Barely Anyone Watched The Best Spy Show Of 2014

Armin Rosen at businessinsider.com offers a piece on the TV series The Assets, a show that I enjoyed.

From 1985 to 1987, the spy war between the US and the Soviet Union reached a bizarre fever pitch.

CIA assets inside the KGB were rounded up and executed, and no one could figure out why. A disgruntled ex-CIA agent evaded an FBI surveillance dragnet and fled to Moscow, partly by using a human-sized dummy to throw off his trackers. A US Marine guard fell for a KBG honeypot and allowed a Soviet operative into the American embassy in Moscow. To top it all off, a KBG colonel defected to the US and then re-defected to the Soviets after fleeing his CIA handler while they were eating at a French restaurant in Washington, DC's posh Georgetown neighborhood.

Events that could shift the balance of Cold War were coming hard and fast, and one man was in some way connected to all of them: Aldrich Ames, a CIA veteran currently serving a federal life sentence for espionage (seen below in the photo with his wife).

The hunt for Ames — who was perhaps the most damaging mole in the agency's history — and the events surrounding his betrayal of the United States was the subject of "The Assets," an 8-part miniseries that ran on ABC in early 2014. The show's pilot was the lowest-rated premier for a primetime drama in history. No matter: the whole thing's on Netflix Instant Watch. And if you have any interest in the Cold War, intelligence, or the darker regions of human nature the show belongs on your to-do list.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/barely-anyone-watched-the-best-spy-show-of-2014-2014-12

You can also read an earlier post on The Assets via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/08/the-assets-abcs-dropped-drama-based-on.html

I interviewed Sandy Grimes (seen in the above photo), the real CIA officer who helped bring down CIA traitor and spy Aldrich Ames, and co-wrote the book Circle of Treason, the book the TV series was based on.

You can read my Counterterrorism magazine Q & A with Sandy Grimes via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/the-ames-mole-hunt-my-q-with-sandra.html

The above photo shows Sandy Grimes and the CIA team that uncovered Aldrich Ames.

The Assets: ABC's Dropped Drama Based On The True Story Of The Uncovering of CIA Spy And Traitor Aldrich Ames Now On ABC On Demand

I was sorry to learn that ABC canceled The Assets, which dramatized the CIA's search for a spy and traitor who gave up all of the top Soviet "assets," after only two episodes.

The spy and traitor turned out to be CIA officer Aldrich Ames. Many of the assets, also known as agents, Ames betrayed were later executed by the Soviet KGB.

I suspect ABC expected to bring in ratings like the fictional espionage series The Americans and were disappointed when they did not.

Thankfully, ABC On Demand is now offering the rest of The Assets on Comcast Cable. I watched the rest of the series and I enjoyed it.

So if you have ABC On Demand and you're interested in the history of espionage and/or enjoy a good true spy story, then you might want to watch The Assets.

One of the spy hunters, and the co-author of Circle of Treason, the book the series is based on, is former CIA officer Sandra Grimes.

I interviewed Sandra Grimes for Counterterrorism magazine before the TV series aired. You can read my interview with her via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/the-ames-mole-hunt-my-q-with-sandra.html

ABC's 'The Assets' Looks At A CIA Traitor

ABC's Nightline looks at the upcoming TV series that dramatizes the Aldrich Ames spy case.

You can watch the news video, which includes interviews with Ames and Sandy Grimes, the former CIA officer that helped bring him down, via the below link:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/assets-capturing-cia-traitor-21376797

You can also read a previous post on the Ames case via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/12/the-assets-explores-real-life-aldrich.html  

'The Assets' Explores Real-Life Aldrich Ames Spy Case

My Q & A with former CIA officer Sandra V. Grimes, one of a team of "mole hunters" who brought down CIA officer, tratior and Soviet spy Aldrich Ames, will appear in the upcoming issue of Counterterrorism magaine.

So it was with some interest that I read Andrea Morabito's piece in the New York Post on the upcoming ABC series on the Aldrich Ames spy case.

ABC is offering an antidote for “Scandal” fans missing their weekly rush during the drama’s midseason hiatus — with another story of feisty female DC operatives pursuing the truth and taking names.

The eight-part miniseries “The Assets,” premiering Thursday at 10 p.m., tells the true story of CIA officers Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille as they track down notorious mole Aldrich Ames at the end of the Cold War — an apt subject to capitalize on the popularity of spy dramas playing out on the small screen and in the headlines.

... “This is a true story. What we hope and we thought is if people are interested in ‘Homeland’ and they’re interested in ‘The Americans’ . . . to find out that there’s two real women that were breaking the glass ceiling and doing this stuff for real, that will help drive people to us.”

The bulk of “Assets” takes place in 1985 when Grimes, played by British actress Jodie Whittaker (“Broadchurch”) and Vertefeuille (Harriet Walter) are racing to save Soviet intelligence officers (“the assets”) from being caught and killed based on intel leaked by Ames (Paul Rhys).

It’s adapted from the 2012 book “Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed” by Grimes and Vertefeuille, who started at the CIA as typists and quickly rose through the ranks at a time when the agency was an Ivy League boys club.

“Their persistence is what caught Ames. They went to their bosses and said there is a problem here, there is something going on, you have to believe us,” Hertzan says.

“Even Ames himself said he was ‘glad these two broads are running the back room because they’ll never figure it out,’ ” adds executive producer Rudy Bednar.

You can read he rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2013/12/31/the-assets-how-two-cia-agents-busted-infamous-80s-era-spy/

You can also read my previous post on the Ames spy case via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/12/a-look-back-at-cia-traitor-and-soviet.html