John Le Carre thrillers do not thrill me. I think the whole genre is the way that men used to deal with feeling about relationships except writ on a global stage. If a tv show or movie’s whole premise is super serious and grave and focuses on a fictional country, I could care less even if it is a thin alias for a real one. The State Within is not my style. I only chose to watch The State Within because Lennie James is in it, and I loved him in Jericho and The Walking Dead. Basically 9/11-style attack in DC leads to machinations on the global, national and state levels that intersect into one big conspiracy. I am not into mystery shows and thrillers are just mysteries involving governments and corporations instead of people. You have to really care about the details and characters without enough character development before the explosions occur, and I never do. Wine and dine an audience before the big bang. If this genre is your thing and you’re the opposite of me, then The State Within is a must see. If I didn’t like all the actors involved, I probably would not have finished the first episode–the British ambassador races from his car to save lives and then….well, you’ll see. It induced massive eye rolls. I didn’t realize that I liked seeing Sharon Gless so much until she was in front of me. I don’t think that I saw Cagney & Lacey. Someone give her some work!