Counterpart (TV Series)
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| 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(s) | Jeff Russo | |
| Country of origin | United States | |
| Language(s) | English | |
| No. of Seasons | 1 | |
| No. of episodes | 10 (list of episodes) | |
| Production | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Amy Berg Justin Marks Bard Dorros Keith Redmon Morten Tyldum Jordan Horowitz Gary Gilbert | |
| Production location(s) | Los Angeles Berlin | |
| Cinematography | Hagen Bogdanski Luc Montpellier Martin Ruhe Philipp Blaubach Tobias Datum | |
| Camera setup | Single-camera | |
| Running time | 56–60 minutes | |
| Production company(s) | Gilbert Films Anonymous Content Gate 34 Media Rights Capital Studio Babelsberg Starz Originals | |
| Release | ||
| Original network | Starz | |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) | |
| Original run | December 10, 2017 – present | |
| External links | ||
Counterpart is an American science fiction thriller television series created by Justin Marks on the premium cable network Starz. It has been picked up for two 10-episode seasons. The first episode was directed by Morten Tyldum. The premiere episode first aired on December 10, 2017. It stars Academy Award–winning actor J. K. Simmons in a dual role.
In February 2018, Starz announced that production had begun in Berlin on the second season. The 10-episode second season is scheduled to premiere on December 9, 2018.
Contents |
Premise
Cast and characters
Main
- J. K. Simmons as Howard Silk (Alpha), an Interface employee at the Office of Interchange (OI), a Berlin-based UN spy agency
- Simmons also portrays Howard Silk (Prime), an accomplished clandestine agent for Section 2 of the Office of Interchange in the Prime world.
- Olivia Williams as Emily Silk (née Burton), Howard's wife
- Harry Lloyd as Peter Quayle, OI Director of Strategy in the Alpha world
- Nazanin Boniadi as Clare, Peter Quayle's wife and a mole from the Prime world
- Sara Serraiocco as Nadia Fierro / Baldwin, a mysterious assassin from the Prime world
- Ulrich Thomsen as Aldrich, OI Director of Housekeeping in the Alpha world
- Nicholas Pinnock as Ian Shaw, an aggressive OI Housekeeping operative and watchdog in the Prime world
- Mido Hamada as Cyrus, an OI Housekeeping operative under Aldrich
- Betty Gabriel as Naya Temple, a former FBI agent hired by the OI to clean house (season 2)
Recurring
- 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
- Stephen Rea as Alexander Pope, Howard Prime's mentor and an influential associate of the Indigo program
- Bernhard Forcher as Andrei, Howard Alpha's Go partner.
- Sarah Bolger as Anna Burton-Silk, Howard and Emily Prime's daughter
- Bjorn Johnson as Heinrich, an expatriate from the Prime world and part of Howard Prime's contact network
- Lotte Verbeek as Ringleader, one of a trio of infiltrators from the Prime world
- Jamie Bamber as Eric Burton, Emily's brother.
- Karim Saleh as Marcel, an OI Interface employee in the Alpha world
- Richard Schiff as Roland Fancher, OI Director of Diplomacy and Quayle's father-in-law
- Nolan Gerard Funk as Angel Eyes, one of a trio of infiltrators from the Prime world
- Liv Lisa Fries as Greta, a barista who becomes involved with Baldwin
- Jacqueline Bisset as Charlotte 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 head of the Indigo program's school
- Ingo Rademacher as Friedrich, Quayle's best friend
- Marco Khan as Raash, Howard Prime's right-hand man, a loyal and reliable operative
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 10 | December 10, 2017 | April 1, 2018 | |
| 2 | 10 | December 9, 2018 | 2019 | |
Season 1 (2017–18)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Crossing" | Morten Tyldum | Justin Marks | December 10, 2017[b] | 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 age and lackluster career. After work, Howard visits his comatose wife Emily, who was struck by a car. The next day, Howard is taken to a room with Quayle and Aldrich, the Director of Housekeeping. A man identical to Howard is brought in: Howard Prime.[a] 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 Prime world 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 world and visits a bar where he encounters Emily Prime, whom he had told Howard Alpha was dead. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Birds of a Feather" | Stephen Williams | Justin Marks | January 28, 2018 | 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 | 3 | "The Lost Art of Diplomacy" | Jennifer Getzinger | Amy Berg | February 4, 2018 | 0.299 |
| 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 to Howard Prime that Pope ordered his rendition, while Howard 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 engineered by Clare. 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 | 4 | "Both Sides Now" | Alik Sakharov | Erin Levy | February 11, 2018 | 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 the position is drudgework. 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. With Quayle in tow, Howard Prime visits an old contact, Heinrich, who reveals Pope and Lambert are with 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 live Alpha's life until Quayle can smoke out the mole. | ||||||
Season 2
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes
- a. ^ Per series creator Justin Marks, the "other" Howard is referred to as Howard Prime, and "our" Howard is referred to as Howard Alpha, or simply Howard.
- b. ^ The pilot episode was later re-aired on January 21, 2018.
Production
Reception
Critical response
Ratings
| No. | Title | Air date | Rating (18–49) | Viewers (millions) | DVR viewers (18–49) | Total viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Crossing" | December 10, 2017 | 0.1 | 0.394 | N/A | N/A |
| 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 | 0.484 | 0.844 |
| 5 | "Shaking the Tree" | February 18, 2018 | 0.1 | 0.416 | N/A | N/A |
| 6 | "Act Like You've Been Here Before" | February 25, 2018 | 0.1 | 0.429 | N/A | N/A |
| 7 | "The Sincerest Form of Flattery" | March 4, 2018 | 0.1 | 0.268 | 0.485 | 0.753 |
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|
Home media
The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 31, 2018. The set includes all 10 episodes plus two behind-the-scenes featurettes.
