Sacha Baron Cohen gets super serious for new series ‘The Spy’

Whether it’s as Ali G, Borat, an over the top dyed in the wool Hillary Clinton supporter or a perverted Italian millionaire playboy, Sacha Baron Cohen knows funny. But we now know the Golden Globe winner also knows super serious, thanks to the brand-new trailer for his forthcoming Netflix series, The Spy.

It’s tough to not spend the first few moments of the trailer expecting some sort of silly buggers from the Who Is America star, hell it’s in our muscle memory now, but The Spy is a great departure from any of Cohen’s previous works in that there’s no “Gotcha” moments, no hidden cameras; just a haunting and inthralling tale of an undercover agent operating in Syria during the 1960s.

The series is based on a true story, and sees Cohen play the role of Israeli secret agent Eli Cohen who was at the coal face of political and military resistance against Israel. Let’s be real, beneath the comic prosthetics and FUBU, we always knew Cohen had considerable acting chops and with The Spy, we finally get to see them on display.

Per the trailer, The Spy will document the rise and eventual fall of Eli Cohen who becomes too attached to the spy games and begins to resonate more with his undercover persona than his real one, much to the dismay of his wife, played by Homeland’s Hadar Ratzon Rotem. In fact, The Spy is helmed, written and directed by Homeland mastermind Gideon Raff.

Esquire have confirmed that The Spy will be a Netflix miniseries exclusive containing 6 episodes, not unlike the model HBO used for Chernobyl. Also like Chernobyl, we already know how The Spy ends, with the life and times of Eli Cohen well documented so if you want to avoid spoilers, stay off Wikipedia.

The Spy will be hitting our screens quicker than you can say boo ya ka sha, with a launch date of September 6.

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