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Vincent Cassel and Eva Green in a still from Liaison. The pair must navigate the murky waters of their mutual history and work together in the six-part spy thriller. Photo: Apple TV+
Opinion
What a view
by Stephen McCarty
What a view
by Stephen McCarty

Bond girl Eva Green turns spy once again in new Apple TV+ thriller, facing off against a merciless Vincent Cassel

  • Green plays a James Bond-like conflicted British agent with a past in Liaison, a new Apple TV+ thriller featuring action, espionage, bent officials and more
  • Meanwhile, on Disney+, Choi Min-sik returns to star as a ruthless billionaire casino owner in the complex, perceptive, violent second series of Big Bet
Stephen McCarty
Stephen McCarty
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Eva Green gives good scowl – something she has managed consistently since her biggest break, in the James Bond outing Casino Royale (2006).

And her glare goes up to 11 throughout Liaison (Apple TV+), in which Green plays a conflicted British government cybersecurity agent with a cloudy past. Starring opposite her is Vincent Cassel as a merciless French mercenary who seems to choose sides to suit himself as the action develops.

Good thug or nasty thug, there is always something chillingly efficient about Cassel; perhaps being typecast is not so lamentable.

The pair must navigate the murky waters of their mutual history while trying to extract two Syrian hackers from the Middle East, then Europe, as cyberattacks of gathering magnitude hit London – and everyone’s favourite bad guys, the Russians, lurk with intent of their own.

Eva Green in a still from Liaison. Photo: Apple TV+
Liaison is a slick six-part thriller featuring breathless action, espionage agencies, unrestrained private security companies, bent government officials and alleged terrorists tripping over each other to sell what they know, avoid Armageddon or merely survive. It also pointedly and repeatedly confronts the great British Brexit catastrophe and its potential effect on global political stability.

“Europe is not our enemy,” wheezes one weary official, coining what might have been a handy slogan for the infamous Brexit bus.

Criminals, spies and consular troubles in BBC crime drama The Diplomat

Enemies at the gate

It is a truism – one that rarely registers with gamblers – that in gambling the house always wins.

But what happens when the house is not a Macau or Las Vegas cash factory and instead a relatively benevolent independent operator? That man is Cha Moo-sik, and he is back in the complex, perceptive, violent second series of Big Bet (Disney+).
Choi Min-sik in a still from Big Bet. Photo: Disney+

It is not that Moo-sik (played by Choi Min-sik) cannot be brutal when the occasion demands – he does not shirk confrontation, even with a gun to his head – but these days, as the billionaire proprietor of the Philippines’ Bolton Casino, he lets henchmen do most of the dirty work when rivals and hitmen must be reminded who is boss.

The difference between Moo-sik the mogul and some of the mobsters trying to take him down is that, as often as not, Moo-sik will let even his most vindictive enemies live. He has also been known to reject a sinecure – a cushy job – offered by the corrupt power behind the Manila government.

Last time out, having fled South Korea for the Philippines when his casino bar attracted the taxman’s attention, Moo-sik took a punt himself, on a casino proper, and came up trumps. Which meant entering a world of bigger stakes, more vicious villains and increasingly intense betrayals.

Son Suk-ku in a still from Big Bet. Photo: Disney+
All this puts Moo-sik, already framed for murder against a backdrop of the killings of Korean visitors, in the orbit of local drug squad officer Mark Flores (Nico Antonio) and new partner Oh Seung-hoon (Son Suk-ku), awkwardly foisted on him by Korean police counterparts.
From the other side of the law comes a gang of Korean thugs hired to give him a severe beating, and bitter, somewhat hapless gangster Seo Tae-seok (an intimidating yet pitiable Heo Sung-tae).

Tae-seok alternately wants to work for, and kill, Moo-sik, but never quite seems to manage either.

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Moo-sik’s existence on just the right side of the law requires the sort of nuanced performance that garnered Choi plaudits in series one, which saw him reappear on the small screen after a quarter of a century of films.

Gamblers at the Bolton are still going to lose their money, predictably, but the owner’s personal touch means that, while doing so, they feel slightly less anonymous than they would in Macau.

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