TV Shows & Series: Best "spy" TV Shows/Series

The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films). Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, le Carré, Ian Fleming (Bond) and Len Deighton. It is a significant aspect of British cinema, with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions and many films set in the British Secret Service. Spy films show the espionage activities of government agents and their risk of being discovered by their enemies. From the Nazi espionage thrillers of the 1940s to the James Bond films of the 1960s and to the high-tech blockbusters of today, the spy film has always been popular with audiences worldwide. Offering a combination of exciting escapism, technological thrills, and exotic locales, many spy films combine the action and science fiction genres, presenting clearly delineated heroes for audiences to root for and villains for them to hate. They may also involve elements of political thrillers. However, there are many that are comedic (mostly action comedy films if they fall under that genre). James... ()

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139 TV shows/series found (page 1/5):

Airwolf(1984-1987)

48min per episode | Action & Adventure, Science-Fiction & Fantasy

3.8/5 (with 202 votes)

As part of a deal with an intelligence agency to look for his missing brother, a renegade pilot goes on missions with an advanced battle helicopter.

With Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, Jean Bruce Scott, Jan Tříska, David Hemmings, ...

Scarecrow and Mrs. King(1983-1987)

1h per episode | Action & Adventure, Drama

3.1/5 (with 17 votes)

Scarecrow and Mrs. King is an American television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show stars Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level "Agency" operative Lee Stetson who begin a strange association, and eventual romance, after encountering one another in a train station.

With Kate Jackson, Bruce Boxleitner, Beverly Garland, Mel Stewart, Martha Smith

La Femme Nikita(1997-2001)

1h per episode | Action & Adventure, Drama

3.7/5 (with 112 votes)

La Femme Nikita was a Canadian action/drama television series based on the French film Nikita by Luc Besson. The series was co-produced by Jay Firestone of Fireworks Entertainment and Warner Bros.. It was adapted for television by Joel Surnow. The series was first telecast in North America on the USA Network cable channel on January 13, 1997, and ran for five television seasons—until March 2001. The series was also aired in Canada on the over-the-air CTV Television Network. La Femme Nikita was the highest-rated drama on American basic cable during its first two seasons. It was also distributed in some other countries, and it continues to have a strong cult following.

With Peta Wilson, Roy Dupuis, Matthew Ferguson, Don Francks, Eugene Robert Glazer, Alberta Watson, ...

MacGyver(1985-1992)

45min per episode | Action & Adventure, Drama, Kids & Family, Crime, Western

3.9/5 (with 382 votes)

He's everyone's favorite action hero... but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks up along the way, he improvises his way out of every peril the bad guys throw at him. Making a bomb out of chewing gum? Fixing a speeding car's breaks... while he's riding in it? Using soda pop to cook up tear gas? That's all in a day's adventures for MacGyver. He's part Boy Scout, part genius. And all hero.

With Richard Dean Anderson, Dana Elcar, Bruce McGill, Michael Des Barres, Traci Lords, Clive Revill, ...

K.C. Undercover(2015-2018)

25min per episode | Kids & Family, Comedy, Kids & Family, Drama

4.0/5 (with 80 votes)

K.C. Cooper, a high school math whiz and karate black-belt, learns that her parents are spies when they recruit her to join them in the secret government agency, The Organization. While she now has the latest spy gadgets at her disposal, K.C. has a lot to learn about being a spy, including keeping her new gig a secret from her best friend Marisa. Together, K.C. and her parents, Craig and Kira, and her younger siblings, Ernie and Judy (a humanoid robot), try to balance everyday family life while on undercover missions, near and far, to save the world.

Directed by Joel Zwick - With Zendaya, Tammy Townsend, Kadeem Hardison, Kamil McFadden, Trinitee Stokes, Veronica Dunne, ...

SPY x FAMILY(2022-2023)

24min per episode | Animation, Comedy, Action & Adventure

4.3/5 (with 816 votes)

World peace is at stake and secret agent Twilight must undergo his most difficult mission yet—pretend to be a family man. Posing as a loving husband and father, he’ll infiltrate an elite school to get close to a high-profile politician. He has the perfect cover, except his wife’s a deadly assassin and neither knows each other’s identity. But someone does, his adopted daughter who’s a telepath!

Directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi

The Equalizer(1985-1989)

48min per episode | Action & Adventure, Crime, Drama

3.5/5 (with 26 votes)

Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.

Directed by Michael O'Herlihy, David Jackson, Alan Metzger, Richard A. Colla, Russ Mayberry, Paul Krasny, ... - With Edward Woodward, Robert Lansing, Keith Szarabajka, Mark Margolis, Eddie Jones, William Zabka, ...

The Avengers(1961-1969)

50min per episode | Action & Adventure, Crime, Science-Fiction & Fantasy

3.8/5 (with 60 votes)

The Avengers is a British television series created in the 1960s. It initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed. Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity.

With Patrick Macnee, Ian Hendry, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Linda Thorson, Patrick Newell, ...

Spooks(2002-2011)

1h per episode | Drama, Action & Adventure, Crime

3.8/5 (with 56 votes)

Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid.

With Peter Firth, Keeley Hawes, Hugh Simon, Nicola Walker, Olga Sosnovska, Miranda Raison, ...

The Americans(2013-2018)

48min per episode | Crime, Drama

3.9/5 (with 407 votes)

Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.

With Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Maximiliano Hernández, Holly Taylor, Noah Emmerich, Annet Mahendru, ...

Slow Horses(2022-)

| Crime, Drama, Comedy

3.9/5 (with 149 votes)

This quick-witted spy drama follows a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.

Directed by James Hawes - With Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Olivia Cooke, Dustin Demri-Burns, ...

Counterpart(2017-2019)

56min per episode | Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Drama

3.7/5 (with 147 votes)

Howard Silk is a lowly cog in a bureaucratic UN agency who is turning the last corner of a life filled with regret when he discovers the agency he works for is guarding a secret: a crossing to a parallel dimension.

With J. K. Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd, Nazanin Boniadi, Sara Serraiocco, Ulrich Thomsen, ...

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Alex Rider(2020-)

45min per episode | Drama, Action & Adventure

3.9/5 (with 188 votes)

Everything changes when Alex Rider learns that his uncle Ian has actually been killed in the line of duty as a British spy. The normal teen is approached by the head of The Department and pressured to help investigate his uncle's death. Alex reluctantly assumes a new identity and goes undercover in a remote boarding school called Point Blanc.

Directed by Andreas Prochaska, Christopher Smith - With Otto Farrant, Stephen Dillane, Vicky McClure, Andrew Buchan, Brenock O'Connor, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, ...

Archer(2009-2023)

22min per episode | Comedy, Action & Adventure, Animation

4.0/5 (with 567 votes)

Sterling Archer is the world's most daunting spy. He works for ISIS, a spy agency run by his mother. In between dealing with his boss and his co-workers - one of whom is his ex-girlfriend - Archer manages to annoy or seduce everyone that crosses his path. His antics are only excusable because at the end of the day, he still somehow always manages to thwart whatever crises was threatening mankind.

Directed by Adam Reed

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Get Smart(1965-1970)

25min per episode | Comedy

4.0/5 (with 177 votes)

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show stars Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt. Henry said they created the show by request of Daniel Melnick, who was a partner, along with Leonard Stern and David Susskind, of the show's production company, Talent Associates, to capitalize on "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today"—James Bond and Inspector Clouseau. Brooks said: "It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy." This is the only Mel Brooks production to feature a laugh track. The success of the show eventually spawned the follow-up films The Nude Bomb and Get Smart, Again!, as well as a 1995 revival series and a 2008 film remake. In 2010, TV Guide ranked Get Smart's opening title sequence at No. 2 on its list of TV's Top 10 Credits Sequences, as selected by readers.

Directed by Gary Nelson, Bruce Bilson, Don Adams, James Komack, Earl Bellamy, Angelique Pettyjohn, ... - With Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Edward Platt

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.(1964-1968)

1h per episode | Action & Adventure, Comedy, Science-Fiction & Fantasy

3.5/5 (with 25 votes)

Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin work for a secret intelligence service working under the auspices of the U.N. Their immediate superior is Mr. Waverly. Together they operate out of a secret base beneath the streets of New York City, and accesses through several cover business such as Del Floria's Tailor Shop and the Masque Club. This secret intelligence service is called U.N.C.L.E. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

With Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Leo G. Carroll, Tom Curtis

The Invisible Man(2000-2002)

44min per episode | Comedy, Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Drama

3.5/5 (with 25 votes)

The Invisible Man is a Sci-Fi American television series starring Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Eddie Jones, Shannon Kenny and Michael McCafferty. Somewhat more successful than previous television series involving invisible secret agents, it aired from June 9, 2000 to February 1, 2002, lasting two seasons. The plot revolves around Darien Fawkes, a thief facing life imprisonment who was recruited by a low-rent spy organization and given the power of invisibility via implantation of a special "Quicksilver gland" in his head. The gland allows Fawkes to secrete a light-bending substance called "Quicksilver" from his pores and follicles. The substance quickly coats his skin, hair, nails and clothes and renders him invisible. He can consciously release the Quicksilver, which then flakes off and disintegrates. However, the Quicksilver gland was sabotaged at its creation by scientist Arnaud DeFehrn to release a neurotoxin that accumulates in the bloodstream and causes intense pain, followed by antisocial behavior and psychosis. The host requires regular doses of "counteragent" to keep him sane and healthy, which is controlled by said government agency. This series lasted for two seasons, before being cancelled due to cost issues and internal bickering between the Sci Fi Channel and its then-parent company, USA Networks. The show's first season ran concurrently in first-run syndication as well as on Sci Fi.

With Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Brandy Ledford

TURN: Washington's Spies(2014-2017)

War & Politics, Drama

3.6/5 (with 102 votes)

The story of New York farmer, Abe Woodhull, who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America’s fight for independence.

With Jamie Bell, Seth Numrich, Daniel Henshall, Heather Lind, Kevin McNally, Burn Gorman, ...

G.I. Joe: Renegades(2010-2011)

21min per episode | Action & Adventure, Animation

3.6/5 (with 6 votes)

The adventures of the elite G.I. Joe unit, whose members: Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Roadblock, Tunnel Rat and Ripcord were charged with crimes they did not commit. In order to clear themselves of the charges, they must expose the real culprits, who belong to the powerful corporation COBRA Industries.

Nikita(2010-2013)

42min per episode | Drama, Action & Adventure

3.7/5 (with 190 votes)

Nikita will stop at nothing to expose and destroy Division, the secret U.S. agency who trained her as a spy and assassin.

With Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, Shane West, Aaron Stanford, Melinda Clarke, Xander Berkeley, ...

Sworn to Secrecy: Secrets of War(1998)

1h per episode | War & Politics, Documentary

3.0/5 (with 1 vote)

Secrets are divulged and stories of espionage, conspiracy, murder, sabotage and greed are uncovered.

Now and Again(1999-2000)

45min per episode | Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy, Action & Adventure

3.4/5 (with 12 votes)

Now and Again is an American television series that aired in the US from September 24, 1999 until May 5, 2000 on CBS. The story revolves around the United States government engineering the perfect human body for use in espionage, but not being able to yet perfect the brain. In an attempt to get the project up and running, they take the brain of overweight family man Michael Wiseman, who is killed by a train. Given a new life, Michael is kept in an apartment where he is trained by government experts, led by Dr. Theodore Morris, in the art of espionage. Despite his new life and new abilities, Michael longs to return to his wife Lisa and daughter Heather, who are themselves discovering that not all is as it seems with Michael's death.

With Eric Close, Dennis Haysbert, Margaret Colin

She Spies(2002-2004)

43min per episode | Action & Adventure, Comedy

3.6/5 (with 11 votes)

She Spies is an action-adventure television show that ran from September 9, 2002 until May 17, 2004, in two seasons. The show was sold into syndication but the first four episodes premiered on the NBC network, whose syndication arm was one of the producers. Disappointing ratings during the show's second season led to its cancellation after season two ended. She Spies bore noticeable production and directive similarities with Charlie's Angels.

With Natasha Henstridge, Kristen Miller, Natashia Williams

The Enemy Within(2019)

43min per episode | Drama, Crime

3.5/5 (with 52 votes)

Erica Shepherd is a brilliant former CIA operative, now known as the most notorious traitor in American history serving life in a Supermax prison. Against every fiber of his being but with nowhere else to turn, FBI Agent Will Keaton enlists Shepherd to help track down a fiercely dangerous and elusive criminal she knows all too well. While Shepherd and Keaton have different motivations for bringing the enemy to justice, they both know that to catch a spy… they must think like one.

Tales of the Gold Monkey(1982-1983)

1h per episode | Action & Adventure

3.8/5 (with 12 votes)

In a backwater corner of the South Pacific in 1938, a young American adventurer and his ragtag group of friends become involved in death-defying hi-jinx, transporting people-on-the-run in a well-worn Grumman Goose seaplane.

With John Fujioka, Jeff MacKay, Marta DuBois, Caitlin O'Heaney, Stephen Collins, Roddy McDowall, ...

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.(1966-1967)

1h per episode | Action & Adventure

3.3/5 (with 4 votes)

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. is an American spy-fi TV series that aired on NBC for one season from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967. The series was a spin-off from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and used the same theme music composed by Jerry Goldsmith, which was rearranged into a slightly different, harder-edged arrangement by Dave Grusin.

Directed by John Brahm, Herschel Daugherty, Alf Kjellin, Mitchell Leisen, Leo Penn, Richard C. Sarafian, ... - With Stefanie Powers, Noel Harrison, Leo G. Carroll, Ed Asner, Joan Blondell, Tom Bosley, ...

Totally Spies!(2001-2014)

22min per episode | Animation, Kids & Family, Comedy, Action & Adventure

3.6/5 (with 95 votes)

Totally Spies! depicts three girlfriends 'with an attitude' who have to cope with their daily lives at high school as well as the unpredictable pressures of international espionage. They confront the most intimidating - and demented - of villains, each with their own special agenda for demonic, global rude behavior.

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Agent Elvis(2023)

| Animation, Comedy, Action & Adventure

3.5/5 (with 20 votes)

Elvis Presley trades in his white jumpsuit for a jet pack when he is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country he loves — all while holding down his day job as the King of Rock & Roll.

Cover Up(1984-1985)

46min per episode | Action & Adventure, Drama, Crime

3.2/5 (with 5 votes)

Cover Up is an American action/adventure television series that aired for one season on CBS from September 22, 1984 to April 6, 1985. Created by Glen A. Larson, the series stars Jennifer O'Neill, Jon-Erik Hexum, Antony Hamilton, and Richard Anderson.

Directed by Richard A. Colla, Peter Crane, Walter Grauman, John D. Hancock, Jeffrey Hayden, Sidney Hayers, ... - With Jennifer O'Neill, Jon-Erik Hexum, Antony Hamilton

The New Avengers(1976-1977)

50min per episode | Drama, Action & Adventure

3.5/5 (with 18 votes)

The New Avengers is a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series broadcast during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. A joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the show picks up the adventures of John Steed and his team of Avengers fighting evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit, a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey, a former trainee with The Royal Ballet who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's previous female partners.

With Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, Joanna Lumley