The Sympathizer
Overview
The Sympathizer is a 2024 black comedy spy thriller television miniseries created by Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar for HBO, based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The series stars Hoa Xuande as the Captain, a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy who works for the South Vietnamese army. The series is set in the final days of the Vietnam War and in the United States. The Captain is a mole, embedded in the South Vietnamese government. He escapes to America with his general and continues to spy on the Vietnamese community. The series also stars Robert Downey Jr. in multiple roles, playing various white authority figures. The series was a critical success, praised for its performances, its direction, and its complex exploration of identity, colonialism, and the Vietnam War. It is a limited series, so a second season is not expected.
