Critic Reviews

The Assets isn't flashy, but boy, is it effective. It just grinds away, laying down intriguing details of "asset" care and feeding, made vivid through determined performances and intense crescendos.

Rhys and Whittaker are terrific and the two big reasons to watch the series.... Speaking of assets, credibility of the story is nicely enhanced by muted cinematography and art direction, emphasizing that catching spies is done by nondescript men and women who lead seemingly normal lives and work in under-decorated offices deciphering codes and other information.

It’s got some of the same appeal [as Scandal], but at its core, it’s a strong spy thriller with a few fascinating characters, not a splashy nighttime soap. And that’s okay.

A scripted eight-part miniseries from a subdivision of ABC News, “The Assets” is an unexpectedly good placeholder for regular time-period-occupant “Scandal,” if perhaps a little too slow-going to connect with that show’s “OMG TV” crowd.

It is tonally odd yet quite likable.

Truthfully, it doesn’t add much value to have Grimes’ husband Gary (Julian Ovendon) deliver a melodramatic speech, accompanied by appropriate mood music, about how he married her because he knew she wanted to save the world. Fortunately, the hunt itself has been crisply framed.

Not a brilliant effort, but worth a look.

In Assets, I wanted more about Ames and his motives--and maybe that will come later--but this is Grimes’ story, right down to how her job affected her home life.

Spy games aren’t nearly as fun when you know who the mole is from the start. That’s the main problem with this unsuspenseful eight-part miniseries.

Despite the often eerie parallels to the Showtime thriller, ABC’s eight-part miniseries The Assets is based on fact. That does nothing to make it compelling.