The Iranian Faraz’s cat-and-mouse game with the Israeli Tamar is the backbone of the story. But unlike “24,” in which the American agent Jack Bauer is the unquestioned hero, or “The Americans,” in which our emotions are clearly directed to the Soviet moles, “Tehran” doesn’t have precisely defined rooting interests. The resourceful, constantly improvising Tamar is the protagonist, but the most sympathetic character is Faraz, a devoted husband to his sick wife and a loyal, dogged agent ill-used by a government and an intelligence apparatus portrayed as rigid and corrupt.
It’s hard to say how much of Faraz’s appeal is in the writing and how much is thanks to the quiet, unassuming work of Toub (who played an Iranian spy in “Homeland”). He gives Faraz layers of pride, anger, exasperation and compassion as he tracks Tamar while being bullied by his superiors and leaned on by his wife, Naahid (Shila Ommi), whose troubles become a focal point in Season 2.
Sultan doesn’t have Toub’s resources as an actor, but she is quite appealing as Tamar, a hero who isn’t always easy to like — her life-or-death decisions, which often affect other people badly, seem to be driven as much by her need to prove herself as by her devotion to Israel.
“Tehran” works at subverting expectations, and — major Season 1 spoiler here — one of its big surprises was that Tamar’s first mission failed, though she redeemed herself by saving most of the Israeli airplanes from destruction. She remains in Tehran in Season 2, tasked with helping to rescue a pilot who was shot down. She’s aided by some local Mossad operatives, including a new character played with an exquisite chill by Glenn Close, and by her fellow hacker and now boyfriend, the Iranian dissident Milad (Shervin Alenabi).
As events inevitably spiral and Tamar repeatedly dodges or disobeys orders to exfiltrate herself and Milad, credibility and plot contrivance do a wild dance. Tamar’s and Milad’s pictures are up all over Tehran, but no one recognizes them or notices the yellow taxi driven by a local agent that keeps picking them up all over town. Back in Israel, the Mossad appears to have instant access to every closed-circuit camera in Tehran. The security details of high-ranking Iranian officials and their relatives are inept or nonexistent.
