The Assets

It’s got some of the same appeal [as Scandal], but at its core, it’s a strong spy thriller with a few fascinating characters, not a splashy nighttime soap. And that’s okay.

Rhys and Whittaker are terrific and the two big reasons to watch the series.... Speaking of assets, credibility of the story is nicely enhanced by muted cinematography and art direction, emphasizing that catching spies is done by nondescript men and women who lead seemingly normal lives and work in under-decorated offices deciphering codes and other information.

It is tonally odd yet quite likable.

A scripted eight-part miniseries from a subdivision of ABC News, “The Assets” is an unexpectedly good placeholder for regular time-period-occupant “Scandal,” if perhaps a little too slow-going to connect with that show’s “OMG TV” crowd.

Not a brilliant effort, but worth a look.

Truthfully, it doesn’t add much value to have Grimes’ husband Gary (Julian Ovendon) deliver a melodramatic speech, accompanied by appropriate mood music, about how he married her because he knew she wanted to save the world. Fortunately, the hunt itself has been crisply framed.

In Assets, I wanted more about Ames and his motives--and maybe that will come later--but this is Grimes’ story, right down to how her job affected her home life.

The series, unevenly written, frequently given to strange tonal lapses, is nevertheless lively, its dramatization of events abetted by its setting.

The Assets is uneven, with some excellent scenes and quite a few bad ones.

Despite the often eerie parallels to the Showtime thriller, ABC’s eight-part miniseries The Assets is based on fact. That does nothing to make it compelling.

Spy games aren’t nearly as fun when you know who the mole is from the start. That’s the main problem with this unsuspenseful eight-part miniseries.

It comes across as a rather dull, ineptly produced program that looks like it was filmed with dated technology in plodding style.

he only time The Assets comes alive is when the focus falls on the soon-to-be-notorious turncoat Ames, a compellingly twitchy Paul Rhys.... The Assets reduces the complex world of espionage to laughably simplistic terms.