Counterpart

Counterpart debuted on December 10, 2017 and it ended on February 17, 2019 after two seasons and 20 episodes. Counterpart starred J.K. Simmons as Howard Silk, Olivia Williams as Emily Burton Silk, Harry Lloyd as Peter Quayle, and Nazanin Boniadi as Clare Quayle. Simmons plays a UN functionary who stumbles across the fact that he is in contact with a parallel world that is diverging from his own world. The series originally aired on Starz in the U.S. It is available on DVD and BluRay and can be streamed on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, Google Play, and RedBox.

It is rare for there to be a good science fiction TV series—I am not including fantasy or super-heroes, there is a lot of genre TV but not a lot of good SF. That may be changing, but the volume is low. We are also in an era of reboots, perhaps it is nostalgia or lack of imagination? In 2017 a new series was launched that only lasted for two seasons before the network STARZ decided not to renew. It had depth, believable world building, and good acting. This was Counterpart.

Howard meets his counterpart Howard Prime

We may not know why STARZ did not renew (at least I do not). It may have been small audience (but the show did not get much publicity), and this is one show that you cannot jump into the middle of. It has an arc and a complicated storyline with plenty of twists that you need to watch from the beginning. This would not help gaining new viewers unless you could start from the beginning—perhaps a streaming platform would have been better than a network/cable channel? Perhaps the fact it is set in Berlin and the show uses sub-titles when the characters speak German reduces viewership in the U.S., though the main language of the Office of Interchange and throughout the show is English? So what was Counterpart? It was definitely a spy thriller and a story of alternate realities. The show starts with a crime scene and what appear be agents using translucent phones, which is the first indication that this is not quite our reality. Then we switch to following Howard Silk (played by J.K. Simmons) who is a low level bureaucrat in the mysterious Office of Interchange (OI) working in the “Interface” division. He has a phone that looks just like ones from our reality. We learn he has been in the job for almost 30 years and does not know what OI actually does. During his “interview” for a promotion to “Strategy” we see that the computer the director is using is straight out of the 80’s. The stage is set about 20 minutes into the first episode: we come across another division “Housekeeping” (obviously they deal with security rather than hygiene) and Howard is introduced to his counterpart (Howard Prime). We come to think of one reality as “Prime” (the one less like ours) and our reality as “Alpha.” We learn about the opening up of a corridor between the two realities. During the Cold War an experiment (in Berlin) opens a passage between two versions of our reality and the each world starts to diverge. In what we come to think of as the alternate reality (called Prime) there was a flu epidemic in the 90’s that wiped out a large section of the population. A subset of Prime’s Office of Intelligence believe that this was a deliberate flu outbreak and they form a rogue group (Indigo) to enact revenge. What do you do when the spy could be your counterpart? We find out that Indigo has been sending in people to replace their counterparts in the Alpha reality, and we find out more in season 2 more about their plan to exact revenge for the “flu pandemic.” Now we have a SF show combined with a spy thriller set in Berlin with echoes of cold war dramas. There is an agency monitoring both sides, secret embassies, espionage between parallel worlds and a rogue group (Indigo) from the Prime reality out for revenge on the Alpha reality. All of the ingredients for what could be a long meaty story, there are lots of avenues that can be explored in such a situation

Hints of the authoritarian nature of the Prime timeline]

We do not get far into the socio-political situations of both realities. There is enough to hint at the concerns round disease in the Prime reality. When the Howard Alpha visits the Prime reality we see street scenes of pedestrians with masks, street hand sanitizers, and posters stating failure to report an illness is a crime. We rapidly get the impression that the Prime reality is more authoritarian. Small things show the difference between the realities. The sky line for Berlin in Prime is very different from Alpha’s. Alpha has cell phones that are translucent (Prime’s are like ours). Alpha’s people wear gloves and are fastidious about sanitation (because of the pandemic). A visual difference is apparent between the two realities because of the different lenses used to shoot the scenes. This was achieved by pairing old 1950’s lenses with the digital cameras for some of the city shots. The Prime world has a harsher and cooler palette, Alpha’s is warmer. Similarly Howard Alpha wears browns and is more sympathetic whilst Howard Prime is dressed in black and more aggressive. The acting is great, the characters are believable and have depth. Both J.K. Simmons and Olivia Williams come across well and believable in their Alpha and Prime counterparts. Olivia plays Emily, Howard’s wife, in both realities. In Alpha we are introduced to her in a coma and Howard Alpha visits her often in the hospital and is obviously in love. In Prime she also works for OI but is separated and estranged from Howard. As the series progresses we see more of the differences between these characters. I do not want to give away too much of the story. While the show is only two seasons and there was obviously more to tell, is this something that can still be watched? My answer is a definite yes. I would have loved for there to have been a third season (there are a lot of threads that could be followed). But I think that the end of the second season works as an ending for the story. It is not a happy ending, but if you have read spy thrillers (especially John Le Carre) the ending stands up well for that genre. So if you can go and watch it.

Health concerns in the Prime reality