Telly Review: The Sympathizer brims with brutality

"The pace of the plot is just right, as you’d expect from a show based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel."

The Sympathizer starts on Sky Atlantic at 9pm

The Sympathizer (Sky Atlantic, Monday 9pm and NOW) might drive you bonkers in episode one. It jumps back in time a few times and then forward again, so you’re struggling to get a bead on what’s going on. Some guy known only as The Captain seems to be a North Vietnamese agent in South Vietnamese regime in the days before the city falls to forced from the north. He is an assistant to The General, a much-feared chief of the South’s forces; he is mentored by a flamboyant CIA agent played by Robert Downey Jr.; The Captain also takes orders from his North Vietnamese handler.

It’s tense, but playful too, an interrogation scene taking place in a cinema is beautifully shot even as it brims with brutality. We jump forward and The Captain is now living Los Angeles, evacuated from Saigon and working as a mole for the North Vietnamese, when he meets up with his old professor. He’s also played by Robert Downey Jr. Jesus. I’d normally hate this kind of gimmick.