Counterpart (TV series)

Counterpart
Genre	Thriller Science fiction
Created by	Justin Marks
Starring	J. K. Simmons Olivia Williams Harry Lloyd Nazanin Boniadi Sara Serraiocco Ulrich Thomsen Nicholas Pinnock
Composer	Jeff Russo
Country of origin	United States
Original languages	English German
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	5 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Bard Dorros Keith Redmon Morten Tyldum Jordan Horowitz Gary Gilbert Amy Berg Justin Marks J. K. Simmons
Production locations	Los Angeles Berlin
Cinematography	Martin Ruhe
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	56–60 minutes
Production companies	Gilbert Films Anonymous Content Gate 34 Media Rights Capital Starz Originals
Original release
Network	Starz
Release	December 10, 2017 (2017-12-10) – present

Counterpart is an American science fiction thriller television series created by Justin Marks, ordered to series by the premium cable network Starz. The first episode was directed by Morten Tyldum. Starz ordered two 10-episode seasons. The premiere episode first aired on December 10, 2017. It stars Academy Award-winning actor J. K. Simmons in a dual role.

Premise

Howard Silk works for a bureaucratic UN agency based in Berlin for thirty years, his station too low for him to be told what his work really involves. In fact, the agency is a crossing point to a parallel Earth, one that diverged from his world during the Cold War. Silk's "other" self, his counterpart from the other side, is, among other things, a field agent who regularly makes crossings to retrieve "others" who have gone rogue. Factional in-fighting in the agency on the other side spills over on to this side, putting Silk and his comatose wife in danger.

Cast

Main

• J.K. Simmons as Howard Silk, an Interface employee at the Office of Interchange (OI), a Berlin-based UN spy agency
• Olivia Williams as Emily Silk (née Burton), Howard's wife
• Harry Lloyd as Peter Quayle, the young and upper-crust OI Director of Strategy in the Alpha world
• Nazanin Boniadi as Clare, an enigmatic young woman of curious origin
• Sara Serraiocco as Nadia Fierro / Baldwin, a mysterious assassin
• Ulrich Thomsen as Aldrich, the OI Director of Housekeeping (counterintelligence) under Quayle
• Nicholas Pinnock as Ian Shaw, an aggressive OI Inquiry operative and watchdog

Recurring

• Mido Hamada as Cyrus, an OI Housekeeping operative
• Kenneth Choi as Bob Dwyer, OI Director of Strategy in the Prime world
• Guy Burnet as Claude Lambert, the Prime ambassador to the Alpha world
• Bernhard Forcher as Andrei, Howard Alpha's Go partner
• Jamie Bamber as Eric Burton, Emily's brother
• Karim Saleh as Marcel, an OI Interface employee
• Stephen Rea as Alexander Pope, a power broker on the Prime side
• Richard Schiff as Roland Fancher, OI Director of Diplomacy and Quayle's father-in-law
• Lotte Verbeek as Ringleader
• Sarah Bolger as Anna Burton-Silk, Howard and Emily's daughter on the Prime side
• Bjorn Johnson as Heinrich, a man from the Prime side living undercover on the Alpha side
• Nolan Gerard Funk as Angel Eyes, a mysterious guest who has been sent to our world from the other side with deadly purpose.
• Liv Lisa Fries as Greta
• Jacqueline Bisset as Lydia Burton, Emily's mother
• Stefan Kapičić as Lieber, Ian Shaw's right-hand man
• Jacqueline Antaramian as Ava Fancher, Roland's wife
• Christiane Paul as Mira, the leader of a clandestine group
• Ingo Rademacher as Friedrich, Quayle's best friend
• Marco Khan as Raash, Howard Prime's right-hand man, a loyal and reliable operative

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"The Crossing"	Morten Tyldum	Justin Marks	December 10, 2017 (2017-12-10)	0.394
Howard Silk is a low-level bureaucrat in a Berlin-based UN agency called the Office of Interchange, where he works in the Interface division, exchanging coded call-and-response messages with another agent. Despite his long tenure, Howard has never learned the purpose of Interface or OI. Peter Quayle, OI's Director of Strategy, later denies Howard a promotion to his department, citing Howard's lackluster career. After work, Howard visits his comatose wife Emily, who was struck by a car. The next day, Howard is taken to a separate room with Quayle and Aldrich, the Director of Housekeeping. A man identical to Howard is brought in: Howard Prime. Quayle explains that during the final years of the Cold War, the East Germans accidentally created a portal to a divergent parallel universe in the basement of what would become the OI building. Howard Prime explains that an assassin from the other side codenamed Baldwin has crossed over with a kill list that includes Howard's wife. That night, Howard Prime imitates Howard Alpha at Emily's hospital and ambushes Baldwin, but she escapes. Howard Prime returns to his side and stops by a bar where he encounters Emily Prime, whom he had told Howard Alpha was dead.
2	"Birds of a Feather"	Stephen Williams	Justin Marks	January 28, 2018 (2018-01-28)	0.506
After Howard Prime's estranged wife tells him of a rendition order against him, he kills the contractors sent to bring him in and then meets with Alexander Pope, his mentor and an influential member of Prime OI, to discuss whether the rendition order was official or a rogue assassination attempt. Pope gets him a 36-hour visa to the Alpha side. Meanwhile, Howard Alpha has been promoted to the Analysis division, and later meets with Aldrich and Prime to discuss Baldwin. Prime tells them her real name is Nadia Fierro, and her Alpha version is a virtuoso violinist. Baldwin meets with her handler Clare, who orders her to kill Nadia Alpha. Emily Prime is revealed to be in a relationship with Ian Shaw, a fellow operative. Baldwin goes to kill Nadia, but is unable to follow through. Alpha OI agents corner Baldwin, resulting in Nadia's death and Baldwin's arrest. Afterwards, Howard Alpha fumes over Nadia's unnecessary death and punches Aldrich. Emily Prime meets with Pope and declares she wants to keep the peace between both worlds. Pope answers, "I wonder when we've ever had peace" and "if there will ever come a reckoning for what they did to us."
3	"The Lost Art of Diplomacy"	Jennifer Getzinger	Amy Berg	February 4, 2018 (2018-02-04)	0.299
Emily Prime is told who ordered Howard Prime's rendition. Upon learning of imminent negotiations for Baldwin's return, Howard Prime visits Prime world ambassador Claude Lambert to have him stall for time while Aldrich and Howard Alpha interrogate Baldwin. Lambert dismisses Howard Prime's request, and Emily Prime and Ian cross over to question him about the Baldwin fiasco. At the negotiations between Lambert and Alpha OI Diplomacy director Roland Fancher, lingering tensions over the cause of a deadly pandemic that devastated the Prime world initially block progress. Emily Prime explains Pope ordered the rendition, while Prime reveals his source on the schism in Prime OI's Management is from the Alpha world. The negotiations wrap up, but Baldwin fails to crack and is later freed in an ambush. Howard Prime realizes the negotiations were a ploy and suspects Lambert's involvement. To circumvent the revocation of his crossing privileges, Prime decides to switch identities with Howard Alpha. In the Prime world, Emily Prime discovers Howard Prime's source was Emily Alpha, who asked Howard Prime to reach out to her husband if she was harmed. At her apartment, Emily Prime is drugged by intruders, who stage the drugging to look like a self-inflicted overdose.
4	"Both Sides Now"	Alik Sakharov	Erin Levy	February 11, 2018 (2018-02-11)	0.360
Howard Alpha and Howard Prime discuss their routines. Baldwin denies to Clare that she revealed anything to her captors. Alpha crosses over to the other side and is taken to Prime's apartment by Raash, an associate of Prime. Prime arrives at Alpha OI to work, but leaves when he finds he'll only be working payroll. Alpha discovers Prime has an estranged daughter, Anna Burton-Silk, and learns from her that Emily Prime is still alive but hospitalized due to an apparent overdose. Lambert secretly meets with Clare, relaying her superiors' dissatisfaction and orders to remove Baldwin. Howard Prime visits an old contact, Heinrich, who reveals Pope and Lambert are part of a faction of fanatics who have been smuggling crossers to the Alpha world for years; among the crossers was a mole who has been placed high-up in Alpha OI's Strategy. Howard Alpha bluffs his way through meeting Emily Prime and Ian, but Emily catches on. Clare deceives Baldwin and sends an assassin to dispose of her; Baldwin kills the assassin. Howard Alpha and Emily Prime decide to work together to aid Howard Prime. Howard Prime concludes he must must live Alpha's life until Quayle can smoke out the mole.
5	"Shaking the Tree"	Stephen Williams	Zak Schwartz	February 18, 2018 (2018-02-18)	0.416
Three infiltrators cross over from the Prime world. Clare confronts Heinrich over Howard Prime. Howard Alpha encounters Pope, who is aware that Alpha and Prime switched and attempts to sow distrust between Alpha and Emily Prime; Alpha informs Emily, who believes Pope was behind her "overdose". They seek out a diplomatic courier linked to the fanatics and Lambert. Emily elaborates that the Prime world's pandemic was a form of flu that killed half a billion people in the early 1990s. Prime world defector Alice explains to Quayle and Aldrich that Prime OI's Strategy implemented an unauthorized program called Indigo, which set up "the School" to train sleeper agents from childhood; Indigo was funded off-the-books by Prime OI staff who blamed Alpha OI for the pandemic. Alice also mentions an agent codenamed Shadow may have been sent to infiltrate Alpha OI five years ago. When Andrei suspiciously tries to visit Emily Alpha under another name, Howard Prime breaks into his apartment and uncovers Emily Alpha's research, but discovers Andrei is only a civilian who had been having an affair with Emily. Clare gives the three infiltrators their orders, unaware Baldwin stalks her. Howard Alpha tries to forge a relationship with Anna.
6	"Act Like You've Been Here Before"	Jennifer Getzinger	Justin Britt-Gibson	February 25, 2018 (2018-02-25)	N/A
7	"The Sincerest Form of Flattery"	Alik Sakharov	Unknown	March 4, 2018 (2018-03-04)	N/A
8	"Love the Lie"	Alik Sakharov	Amy Berg & Gary Gilbert & Jordan Horowitz	March 11, 2018 (2018-03-11)	N/A
9	"No Man's Land, Part One"	Stephen Williams	Unknown	March 18, 2018 (2018-03-18)	N/A
10	"No Man's Land, Part Two"	Jennifer Getzinger	Unknown	March 25, 2018 (2018-03-25)	N/A

Production

The series was ordered in April 2015 with J. K. Simmons announced to star. Production began in December 2016 in Los Angeles, and it was announced that the series would be filmed in additional locations across the U.S. and Europe in 2017, including Berlin, where the series is set.

Reception

Ratings

Viewership and ratings per episode of Counterpart

No.	Title	Air date	Rating/share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"The Crossing"	December 10, 2017	0.1	0.394	—	—
2	"Birds of a Feather"	January 28, 2018	0.1	0.506	0.510	1.016
3	"The Lost Art of Diplomacy"	February 4, 2018	0.1	0.299	0.532	0.831
4	"Both Sides Now"	February 11, 2018	0.1	0.360	TBD	TBD
5	"Shaking the Tree"	February 18, 2018	0.1	0.416	TBD	TBD

Critical response

Counterpart has been well-received by critics. The first season has a "certified fresh" 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating 8.39 out of 10 based on 29 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Tense and gripping, The Counterpart is an absorbing thrill-fest led by J.K. Simmons' multi-faceted dual lead performance." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 76 out of 100 based 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

External links

• Counterpart at IMDb