Friday, May 8, 2026

Spy thrillers and phones


As I watched the 2022 five-episode British spy thriller series "Treason" on Netflix, a clue phone of sorts started ringing in my pea brain.

Without phones the whole thing would collapse.

Every couple minutes someone picks up their phone to send a message/receive one/make a call/receive one/track someone's location/listen to what surreptitious recording devices are picking up/watch live or recorded security camera footage etc.

How did it happen that there were great spy thrillers* long before mobile phones?


One more thing: the cast of "Treason" is excellent with one exception: the lead actor, Charlie Cox [above in the thumbnail], is completely miscast: he's a total lightweight and in no way, shape, or form plausible as assistant chief and then C at MI6.

He looks and acts more like the towel guy at a fitness gym.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

*"The Third Man," starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard, directed by Carol Reed with a screenplay written by Graham Greene,  premiered in 1949.

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