Counterpart (TV Series, Starz 2017)

I binged watched the 10 episodes of Counterpart on Starz. This thriller series is well written, intelligent and fascinating. J.K. Simmons plays Howard Silk who is a low level agent at a bureaucratic UN agency in Berlin. He finds out the place he has worked at for 30 years has a secret. Back in 1987 East German scientists created a duplicate of our universe and underground where he works is where you can crossover to the parallel world. It has however been diverging since the crossing was opened. Both our world and theirs treat the crossing as a border to be respected the same as countries do and there are diplomats, spies and intrigue. Howard becomes drawn in when his counterpart comes over to our world. Unlike himself this Howard has more confidence and has moved up in his organization to intelligence. Howard’s wife who is in the hospital and been in a coma for 6 weeks is in danger for some reason and the other Howard has come over to prevent her from being killed. This series presents so much to chew on. Like can we really escape our identity? Do circumstances really matter or in the end are we really just who we are? Also, do we ever truly know the people we are close to? Or, are we just accepting what we want to believe of them? I don’t think it’s an accident that this is set in Berlin which was the gateway of East and West Germany during the Cold War. Two halves of the same whole. J.K. Simmons proves just what a superb actor he is in this series. You can see the differences in Howard and his counterpart but it’s not over the top. So believable. There are great twists and turns in the plot. It also stars Stephen Rea (V For Vendetta)  and Richard Schiff (The Good Doctor). Can’t wait for the second season!