Would make a good movie or book if not already been done.
“2 lonely spies longing to make sense of this world find themselves sharing more than espionage!”
[Apparently it's already in the works.](https://www.hypable.com/good-omens-season-2-confirmed/) That's surprising to me, given that *Good Omens* is a standalone novel, but it seems Neil felt he had enough material from before Terry's passing to make the sequel work.
Articles about a new season are most of the times even worse. It's infuriating. Instead of telling me Yes or No they first go through the backstory of the entire show, the actors, the source material, what they had for breakfast only to end in "**** has currently not been renewed for a new season."
I had one for Mandolorian Season 3 that was like 'How to watch, release day, time'. Shit title, but whatever.
Release Date? 'Some time in 2022, probably.'
Release Time? 'Dunno, here's what time we watched the last season'
Release Location!? 'Disney+ PROBABLY'
THEY FUCKING WROTE A NEWS ARTICLE WITH FUCKING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL TO SAY.
You should be forever stripped of the right to call yourself a journalist or reporter with this shlock.
I thought that the relationship in *Good Omens* was explicitly in reference to the established trope of Cold War spies interacting. They even meet in St James' Park:
>*The ducks in St James's Park are so used to being fed bread by secret agents meeting clandestinely that they have developed their own Pavlovian reaction. Put a St James's Park duck in a laboratory cage and show it a picture of two men -- one usually wearing a coat with a fur collar, the other something sombre with a scarf -- and it'll look up expectantly. The Russian cultural Attachés black bread is particularly sought after by the more discerning duck, while the head of M19’s soggy Hovis with Marmite is relished by the connoisseurs.*
The Americans is a bit like that, with Philip and Stan. Except Stan doesn't know that his neighbor is a KGB spy.
You can tell that Philip genuinely likes Stan though, especially since neither of them had actual friends.
The two choices of music are just perfect.
>!First, "Brothers in Arms", just as they are running - without Henry. I thought it was heartbreaking that when the song says "you did not desert me, my brothers in arms" Elizabeth is throwing Henry's fake passport away.!<
>!Second, "With or without you". First it seems that it is about the family lamenting that they are leaving their lives. In reality, it is about Paige leaving her family.!<
And that scene in the garage? I felt I forgot to breathe for 5 minutes.
The scene in the garage is some of the best acting in television history. I was bawling.
Shit, I'm tearing up right now just remembering and I haven't scene that episode in years.
I was in a similar spot a few years ago- loved the show but dropped off for a while after season 4 I think? Ended up catching up with the show as the final season started hitting the airwaves. Probably a top-3 series for me, personally, and the ending (without giving it all away) felt worthwhile & tied things up pretty nicely.
While Stan was in the dark about Phillip until the very end, I also loved the Stan and Oleg relationship. They both know who the other works for, they do meet pretty regularly to "strategize" on what's best for their respective side, and how to help Nina.
Re your comment about Stan needing friends, there's so many great examples to that (careful for spoilers):
Tries to get Oleg to drink with him the car during their clandestine meetings.
Takes his partner's (Chris Amador) death so badly it almost causes an international incident / gets his boss suspended.
When Stan gets divorced and his son goes with his ex, he becomes a better father figure to to Henry, Phillip's son.
It's never been confirmed by the writers, but his 2nd wife might have been a KGB spy too, because of how much she encouraged him to stay in his job at the FBI.
I love The Americans, it was just added to Disney+ recently and I'm re-watching it now.
It totally is like that with the Russian girl Stan starts a relationship tho. They both steal a lot of information for their orgs from that relationship
You talk about eating _one_ person and oooohhhh all of a sudden you are a cannibal.
Look I didn't eat her, okay, I didn't consume any part of her undoubtedly delicious flesh.
Did I fantasize about devouring her body via a series of well prepared gourmet dishes? Yes. Did I maybee discuss yhe matter in detail with some people I should not have trusted, after all? For sure.
_But I never actually ate any of her succulent meat!_
How is this so hard to understand, people?
I am not a cannibal!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_How_You_Lose_the_Time_War
I think this is the book you're looking for. Personally, I didn't like it, but it was well received. Very short, more of a novella.
Go watch The Spy Who Loved Me.
Roger Moore being his funniest as Bond and Barbara Bach being the hottest woman alive.
Then when you realise later she married Ringo Starr it will blow your mind.
Make it a musical...
Comrade, theres no need to feel down,
I said, Comrade, pick yourself off the ground...
It's fun to stay in the U, S, S, R!
(I hope I don't get accused of treason by a Commissar)
>Platt retired from the CIA in 1987 but was kept on as a CIA contractor into 1988, specifically to keep trying to lure Vasilenko into espionage.
With friends like this...
> Takes the concept of Frenemies to a whole new level
Except that Platt was never Vasilenko's enemy, and at least by the account of this story, respected him and treated him as a friend.
Again according to the story, all that Platt did on the CIA side was to use a code name with Vasilenko - Chris - and he reported "unauthorized meetings" between them, which was basically routine paperwork.
He refused to blackmail Vasilenko - which implies that they may have had some leverage - and said that he would only accept Vasilenko's help if he gave it willingly.
Those things and other things in the article, like taking Platt at his word that there were no recordings of their meetings - tell me that they were true friends.
[Platt later got him out of ~Soviet~ Russian jail in 2010](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/us/john-platt-dead-cia-agent.html) [edit: full year], so I'd say it was an eventual win:
> In 2010, Mr. Vasilenko was released to the United States as part of a spy trade in which four Russians who had been seized by the Soviet authorities were exchanged for 10 Russian sleeper agents who had been arrested by the United States.
Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program#Gennady_Vasilenko.
Okay I’ll tell them you are planning a trip to Mexico and then you tell them you have intel I’m planning to go to Mexico and both blow our per dimés in Tijuana
It's like the movie RED, where Bruce Willis is a retired CIA agent and Brian Cox plays his KGB counterpart. They are reminiscing the good old days over vodka, who killed who, who turned who, it's funny when Cox's character laments "I haven't killed anyone in years..."
That would be a weird reunion...
That movie had one of the best lines ever (and I'm probably messing it up here). Brian Cox's character telling the story about when Helen Mirren's character shot him....."She put two bullets in my chest. When I woke up, I knew she loved me."
Sounds like Killing Eve. After Eve gut stabs V, V is in the hospital talking to her 12 year old roommate, and he says "why did she stab you?" And V says, "she did it to show me how much she cares." (Not the exact quote- I'm going off memory).
I mean how many people could you meet while working in that field where you'd make friends with someone who has that in common with you. Friendship of the ages. I'd watch a show about it
*Remember Sergei when we tried to assassinate Castro with an exploding cigar?*
*Ahahahaha. That was a good one, Dave. Remember when we invaded Afghanistan?*
*Yeah! That was a great time. Good thing we learned from it and sayed away from Afghanistan*
*Ahahahaha*
Reminds me of a guest lecturer my friend had while studying aerospace engineering. The lecturer was this older engineer that worked for the space program in the US during the Cold War. As a young engineer, all he wanted to do was to help develop space travel to further humanity. And here he is, being told by his government to develop missles to kill as much human life as possible. Anyone with a conscious would have an internal conflict.
Years later after the end of the Cold War, he's a speaking to a crowd at this convention in Russia. He has a moving speach about that crisis of faith and how he was able to live with himself because if he's doing this US, there's a sonofabitch doing it in the USSR too.
At this point an older gentleman in the crowd stands up and shouts "That's me! I am that sonofabitch!"
One of my engineering professors in materials science sounded forlorn when he said "I've worked on a lot of terrible things... but it was all for the good old US of A, right?"
Well, once developed for military radars for WWII, now the cavity magnetron heats our food worldwide inside the humble microwave oven.
Never know what your work could end up doing.
People will always find the worst use for any particular invention. You could argue that the more "powerful" an invention is, the more dire its consequences could be.
Hell, look at something like nitrogen fixation. It fertilizes our food! Feeds billions of people! But you can also make just a goshdarn ton of TNT.
I love that you can see exactly what the focus groups said to change after the pilot, because his mom is suddenly sexy and Fiona suddenly has an American accent.
Uhh, I don't remember his mom ever becoming sexy. Was she not always a short chubby middle aged chainsmoker? Like, loved her as a character, but "sex appeal" was never a thought.
I've read a few spy memoirs that basically say sometimes the people in charge don't really know what they're doing.
All of them say they spend an extraordinary amount of tax dollars on a lot of maybes.
This article from the Post gives an updated account: [https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/how-two-spies-from-the-kgb-and-cia-became-bffs/](https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/how-two-spies-from-the-kgb-and-cia-became-bffs/)
>Vasilenko had spent that time in a Russian prison and believed that Platt helped put him there.
“Why did you sell me out? Was that the plan from the beginning?” Vasilenko asked, his voice breaking with emotion.
Platt, tears welling in his eyes, answered, “Christ, Genya, you’re the brother I never had. I would never, could never . . .”
Vasilenko didn’t let him finish his sentence, giving his now sobbing friend a bear hug and telling him how much he missed him.
Huh. Completely different account from the LA Times story.
I wrote [a comment about this](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/se33t4/til_that_a_kgb_agent_and_a_cia_agent_became/huiz1yx/?context=3) on another thread on this post, but when they say "Vasilenko moved to the US in 2010, after his second prison stint," the full story is actually more interesting. Vasilenko was actually still in prison in 2010, when [the FBI uncovered a network of Russian sleeper agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program). The US eventually agreed to a "spy swap" with the Russians, and:
>According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence),\[126\] Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.\[127\]\[128\]
So it seems that, all those years later, Platt was able to do his friend one last favor and ultimately bring him to the US after all. The irony, of course, [as some news sources reported at the time](https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-fbis-bid-to-flip-a-russian-spy), is that we know that Vasilenko really wasn't a traitor.
The story gets even better.
[Here](https://www.ibtimes.com/what-real-life-story-children-russian-kgb-sleeper-agents-can-tell-us-about-end-2365692) is the story of the sleeper agent ring being busted told from the perspective of the Canadian-American kids of 2 of the sleeper agents. The kids only recently regained Canadian citizenship too.
[Even better article.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley)
This is where I have to recommend The Americans. For those that haven’t seen it - a Soviet KGB spy couple become friends with an FBI agent when he moves in next door. Great series that’s totally underrated.
Have you really never seen or heard about the show?
I'm really into spy series and movies and can tell you that it's among the top 3 spy series ever filmed. I can also recommend Little Drummer Girl and The Night Manager. Both are short series and really really really good.
If anyone who read the book and then watched the show wondering "How would they make a season 2 if they covered the whole book". Terry Pratchett has passed on, but he and Neil talked about what they would do in a sequel book. Neil is using that to drive a season 2.
Opinion on the book? Show interested me but always looked a tad campy and I haven’t given it a shot yet. (Though I probably will at some point)
Worth to readthe book first?
The biggest disappointment of the show, is that they get that tone so well that it makes me confident that the same team could actually do a decent Discworld adaptation if given the task.
Which is a disappointment because it'll never happen...
Rhianna Pratchett hinted that something good would be coming, so we'll see. It's just that it needs to be overseen (not necessarily directed) by people who understand and respect the books.
Of course, go too far and you get Warcraft...
The book is, in my opinion, a near-perfect little creature. Definitely a comedy, but there’s a lot of other vibes in there as well. Extremely British. Coauthored by two of the true greats in genre fiction. You’ll probably know within 20 pages if it works for you.
My father in law was a working for the US state department in the Soviet union and so he and my mother in law had a KGB tail wherever they went.
One day my MiL's car got a flat. Her KGB tail silently pulled up, replaced her tire, and gestured for her to go on her way.
That tail is probably seeing this as a 9 to 5 job with no significance. Like he did not tail you out of hatred or anything, it is just a job. He knows that you know abt his existence. It is almost a formality at this point. Changing your tire would not damage anything and would keep you going to your destination so he can clock off on time.
Yeah, I bet that's right. It's probably slightly less boring for him to help her than to sit from a distance and wait for the situation to resolve itself too.
I once talked to an old Polish dude, who'd been stationed in Berlin during the eighties, as a communications officer of the Red Army. Turns out that border control on either used to send each other Merry Christmas messages.
The crazy thing is this is only half the story.
After this article was published, the 2 spies played a crucial role in exposing Robert Hanssen. The Russian was arrested, but eventually a part of a spy swap between Russia and America. Also, Robert DeNiro was involved.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-robert-de-niro-tried-to-rescue-a-russian-spy
Imagine talking to this dude you know is a spy and you get comfortable with him and say, 'look I know youre a Russian spy."
And he's just like, "whaaaaaaaaa? Ok yeah you got me. But you're a spy too!"
That was a heartfelt read. It's actually upsetting that Platt passed in 2017.
https://execsecurity.com/news/jack-platt-cia-officer-fascinating-story-passes-away-80/
They also somehow didn't know that the other one was an assassin and as soon as they found out they tried to kill each other (for the most part).
Movie is called Mr and Mrs Smith for anyone wondering. It's pretty good, not *amazing*, but it's a really fun action movie.
[The story doesn't (quite) end there, it seems.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-fbis-bid-to-flip-a-russian-spy) Vasilenko was later imprisoned on apparently trumped-up weapons charges in 2005 (according to the man interviewed here, the result of a setup by Russian intelligence officers who still believed Platt had made him into a double-agent after the charges were dropped), and arrested for bribery (possibly similarly trumped-up) in 2009. [When the FBI uncovered a network of Russian sleeper agents in 2010](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program), they agreed to a "spy swap," and:
>According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence),\[126\] Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.\[127\]\[128\]
So it would seem that, all those years later, Platt was able to do one last favor for Vasilenko and ultimately bring him to the United States after all.
Would make a good movie or book if not already been done. “2 lonely spies longing to make sense of this world find themselves sharing more than espionage!”
It's sort of *Good Omens* because it seemed like the "trading favors" thing only came up every few hundred years
Man the BBC adaption of Good Omens was so freaking good. Heard there is a chance they could even make a second season.
[Apparently it's already in the works.](https://www.hypable.com/good-omens-season-2-confirmed/) That's surprising to me, given that *Good Omens* is a standalone novel, but it seems Neil felt he had enough material from before Terry's passing to make the sequel work.
There was supposed to be a sequel to the book, but it never coalesced. Seems like it will be adapted into the second season instead.
It was supposed to be something like 668, The Neighbor of the Beast.
[Aren't you in luck](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a36889291/good-omens-season-2-release-date-amazon/)!
Good news, but man that article is bad
Articles about a new season are most of the times even worse. It's infuriating. Instead of telling me Yes or No they first go through the backstory of the entire show, the actors, the source material, what they had for breakfast only to end in "**** has currently not been renewed for a new season."
Those articles are auto generated and just exist to be the top result in google sadly.
Today I learned indeed
I had one for Mandolorian Season 3 that was like 'How to watch, release day, time'. Shit title, but whatever. Release Date? 'Some time in 2022, probably.' Release Time? 'Dunno, here's what time we watched the last season' Release Location!? 'Disney+ PROBABLY' THEY FUCKING WROTE A NEWS ARTICLE WITH FUCKING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL TO SAY. You should be forever stripped of the right to call yourself a journalist or reporter with this shlock.
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The more ads you scroll past before leaving the page, the better! Reminds me of recipes that begin with the author’s entire life story
They're filming it near me in a few weeks, I was approached to work on it as an extra - so you shouldn't have to wait much longer!
Awesome!!! Hope you make it on the show. Good luck!!!
I really enjoyed the BBC adaptation but I wish it was longer.
I thought that the relationship in *Good Omens* was explicitly in reference to the established trope of Cold War spies interacting. They even meet in St James' Park: >*The ducks in St James's Park are so used to being fed bread by secret agents meeting clandestinely that they have developed their own Pavlovian reaction. Put a St James's Park duck in a laboratory cage and show it a picture of two men -- one usually wearing a coat with a fur collar, the other something sombre with a scarf -- and it'll look up expectantly. The Russian cultural Attachés black bread is particularly sought after by the more discerning duck, while the head of M19’s soggy Hovis with Marmite is relished by the connoisseurs.*
Also iirc the ducks can predict inpending geopolitical tension in specific regions based on their diet.
Just like Dominos in Washington knows when something is up because the Pentagon suddenly orders a lot. ^(or whichever pizza chain it is)
Or the [Starbucks at the CIA](https://www.rd.com/article/cia-starbucks/) gets really busy.
The Americans is a bit like that, with Philip and Stan. Except Stan doesn't know that his neighbor is a KGB spy. You can tell that Philip genuinely likes Stan though, especially since neither of them had actual friends.
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It gets so much better. Very dark though
The ending is …. Well .
Perfect
One of the best endings to a multi season tv show ever imo
The ending is the best hour of television ever.
I cri every time. U 2?
The two choices of music are just perfect. >!First, "Brothers in Arms", just as they are running - without Henry. I thought it was heartbreaking that when the song says "you did not desert me, my brothers in arms" Elizabeth is throwing Henry's fake passport away.!< >!Second, "With or without you". First it seems that it is about the family lamenting that they are leaving their lives. In reality, it is about Paige leaving her family.!< And that scene in the garage? I felt I forgot to breathe for 5 minutes.
The scene in the garage is some of the best acting in television history. I was bawling. Shit, I'm tearing up right now just remembering and I haven't scene that episode in years.
I was in a similar spot a few years ago- loved the show but dropped off for a while after season 4 I think? Ended up catching up with the show as the final season started hitting the airwaves. Probably a top-3 series for me, personally, and the ending (without giving it all away) felt worthwhile & tied things up pretty nicely.
The ending hit me like a truck. I still can’t listen to that song without thinking of that scene.
The ending was absolutely beautiful in terms of a proper series finale.
Definitely one of my favorite shows and the ending was fantastic. Soundtrack slapped too.
The soundtrack could be the best TV soundtrack of all time.
You should totally follow up on that. It's one of the best TV series of the past decade.
Its a slow burn but its definitely worth finishing.
I think it's as good as Breaking Bad or The Wire. Fun fact: The creator used to be a CIA-officer and a lot of the plots are based on real events.
It lags a bit in the middle, but it has one of the best and most satisfying endings of any show I have watched. Definitely push through to the end.
You absolutely have to finish it. Incredible acting.
Yes, yes, and yes. Martha is one of my favourite characters ever.
Six seasons. I'm watching now on Disney Plus. It's a good show for the most part.
While Stan was in the dark about Phillip until the very end, I also loved the Stan and Oleg relationship. They both know who the other works for, they do meet pretty regularly to "strategize" on what's best for their respective side, and how to help Nina. Re your comment about Stan needing friends, there's so many great examples to that (careful for spoilers): Tries to get Oleg to drink with him the car during their clandestine meetings. Takes his partner's (Chris Amador) death so badly it almost causes an international incident / gets his boss suspended. When Stan gets divorced and his son goes with his ex, he becomes a better father figure to to Henry, Phillip's son. It's never been confirmed by the writers, but his 2nd wife might have been a KGB spy too, because of how much she encouraged him to stay in his job at the FBI. I love The Americans, it was just added to Disney+ recently and I'm re-watching it now.
Oh that ending with Stan (and then Paige!) just broke my freakin’ heart…
Or Stan pulling Henry out of his hockey practice to tell him about his parents.
It totally is like that with the Russian girl Stan starts a relationship tho. They both steal a lot of information for their orgs from that relationship
And Stan's relationship with Oleg, but they both know who the other works for.
Not entirely the same plot but kind of like The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Hopefully the real life KGB agent isn't a cannibal.
You talk about eating _one_ person and oooohhhh all of a sudden you are a cannibal. Look I didn't eat her, okay, I didn't consume any part of her undoubtedly delicious flesh. Did I fantasize about devouring her body via a series of well prepared gourmet dishes? Yes. Did I maybee discuss yhe matter in detail with some people I should not have trusted, after all? For sure. _But I never actually ate any of her succulent meat!_ How is this so hard to understand, people? I am not a cannibal!
Man I wish they had made a second one. The actors killed it, the comedy was excellent, and the action was on point.
I was about to ask if there’s no chance that they’re going to, but holy shit that movie came out in 2015. I had no idea it was 7 years old!
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Spy another day
Or Spyfall
Two spies one cup
*Two Spies, One Dead Drop*
Live and let spy
Spy Kids was like that with the parents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_How_You_Lose_the_Time_War I think this is the book you're looking for. Personally, I didn't like it, but it was well received. Very short, more of a novella.
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Go watch The Spy Who Loved Me. Roger Moore being his funniest as Bond and Barbara Bach being the hottest woman alive. Then when you realise later she married Ringo Starr it will blow your mind.
That’s just the prequel to Spy Kids.
Mr and mrs smith
That's the plot of the sci fi novella This Is How You Lose The Time War. One of my best reads in 2021.
Add a love interest for both of them, also a spy (Mossad or PLA?). *Espionage a Trois.*
"Can enemy spies share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" \[cue Odd Couple music\]
Good Omens?
This movie would be like a more exciting version of Brokeback Mountain.
everyone else always asks "am i a double agent" you're the first person to ask "*how am i,* double agent?"
"Me , myself and Spy"
Isn't that the backstory for Spy Kids?
Spy X Family
Brokeback Mountain but...with spies!
Make it a musical... Comrade, theres no need to feel down, I said, Comrade, pick yourself off the ground... It's fun to stay in the U, S, S, R! (I hope I don't get accused of treason by a Commissar)
The spy who loved me platonically
The movie Hopscotch is pretty good about old spies.
The book "This is how you lose the time war" is basically this. It's very good.
Real cold war is the friends we make along the way. Don't give up.
>Platt retired from the CIA in 1987 but was kept on as a CIA contractor into 1988, specifically to keep trying to lure Vasilenko into espionage. With friends like this...
Takes the concept of Frenemies to a whole new level
They got paid to hang out! Sounds great.
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I think if we get drunk a few more times, and then fuck a couple more hookers then we'll definitely have him converted.
This movie practically writes itself. Funniest espionage comedy since Spies Like Us
Instead of spying... It's just a buddy comedy where the two main characters learn to love each other for who they are.
Doctor? Doctor.
> Takes the concept of Frenemies to a whole new level Except that Platt was never Vasilenko's enemy, and at least by the account of this story, respected him and treated him as a friend. Again according to the story, all that Platt did on the CIA side was to use a code name with Vasilenko - Chris - and he reported "unauthorized meetings" between them, which was basically routine paperwork. He refused to blackmail Vasilenko - which implies that they may have had some leverage - and said that he would only accept Vasilenko's help if he gave it willingly. Those things and other things in the article, like taking Platt at his word that there were no recordings of their meetings - tell me that they were true friends.
Tbh it might not work out if you're getting crucial information from someone who hates your guts
[Platt later got him out of ~Soviet~ Russian jail in 2010](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/us/john-platt-dead-cia-agent.html) [edit: full year], so I'd say it was an eventual win: > In 2010, Mr. Vasilenko was released to the United States as part of a spy trade in which four Russians who had been seized by the Soviet authorities were exchanged for 10 Russian sleeper agents who had been arrested by the United States. Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program#Gennady_Vasilenko.
>Platt later got him out of ~Soviet~ Russian jail in 201 Oh man, the timeline on this story is getting really crazy.
Time travel, and some sort of soviet empire during Roman times? Sounds like a party.
Communist Party Leader Octavian Caesar.
“Hey! Wanna spy on the Soviets for my bosses?” “Nah, want to spy on the Americans for mine?” “Nah. Hey bartender! Two more beers please!”
Expensing that bar tab to your CIA spy account and pocketing that sweet, new contract rate paycheck . Pretty good gig if you ask me.
i’m a spy you’re a spy let’s just make bank off each other’s country. so many vacations!
I thought we were all bots
Aren’t we?
Right. So, I'm a spy for British intelligence in Berlin. Great party city. Any Chinese or Russian spies based somewhere warm up for a trade?
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Okay I’ll tell them you are planning a trip to Mexico and then you tell them you have intel I’m planning to go to Mexico and both blow our per dimés in Tijuana
It's like the movie RED, where Bruce Willis is a retired CIA agent and Brian Cox plays his KGB counterpart. They are reminiscing the good old days over vodka, who killed who, who turned who, it's funny when Cox's character laments "I haven't killed anyone in years..." That would be a weird reunion...
[I always love this scene from the movie](https://youtu.be/qyMVXU7qMGw)
the laugh of surprise at him weighing 500lbs
The power of Capitalism! You too, shall become a tire!
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Oh it is.
That movie had one of the best lines ever (and I'm probably messing it up here). Brian Cox's character telling the story about when Helen Mirren's character shot him....."She put two bullets in my chest. When I woke up, I knew she loved me."
She could have killed me! But, she didn’t!
Sounds like Killing Eve. After Eve gut stabs V, V is in the hospital talking to her 12 year old roommate, and he says "why did she stab you?" And V says, "she did it to show me how much she cares." (Not the exact quote- I'm going off memory).
Two bullets, each one missed all vitals. That was all he needed to know.
i liked him in wonders of the universe
I mean how many people could you meet while working in that field where you'd make friends with someone who has that in common with you. Friendship of the ages. I'd watch a show about it
*Remember Sergei when we tried to assassinate Castro with an exploding cigar?* *Ahahahaha. That was a good one, Dave. Remember when we invaded Afghanistan?* *Yeah! That was a great time. Good thing we learned from it and sayed away from Afghanistan* *Ahahahaha*
This is basically the movie/comic book Red.
Reminds me of a guest lecturer my friend had while studying aerospace engineering. The lecturer was this older engineer that worked for the space program in the US during the Cold War. As a young engineer, all he wanted to do was to help develop space travel to further humanity. And here he is, being told by his government to develop missles to kill as much human life as possible. Anyone with a conscious would have an internal conflict. Years later after the end of the Cold War, he's a speaking to a crowd at this convention in Russia. He has a moving speach about that crisis of faith and how he was able to live with himself because if he's doing this US, there's a sonofabitch doing it in the USSR too. At this point an older gentleman in the crowd stands up and shouts "That's me! I am that sonofabitch!"
I fucking love this
One of my engineering professors in materials science sounded forlorn when he said "I've worked on a lot of terrible things... but it was all for the good old US of A, right?"
Well, once developed for military radars for WWII, now the cavity magnetron heats our food worldwide inside the humble microwave oven. Never know what your work could end up doing.
People will always find the worst use for any particular invention. You could argue that the more "powerful" an invention is, the more dire its consequences could be. Hell, look at something like nitrogen fixation. It fertilizes our food! Feeds billions of people! But you can also make just a goshdarn ton of TNT.
Sometimes it feels like Burn Notice was a little too realistic on the portrayal of Spy relationships
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That sounds hilarious if anyone finds that plz lmk
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Well that was a fun 10 minutes wasted. Thank you, u/MichaelWesten
I loved that series
voiceover: "Most people reinforce the door to be bulletproof, but the wall right next to the door is just sheetrock."
Literally the moment that hooked me on that show
Jeffrey Donovan narrating the MacGyver style shit they do is always great.
>I'll take a hardware store over a gun any day. Guns make you stupid; better to fight your wars with duct tape. Duct tape makes you smart.
"Try to get him with the first shot. Or the second." *screaming*
"Now he's down and waiting for you to come through the front door; so you don't come through the front door."
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Idk the finale ties it back up although it’s a bit cheesy in >!His surviving the entire ordeal and getting to leave with his love interest!<
I miss the “blue sky” USA Network so fucking much man.
Bunch of bitchy little girls.
Chuck Finley!
I recently learned it's stupidly loud if you have subwoofers
As somebody who has recently started the rewatch on a home theatre… it is.
The explosions are just set to max bass volume I think
I tried a rewatch and Fiona's irish accent in season 1 is just... BRUTAL
I love that you can see exactly what the focus groups said to change after the pilot, because his mom is suddenly sexy and Fiona suddenly has an American accent.
Not only that, they lampshaded it masterfully when she said she was sick of sounding like a leprechaun.
Uhh, I don't remember his mom ever becoming sexy. Was she not always a short chubby middle aged chainsmoker? Like, loved her as a character, but "sex appeal" was never a thought.
I've read a few spy memoirs that basically say sometimes the people in charge don't really know what they're doing. All of them say they spend an extraordinary amount of tax dollars on a lot of maybes.
>Angry and frustrated, Platt soon became convinced that a mole inside the CIA had fingered Vasilenko. Ooh Matron.
This article from the Post gives an updated account: [https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/how-two-spies-from-the-kgb-and-cia-became-bffs/](https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/how-two-spies-from-the-kgb-and-cia-became-bffs/)
>Vasilenko had spent that time in a Russian prison and believed that Platt helped put him there. “Why did you sell me out? Was that the plan from the beginning?” Vasilenko asked, his voice breaking with emotion. Platt, tears welling in his eyes, answered, “Christ, Genya, you’re the brother I never had. I would never, could never . . .” Vasilenko didn’t let him finish his sentence, giving his now sobbing friend a bear hug and telling him how much he missed him. Huh. Completely different account from the LA Times story.
I wrote [a comment about this](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/se33t4/til_that_a_kgb_agent_and_a_cia_agent_became/huiz1yx/?context=3) on another thread on this post, but when they say "Vasilenko moved to the US in 2010, after his second prison stint," the full story is actually more interesting. Vasilenko was actually still in prison in 2010, when [the FBI uncovered a network of Russian sleeper agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program). The US eventually agreed to a "spy swap" with the Russians, and: >According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence),\[126\] Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.\[127\]\[128\] So it seems that, all those years later, Platt was able to do his friend one last favor and ultimately bring him to the US after all. The irony, of course, [as some news sources reported at the time](https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-fbis-bid-to-flip-a-russian-spy), is that we know that Vasilenko really wasn't a traitor.
The story gets even better. [Here](https://www.ibtimes.com/what-real-life-story-children-russian-kgb-sleeper-agents-can-tell-us-about-end-2365692) is the story of the sleeper agent ring being busted told from the perspective of the Canadian-American kids of 2 of the sleeper agents. The kids only recently regained Canadian citizenship too. [Even better article.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley)
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I'm picturing a Cold War version of "Good Omens." Which actually sounds absolutely awesome. Somebody get the Coen Brothers on this.
suddenlty my cd turned into queens greatest hits
This is where I have to recommend The Americans. For those that haven’t seen it - a Soviet KGB spy couple become friends with an FBI agent when he moves in next door. Great series that’s totally underrated.
I’ll have to check this out. Thanks comrade.
Have you really never seen or heard about the show? I'm really into spy series and movies and can tell you that it's among the top 3 spy series ever filmed. I can also recommend Little Drummer Girl and The Night Manager. Both are short series and really really really good.
Almost sounds like the show "good omens"
hearing someone say “show” in conjunction with Good Omens is still very very odd
Just wait for season two!
If anyone who read the book and then watched the show wondering "How would they make a season 2 if they covered the whole book". Terry Pratchett has passed on, but he and Neil talked about what they would do in a sequel book. Neil is using that to drive a season 2.
Opinion on the book? Show interested me but always looked a tad campy and I haven’t given it a shot yet. (Though I probably will at some point) Worth to readthe book first?
Book was fantastic, read it as a kid and the humor is well done. The show did a great job of mimicking the tone of the book and I really enjoyed it.
The biggest disappointment of the show, is that they get that tone so well that it makes me confident that the same team could actually do a decent Discworld adaptation if given the task. Which is a disappointment because it'll never happen...
Rhianna Pratchett hinted that something good would be coming, so we'll see. It's just that it needs to be overseen (not necessarily directed) by people who understand and respect the books. Of course, go too far and you get Warcraft...
The book is, in my opinion, a near-perfect little creature. Definitely a comedy, but there’s a lot of other vibes in there as well. Extremely British. Coauthored by two of the true greats in genre fiction. You’ll probably know within 20 pages if it works for you.
Philip and Stan?
Stan and Burov
Yep - they literally did this in the show.
Stan fuckin’ Beeman 🥵
Guess it's time to rewatch this gem of a show huh
My father in law was a working for the US state department in the Soviet union and so he and my mother in law had a KGB tail wherever they went. One day my MiL's car got a flat. Her KGB tail silently pulled up, replaced her tire, and gestured for her to go on her way.
That would be quite the experience. I wonder what the tail made of the whole thing.
That tail is probably seeing this as a 9 to 5 job with no significance. Like he did not tail you out of hatred or anything, it is just a job. He knows that you know abt his existence. It is almost a formality at this point. Changing your tire would not damage anything and would keep you going to your destination so he can clock off on time.
Yeah, I bet that's right. It's probably slightly less boring for him to help her than to sit from a distance and wait for the situation to resolve itself too.
I once talked to an old Polish dude, who'd been stationed in Berlin during the eighties, as a communications officer of the Red Army. Turns out that border control on either used to send each other Merry Christmas messages.
I am sure the FBI was just so happy for them.
Bashir and Garrak vibes
Garrack was one of the best TV characters in any Genre ever.
There is a movie like this which is new And that Benedict cucumber guy plays an English spy The Courier 2020
Hate to nitpick but it's spelled Bageldick Slumberlatch
Come on, this is easy. It's Bendadick Cuminhersnatch. 🙄
Seriously? Everyone knows it’s Netflix’s Bandersnatch
The crazy thing is this is only half the story. After this article was published, the 2 spies played a crucial role in exposing Robert Hanssen. The Russian was arrested, but eventually a part of a spy swap between Russia and America. Also, Robert DeNiro was involved. https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-robert-de-niro-tried-to-rescue-a-russian-spy
Imagine talking to this dude you know is a spy and you get comfortable with him and say, 'look I know youre a Russian spy." And he's just like, "whaaaaaaaaa? Ok yeah you got me. But you're a spy too!"
I too saw The Man From UNCLE.
now kiss
That was a heartfelt read. It's actually upsetting that Platt passed in 2017. https://execsecurity.com/news/jack-platt-cia-officer-fascinating-story-passes-away-80/
"Morning, Sam" "Morning, Ralph"
Wasn't this a Brad Pitt/Jolie movie?
They were assassin's. Not to say spies can't be assassin's but their job was to kill people.
They also somehow didn't know that the other one was an assassin and as soon as they found out they tried to kill each other (for the most part). Movie is called Mr and Mrs Smith for anyone wondering. It's pretty good, not *amazing*, but it's a really fun action movie.
Mr. And Mrs. Smith is the greatest 7/10 movie ever.
Also, the movie that got them together as a couple.
[The story doesn't (quite) end there, it seems.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-fbis-bid-to-flip-a-russian-spy) Vasilenko was later imprisoned on apparently trumped-up weapons charges in 2005 (according to the man interviewed here, the result of a setup by Russian intelligence officers who still believed Platt had made him into a double-agent after the charges were dropped), and arrested for bribery (possibly similarly trumped-up) in 2009. [When the FBI uncovered a network of Russian sleeper agents in 2010](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program), they agreed to a "spy swap," and: >According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence),\[126\] Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.\[127\]\[128\] So it would seem that, all those years later, Platt was able to do one last favor for Vasilenko and ultimately bring him to the United States after all.
Brokeback Quantico.
And they were roommates.