15 Spy Thriller Shows You’ll Want To Finish In One Sitting

A Spy Among Friends

Based on the true story of British double agent Kim Philby, the series explores betrayal from the inside out, focusing on the friendship between Philby and MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott. Rather than chasing action, A Spy Among Friends zeroes in on trust, loyalty, and quiet manipulation. Well, personal intimacy can turn into the most dangerous weapon of all.

Slow Horses

Slow Horses is a spy show that feels different in the best way. It follows a group of MI5 agents who have made mistakes and get sent to Slough House, where they do boring work and wait out their careers. Gary Oldman plays their boss, Jackson Lamb, who is rude, messy, and surprisingly brilliant. Even though these agents are treated like failures, danger still finds them, and they end up in serious situations.

The Little Drummer Girl

Adapted from John le Carré’s novel, the breakout Florence Pugh series follows a young actress pulled into a high-stakes Mossad operation, where performance becomes a weapon. It’s visually striking and psychologically dense, blurring the line between role-playing and identity.

The Spy

Based on true events, The Spy stars Sacha Baron Cohen in a dramatic turn as Eli Cohen, an Israeli intelligence agent who infiltrates Syria’s political elite in the 1960s. The series is tense and honestly, quite understated. Viewers see the emotional toll of deep-cover espionage rather than spectacle. This is realism and tragic inevitability that ultimately makes one of the most haunting spy thrillers on TV.

The Night Agent

Netflix’s The Night Agent wastes no time throwing its hero into chaos. Gabriel Basso plays FBI agent Peter Sutherland, stuck on a dull overnight hotline job until an emergency call turns his life upside down. Rose needs protection, and assassins appear fast, forcing Peter into a deadly chase tied to government secrets.

Spy/Master

Spy/Master delivers a Cold War escape thriller packed with paranoia and constant risk. Alec Secăreanu stars as Victor Godeanu, a trusted advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu who secretly works for the KGB. His double life starts collapsing, leaving him only a short window to flee Romania before enemies close in. Suspicion hangs over every meeting, and even allies feel dangerous.

The Night Manager

Based on John le Carré’s novel, The Night Manager follows a charming hotel employee named Jonathan Pine as he’s recruited by British intelligence to infiltrate the inner circle of an international arms dealer. The show is incredibly stylish, slow-burning, and packed with tension. The psychological warfare never stops, and this prestige spy-thriller rarely disappoints.

Special Ops: Lioness

Special Ops: Lioness is a tough spy series led by Zoe Saldaña. She plays a CIA operative running dangerous missions to take down terrorist threats. The story takes inspiration from real-life women who worked in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which adds more weight to the action. Missions feel intense, and the show doesn’t sugarcoat how risky this work can be.

Jack Ryan

Amazon’s Jack Ryan reimagines Tom Clancy’s iconic analyst as a field-ready operative. We get to witness him navigating global terrorism, political conspiracies, and covert warfare in a fast-paced and action-heavy manner. Of course, the stakes are high for humanity and the missions often spiral into high-risk international crises.

Citadel

Amazon’s Citadel is a big-budget spy thriller made for fans of global action. Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas play elite agents connected to a secret spy organisation. The problem is, their memories have been wiped, and a dangerous group called Manticore is hunting them down. As they try to remember who they really are, they also have to stop a major threat.

Black Doves

Black Doves blends espionage with personal betrayal, centering on a woman (Kiera Knightley) living a double life as a spy embedded in British high society. When her secrets collide with a political assassination, alliances fracture and loyalties are tested.

The Recruit

The Recruit is a fun spy thriller where Noah Centineo plays Owen Hendricks, a young CIA lawyer who expects a normal job, but ends up in a dangerous international mess. Things get wild when he meets Max Meladze, a former CIA asset who pulls him deeper into trouble. Owen has no field experience, so watching him try to survive this world is both tense and funny.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith gives the spy-couple premise a modern upgrade, pairing stylish action beats with clever humor. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine play two strangers assigned new identities as “married” agents, forced to survive missions while navigating an unexpectedly complicated partnership.

The Bureau

Widely considered one of the most realistic spy shows ever made, The Bureau dives deep into the inner workings of French intelligence. The series focuses on long-term undercover agents whose fabricated identities begin to consume their real lives. Methodical, cerebral, and emotionally devastating, it favors psychological tension and moral ambiguity over action, making every quiet moment feel dangerous.

Tehran

Tehran follows a Mossad hacker sent on a dangerous undercover mission in Iran that quickly spirals out of control. Grounded in realism and regional politics, the series thrives on relentless tension, moral ambiguity, and cat-and-mouse suspense. In this volatile world, survival is never guaranteed.