The Veil, from FX/Hulu and showrunner Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), follows a British agent and a suspected ISIS operative on the road to Istanbul against the backdrop of a possible new terrorist threat. 

 

A short cold opening scene sets up Elisabeth Moss's Imogen Salter as a smart, calculating MI6 agent, "the best in the world." After a brief title card, the action moves to the Syrian and Turkish border, where aid workers are delivering badly needed supplies to refugees. One of the women in the crowd (Yumna Marwan as Adilah El Idrissi) is marked as possible ISIS, and a bloody skirmish ensues, causing Imogen to be dispatched to investigate. 

 

The pilot episode mostly focuses on their escape from a refugee camp, as Imogen and Adilah get acquainted. According to Adilah, she was recruited as a model at a young age. She left school, moved to Paris, and got involved in drinking and drugs – along with other darker and more seductive things. Imogen sums up, "how the fuck did being a model in Paris lead you to a tent in a refugee camp, accused on being in ISIS?"

 

After thwarting an attempted attack on Adilah at the camp, Imogen secures a car to travel to the Turkish border and get Adilah properly returned home to her 10-year-old daughter – effectively setting up a road trip for future episodes. 

 

There's also a b-plot with Dali Benssalah (No Time to Die) as Malik Amar, a French Algerian operative with connections to Imogen, and Josh Charles (The Good Wife) as Max Peterson, a member of a CIA task force described as "the most American American [that] America has ever produced." They have information that a high-level female ISIS agent is part of a cell that's planning a major attack on a wester target. Peterson suspects Adilah is secretly behind it. 

 

Between the action, there are also the usual gorgeous drone shots of sweeping vistas. This time, it’s the snowy roads and mountains along Syria and Turkey. 

 

Moss, a multi-Emmy and Golden Globe winner, is fully in her element here. There are big stakes, big drama, and prestige TV trappings. Moss is flawless as a self-assured, Batman type of agent who seems to have a way out of any sticky situation. 

 

Marwan, a veteran actor who crossed over into English language fare in 2020, is also fantastic as a character with a dark past and her back up against the wall. Both women pair nicely and have strong chemistry right away.

The Veil is a sleek, tense, and well-made thriller that only really suffers from being just a little too stiff, too predictable. Like Imogen, it's a little too sure of itself. However, fans of Moss and the genre could do a lot worse.