Animation
Pokémon Horizons: The Series
The latest TV series in the sprawling Pokémon franchise comes with familiar charms—and familiar issues.
Everyone knows it’s a bad idea to mix your personal and professional lives. At least, most everyone knows. Clearly, Martian missed the memo.
And as a high-level CIA operative who puts his life on the line every single day, that probably should have been a memo he paid attention to.
Brandon Colby, codename “Martian,” just returned to the Central Intelligence Agency after six years undercover in Ethiopia. During that time, he became involved with an anthropology professor named Samia Zahir, and things got serious.
They got so serious, in fact, that even when he’s called back to London, he can’t get past her—even though he knows he should. The moment Samia visits London for work, they pick up right where they left off.
This complicates things for multiple reasons. One, Samia is married, and her husband that she may not be entirely faithful. Two, she doesn’t know Martian is a CIA agent. Three, Martian just served his enemies a way to exploit him on a silver platter.
While the CIA navigates issues such as an abducted agent, Russian mercenaries, tense geopolitical negotiations and the possibility of a mole in the agency, Martian must also keep Samia safe from those who would use her to manipulate him. Because at the end of the day, if he’s forced to choose between her and his country, where he lands is anyone’s guess.
Here’s a fun fact: the life of a CIA field operative (at least, a CIA field operative on TV) is dangerous. As in, really dangerous. Gunfights, torture and near-death experiences are all in a day’s work.
That danger is certainly apparent in The Agency, which features violence and tense situations at every turn. Shootouts are bloody, beatings are brutal, and terrorists torture and execute prisoners in chilling ways.
Not every scene takes place in exotic and dangerous locales, of course. But if you think you can relax in the comfort of the show’s CIA offices, think again. Language is constant throughout nearly every scene, and some characters drink and use drugs.
Then there’s Martian’s personal life and the issues that come with it. Throughout season one, he has multiple encounters with Samia, some of which feature female nudity. Women also wear revealing outfits at parties, and characters use graphic sexual dialogue.
It’s tough out there for CIA operatives, and Martian doesn’t make it any easier for himself by adding personal entanglements. He also doesn’t make it easier on us viewers. Given the violence, sexual content and foul language, navigating this spy thriller is nearly as dangerous as life in the field.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
With Samia being held hostage by Sudanese soldiers, Martian agrees to become a double agent for the British government if they promise to rescue her. Meanwhile in Iran, undercover agent Danny gets close to a nuclear researcher, putting her cover at risk.
The British government’s attempt to rescue Samia ends in a violent shootout with Sudanese forces. Excessive blood flies from gunshot wounds as soldiers are killed. The CIA is sent a video of Russian mercenaries executing a prisoner with a sledgehammer; the scene cuts away just before the impact, but we still hear it offscreen. The CIA agents discuss the video using graphic language. At a party in Iran, Danny’s friend Zak is brutally beaten and stabbed in the leg with a fork.
At the same party, female guests undress in the bathroom to change into party clothes. No nudity is shown, but we see multiple women in their underwear. Zak ogles a woman in a low-cut dress, and the woman’s boyfriend uses explicit sexual language when confronting him about it. Two CIA agents kiss in a car, and it looks as though things are about to go further until one of the agents gets a call and has to leave.
Sudanese soldiers smoke cigarettes, and guests at the party in Iran snort cocaine. Martian and his CIA colleagues drink whiskey and smoke cigars to celebrate a mission’s success.
The f-word is used 27 times, while the s-word is used seven. “A–“ is used three times. “D-ck” and “b—-rd” are each used once, and God’s name is taken in vain once.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
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