James Cromwell has joined the cast of EPIX’s spy drama Berlin Station, and in an exclusive clip, Ester Krug (Mina Tander) questions whether or not he’s really out of the game. 2018 has been a very good year on television for those who like a little spycraft with their drama. In addition to standouts like The Little Drummer Girl and Killing Eve, there’s another Berlin-set spy drama that happens to feature Cromwell, Starz’s Counterpart.
Cromwell has a knack for being cast in compelling dramas with stellar casts, as while Counterpart features the likes of J.K. Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd, Nicholas Pinnock, and series newcomer Betty Gabriel, Berlin Station is certainly no slouch. The European-set drama features Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Ocean’s 8), as well as Leland Orser (I Am the Night), Michelle Forbes (The Killing), Rhys Ifans (Elementary), and the great Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water). And if the cast isn’t reason enough to tune in, well, the endlessly twisty story of CIA agent Daniel Miller (Armitage) hunting down a mole in the agency’s Berlin Station might do the trick.
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In the exclusive clip, it sounds as though Cromwell’s retired CIA character, Gilbert Dorn, may be up to more than he’s letting on. That has less to do with his podcasting efforts as of late and more to do with who Ester thinks Glibert really is, and what he might now about the mysterious agent known as “Diver.” Take a look at the clip from this Sunday’s episode, ‘If You Swear, You’ll Catch No Fish’ below:
Like Counterpart and The Little Drummer Girl, Berlin Station is often interested in the morally questionable ins and outs of intelligence work, and, like some of the best spy stories around, the series manages to turn its mole hunt into a satisfyingly twisty enterprise, one where the difficulty (and fun) of the story is figuring out who to trust. In that regard, Berlin Station is reminiscent of John le Carré’s masterwork, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which has perhaps become an unofficial template of how to do emotionally driven spy stories that are incredibly tense.
And to the credit of Berlin Station, the idea of a retired CIA agent hosting a podcast is original to say the least. Hopefully, finding out whatever else Cromwell’s Gilbert Dorn has up his sleeve will be equally memorable.
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Berlin Station continues this Sunday with ‘If You Swear, You’ll Catch No Fish’ @9pm on EPIX.
