Spy/Master ★★★½
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In the second episode of this taut 1970s spy thriller, Romanian intelligence head and courtier Victor Godeanu (Alec Secareanu) takes his teenage daughter, Ileana (Alexandra Bob) from a luxurious classical music concert in honour of the state’s communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu (Claudiu Bleont), to the slums of Bucharest. This is where I come from, the father tells his daughter, but he’s not trying to inspire his loving but naive child. It’s a warning. He understands their corrupt world, she doesn’t.

“Keep your head low or you get it cut off,” Victor tells Ileana, unease crowding his voice. And, like much of what Victor says in this six-part Central European period drama, he’s already contradicted it. As Ceausescu’s closest aide – he counsels Nicolae as they play chess, then gossips about fellow apparatchiks with Ceausescu’s venomous wife, Elena (Elvira Deatcu) – he has his head way too high. Victor runs a smuggling ring, he’s a mole for Russians, and now he’s hoping to defect to America. Something, or someone, has to give.

Created by Adina Sadeanu and Kirsten Peters, Spy/Master is a 2023 series that was commissioned by HBO’s now-withered European creative office. It is a suspenseful covert tale that carries the DNA of the genre’s historic greats, starting with the analog data-gathering and icy machinations of John le Carre classics such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but it’s distinguished by the cruel intimacy of the satellite setting. The KGB and CIA loom over Romania and Victor, yet his bosses are succumbing to megalomania.

The Ceausescus run a cult of personality. “Long live comrade Nicolae Ceausescu!” all present chant whenever the president appears. Manipulating them is Victor’s greatest talent and most terrifying risk; eventually they will turn on him, especially with his rivals growing in strength. As a portrait of authoritarian rule, Spy/Master captures the petty cruelty and monstrous absurdity. Ileana, a talented artist, must paint a portrait of Nicolae to graduate. Her first effort is a caricature, but no one laughs. Victor burns it on the spot.

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The bulk of the action takes place over a single week in 1978, as Victor mulls defecting to America while in West Germany negotiating a deal for Romania. It’s poor timing: CIA agent Frank Jackson (Parker Sawyers) is keen, but Ceausescu, having broken free of direct Russian oversight, has inserted himself into Middle East peace talks. Jimmy Carter’s White House is loath to upset the Romanian leader, so Victor is left hanging as his fickle bosses are fed dirt on him and the KGB tries to reel him back in.

There are cliff-hanging physical threats and moments of sudden violence – you know it’s a Cold War-era series because someone gets bumped off in Vienna – but the majority of the narrative is tangled up in quiet deception and unspoken evaluations. Nearly everyone wants something, but they refuse to articulate what it is, let alone why. Victor schemes on the run, and the show smartly leaves unclear whether its protagonist is smarter than everyone or just coming to the end of a long and lucky streak.

English director Christopher Smith sets up constrictive frames and nowhere-to-hide close-ups for this Romanian/Hungarian co-production. Secareanu, who had an international breakthrough with the 2017 arthouse hit God’s Own Country, is exemplary as an operator who is running out of moves. Victor is a worthy protagonist, but not a heroic one. He was willing to do whatever it took to prosper. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to survive.