The Veil (2024)

The way Knight tries to craft the personal and emotional on top of the plot to give it meaning and weight is appreciated but ultimately does itself no favors.

The Veil repeatedly tries to figure out where the line exists between this persona and the real her, whose name isn’t even Imogen. The problem is that the version of the series about “Imogen” is vastly more entertaining, but the show mostly seems interested in her true identity.

A disjointed spy thriller for Hulu. Adopting a British accent, Moss sinks her teeth into the role of an MI6 agent, but her cat-and-mouse game with a suspected terrorist gradually unravels after a reasonably compelling start.

Perhaps most disappointing is how “The Veil” becomes more and more about Imogen and less about Adilah as the episodes drone on. The finale includes a series of whiplash-inducing plot twists, some violent developments that feel arbitrary and manipulative, and one key reveal involving a piece of office equipment that is unintentionally funny.

You’ve seen shows like this plenty of times before, and watching Elisabeth Moss try on a British accent has its charms. This would have been far better as a 118-minute movie, but that’s not really the entertainment landscape right now.

Unfortunately, for all of its potent ideas, its carefully chosen and depicted European locations and Moss’ excellence — which should never be taken so entirely for granted that you don’t pause and marvel — Knight doesn’t know how to steer his story to a place that’s as provocative as its origins. The Veil first becomes perfunctory — Homeland-lite — before fizzling entirely in its concluding episodes, in which almost none of its twisty reveals hits deeply on either a plot or character level.

Where the series is at its best is when Moss and Marwan effectively ground the plot in more of a two-hander through their early road trip scenes, facing off with each other warily before deciding where and when to be more honest about themselves. If only the show was more intent on allowing them to spill their truths on their own terms and in their own time, rather than rushing to spoil the reveals for us first.