Apple TV's 5-Part Spy Show Masterpiece Rejected The Bond Formula Immediately

For better or worse, James Bond has defined the spy genre. When we think of spy novels or spy movies, 007 is the first thing that comes to mind. The works of John le Carré had an edge of realism in their portrayal of the ins and outs of espionage, but Ian Fleming’s Bond books — and Eon’s subsequent movies — were pure escapism. Much in the same way the anti-westerns of Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah deconstructed the traditional John Wayne-style western, a bunch of parodies and revisionisms have deconstructed Bond-style spy capers.