Friday, October 30, 2020

What I’m Watching: Tehran (Season Finale)

Tehran: Season 1, Episode 8 “Five Hours Until the Bombing Run” (B)

This finale pivoted to become much more of a tech thriller with crews of people sitting and frantically typing and staring at their computer screens, presenting a major twist that didn’t necessarily make all that much sense. I know that the notion of betrayal is common to shows and films like this, and the idea that there would be a mole who could sabotage the whole operation is totally valid. But in this case, there was no previous indication that Kadosh had any other allegiances, and, more importantly, she never had a chance to subvert anything. Putting aside why it was that she was working against Israel, she could easily have enabled the other operation to be exposed without then going through the motions of going to Iran, letting the other agents go into the building without her, and then only revealing her duplicity with a gun pointed at Tamar at the last minute. I had hoped that Tamar’s realization that something wasn’t quite right with the server banks would enable her to do something to prepare for a surprise, but instead she just got to notice it rather than actually do something productive thanks to a backup setup. Faraz was clever in how he tracked Tamar down, and it turns out that going in without waiting for Ali’s team resulted in his getting injured, possibly fatally. Luckily for Milad, he didn’t get shot, and now he and Tamar were able to ride off into the sunset, not sure who they can trust, if anyone, while this show still hasn’t been renewed for a second season. Even if I didn’t love how this episode, this first season has a blast, and I’d definitely watch more, which I assume will be announced soon.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Niv Sultan as Tamar and Shaun Toub as Faraz

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