogen manages to sneak Adilah out of the refugee camp; once the two women hit the road together, driving through the winding mountains and traveling from Istanbul to Paris to London, Imogen makes it her personal mission to uncover Adilah’s secret. While her target is adamant that she was recruited into the dangerous organization and now has every desire to get out for good — especially for the sake of her young daughter, who is living removed from all of this in Paris — Imogen is less convinced that Adilah is telling the truth about her backstory. With a potential terrorist attack on the U.S. looming and several other threats closing in, it’s now a race against time, as these two women remain uncertain about whether they can trust each other while slowly offering more and more details from their respective pasts.

‘The Veil’s Story and Characters Are Underserved by Its Runtime

The biggest problem The Veil has lies within its episode count. While limited series have become a more and more popular storytelling format over the last several years, allowing even the biggest names to participate in television projects for a small amount of time, they also carry some ingrained risks. The Veil only boasts a total of six episodes, four of which were provided for review, and its characters ultimately suffer as a result of the series not having nearly enough time to dig into its story.

As an MI6 agent, Imogen is purported to be a skilled chameleon, someone who can adapt and change her demeanor to blend into any situation — but the show doesn’t allow us to see all the personas she’s supposedly capable of. Instead, episodes build Imogen’s plot more around her investigating her own family’s past rather than establishing her as a layered and intriguing character, and then peeling back said layers one episode at a time. Moss certainly does her best with what she’s given to play, and the glimmers of truth in even her most minute expressions are worth paying attention to. Ultimately, however, Imogen is rendered more one-note based on the fact that the series first teases out her history in bits and pieces before having to accelerate those reveals, as if suddenly realizing it has less time than it initially thought.

Apart from its lead, most of The Veil’s other characters are thin and ill-defined — though this is, again, a consequence of the narrow window through which to develop them. As Imogen’s handler and romantic partner, Benssalah’s Malik spends most of his scenes desperately trying to get her on the phone for abbreviated conversations that don’t successfully shed light on the depth of their connection. Perhaps that’s the point, and we’re meant to understand that Malik is just way more invested in Imogen, while she barely spares him a thought in return. But it does create the feeling that there could have been an even more complicated and thorny relationship established between them, something that six episodes simply doesn’t have the opportunity to build to its fullest potential. The same goes for Max, and while Charles brings the signature smarm and charm we’ve come to know and love him for, he’s unfortunately only peppered throughout the plot. That said, his and Moss’s undeniable chemistry proves to be one of The Veil’s bright spots, momentarily slowing the series down from its breakneck pacing.

‘The Veil’ Plays All Its Best Cards Too Early

The Veil’s narrative limitations do the biggest disservice to Adilah, whose real identity is the source of the series’ overarching mystery at the start. Is she merely a woman who became swept up in a greater conspiracy than she ever planned for, or is she actually its most powerful mastermind? If The Veil had been afforded more episodes to spool out this particular thread, creating more doubt about Adilah’s trustworthiness, it might have resulted in an even better version of this story — and given Marwan more of an opportunity to hint at more of the character’s facets. Instead, the show shows its hand too early, abandoning the fraught interpersonal dynamics between Imogen and Adilah in favor of a more global threat that lacks the same intrigue.

Watching The Veil, the scenes that deliver the most impact aren’t the ones adorned with all the trappings of a traditional spy thriller — undercover agents, rooftop chases, even nameless assassins. Where the series is at its best is when Moss and Marwan effectively ground the plot in more of a two-hander through their early road trip scenes, facing off with each other warily before deciding where and when to be more honest about themselves. If only the show was more intent on allowing them to spill their truths on their own terms and in their own time, rather than rushing to spoil the reveals for us first.

The Veil (2024) REVIEWElisabeth Moss makes the most out of The Veil, a so-so spy thriller that suffers from a lack of time.ProsThe series is at its best when Moss and Yunma Marwan turn it into more of a two-hander with their road trip scenes.Josh Charles brings his signature smarm and charm to the role of CIA operative Max Peterson. ConsMoss’s Imogen Salter is set up to have an intriguing backstory, but is rendered one-note due to a limited number of episodes.Most of the show’s supporting characters are too thinly defined.

The Veil premieres with two episodes on April 30, exclusively on Hulu.

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