Tehran Review: The Spy Thriller for Fans of Homeland and 24
Do you have a Homeland– or 24-sized hole in your TV viewing?
Then Tehran is the show for you.
Warning: There will be spoilers in this review.
Tehran sits right in the sweet spot between Homeland’s slower, more methodical spy pacing and 24’s high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled action. It has the patience of a smart espionage drama, but when it wants to hit the gas, it absolutely does.
The premise is simple and effective: Tamar, a Mossad computer hacker, is smuggled into the heart of Tehran for a mission. Each season then resets with a new operation, new complications, and new dangers.
And that’s the first thing I love about this show: it feels like it has real stakes. Aside from Tamar, no one is safe.
That alone would make Tehran worth watching, but what really separates it from a lot of other spy shows is its nuance. Tehran doesn’t just use Iran as a backdrop for action. It takes the time to show the many layers of modern-day Iranian society. We spend time with religious university students, artists, ruthless intelligence officers, wealthy elites, and drug dealers. The show does an excellent job of painting the full tapestry of a complex society.
Even better, the writing rarely falls into easy moral binaries. The worst characters usually have at least a trace of humanity, and even the best characters carry a dark thread somewhere beneath the surface.
Tamar may be the lead, but for the first three seasons, Shaun Toub as IRGC intelligence officer Faraz Kamali has been the secret weapon of this show.
Most viewers will know Toub from Crash and Iron Man, and Homeland fans may remember him from a similarly memorable role there. Faraz is one of the show’s best creations: a hard, dangerous man who loves his country and loves his wife, and who is constantly forced to choose between those loyalties. That internal conflict gives the character real weight, and Toub plays it perfectly. Tamar may be the lead, but Faraz is 1B on the call sheet. His three-season arc keeps building until it delivers what was, for me, the biggest surprise of the Season 3 finale.
The supporting cast around Tamar is also one of the show’s strengths. The “Bird Men”—first The Eagle in Season 1 and then The Owl in Season 3—add exactly the kind of mystery and intrigue that great spy shows need. They help make each season feel distinct while keeping the world of the show feeling larger than what Tamar alone can see.
Then there are the big-name additions: Glenn Close in Season 2 and Hugh Laurie in Season 3.
Glenn Close is excellent—because of course she is—but her star power almost works against the show a little. Even with a credible backstory, she never quite disappears into the ensemble. You’re always aware that Glenn Close has arrived.
Hugh Laurie, on the other hand, is a much smoother fit. Introduced in Season 3 as a nuclear inspector, he brings all the gravitas and unpredictability you’d expect, but he feels far more naturally integrated into the cast. His storyline is one of the season’s strongest, and it keeps you guessing all the way to the final moments.
A year ago, that probably would have been the end of my review. I would have simply told you Tehran is one of the better spy thrillers on TV and left it at that.
But now, with a very real war unfolding so publicly, the show raises a bigger question: Do we need Tehran right now? And should we be watching it?
That brings me back to 24, the show I’d compare Tehran to the most.
24 was developed before 9/11, but it premiered in November 2001, at a moment when audiences were ready to watch a protagonist overcome impossible odds. At times, it could feel like propaganda or pure hero worship—but that has always been part of the DNA of certain action stories. We were raised on John Wayne. We were raised on Rocky. Sometimes people want a story that gives them someone to root for.
And in that vein, and in these times, Tehran is not just a great spy show.
It’s a gripping, emotionally layered thriller that still manages to offer a small reason to hope.
My Final Recommendation
- Season 1: Must Watch
- Season 2: Watchable (Do Not Binge)
- Season 3: Must Watch
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