spy thriller tv series
Most Popular Spy Thriller Series
The Americans – Cold War drama about Soviet spies posing as a suburban American family.
Condor – Modern CIA conspiracy thriller starring Max Irons.
Berlin Station – Espionage drama set in Germany, following CIA operatives.
Counterpart – Sci-fi espionage series with parallel universes and double lives.
Slow Horses – British spy drama about MI5 misfits, starring Gary Oldman.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) – Reimagined series starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine.
Homeland – Award-winning Showtime series about CIA operations and terrorism threats.
Alias – J.J. Abrams’ early 2000s hit starring Jennifer Garner as a double agent.
Jack Ryan – Amazon Prime series based on Tom Clancy’s novels, starring John Krasinski.
Key 1970s Spy Thriller Series
The Bionic Woman (1976–1978) – A spin-off featuring Jaime Sommers, also enhanced with bionics, tackling espionage missions and covert threats.
Thriller (UK) (1973–1976) – Anthology series created by Brian Clemens, blending espionage, crime, and psychological suspense in self-contained episodes.
Callan (1967–1972, with specials into the 1970s) – British series about a reluctant secret agent working for a shadowy government department, known for its gritty realism.
The Man from Atlantis (1977–1978) – Though more sci-fi, it incorporated espionage elements with secret missions and government intrigue.
The Sandbaggers (1978–1980) – Critically acclaimed British series portraying MI6 operations with stark realism, often called the “thinking person’s spy show.”
It Takes a Thief (1968–1970) – Though starting in the late ’60s, it ran into the early ’70s, starring Robert Wagner as a thief recruited by the government for espionage missions.
Key Spy Thriller Series of the 1960s
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968) – NBC’s stylish espionage drama about agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin working for a global spy organization.
Mission: Impossible (1966–1973) – CBS classic featuring the Impossible Missions Force, known for its daring covert operations and iconic theme music.
Danger Man (1960–1968, UK; retitled Secret Agent in the U.S.) – Patrick McGoohan starred as John Drake, a secret agent tackling international espionage cases.
I Spy (1965–1968) – Groundbreaking series starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby as globe-trotting agents, notable for being the first American drama with an African-American lead.
Get Smart (1965–1970) – A satirical take on spy thrillers, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, spoofing the genre with bumbling agent Maxwell Smart.
The Avengers (1961–1969, UK) – Stylish British series mixing espionage with eccentric plots, featuring John Steed and Emma Peel.
The Prisoner (1967–1968, UK) – A surreal, philosophical spy drama where a former agent is trapped in a mysterious village, exploring themes of freedom and control.
Honey West (1965–1966) – Short-lived but notable for featuring one of TV’s first female private detectives with espionage undertones.
Key Spy Thriller Series of the 1950s
I Led 3 Lives (1953–1956) – Based on the real-life experiences of Herbert Philbrick, who lived as a citizen, a Communist, and an FBI counterspy. It dramatized the tension of double lives during the early Cold War and was nominated for Primetime Emmys.
Five Fingers (1959–1960) – A short-lived NBC series starring David Hedison as a counterintelligence agent working undercover in Europe, inspired by the real-life spy story of “Cicero”.
Danger Man precursor projects – While Danger Man itself launched in 1960, late-1950s British TV experimented with espionage themes, setting the stage for the genre’s boom.
Crime and detective dramas with espionage elements – Shows like Dragnet (1951–1959) and Highway Patrol (1955–1959) weren’t strictly spy thrillers but occasionally touched on counterintelligence and Cold War paranoia.
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