Though hampered by a few hiccups and low-hanging cliches, Netflix's new miniseries The Spy is also awesomely anchored by an astounding dramatic performance by Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Da Ali G Show).

Netflix's The Spy - Gallery 3 IMAGES

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While the "true story" aspects of the premise lend The Spy an appropriate amount of weight, and work to excuse a handful of overused elements (you get a pass when it's real history that actually helped create the cliches we turn our nose up at today), the draw here is Cohen and his intense, desperate performance as famed Mossad spy Eli Cohen - whose 1960s deep cover operation in Syria worked better than anyone ever expected, which in turn only fueled his own tragic fate.Helmed by Gideon Raff, who created Prisoners of War (which was adapted for Showtime as Homeland), The Spy leans into Eli's fervent need to prove himself as "worthy." It's an emotional directive that allows him, a loyal and kind man, to lie to his wife for years as he travels abroad for what she thinks is a job buying furniture and goods for the state department.In truth, Eli is living a separate life as Kamel Amin Thaabet, a wealthy businessman whose charm allows him to not only rise up through the ranks of power in the Syrian government but also disarms everyone around him, to the point that they grant him astounding access to classified information. Eli's desire to return to his family, mission accomplished, drives him to accelerate his trickery in ways that would get most undercover operatives killed. Unfortunately for him, his risky ploys actually work and he becomes such a valuable asset that he becomes too indispensable to be sent home.As mentioned, Cohen's performance is the North Star here. It's because of him, and this courageous steer into drama, that we endure a lot of typical spycraft close-calls: ones that feel like they've been added to ramp up the TV tension when, honestly, the real bones of the story are good enough.In fact, some of the best moments in The Spy come when Eli fails to charm someone as much as he needs to. Then he has to rack his brain to figure out how to quickly turn the relationship around. It's the most relatable, and anxious element at play here, as we've all had to navigate through truly tense social situations - it's just that in Eli's case, the fate of his homeland and his ability to one day return to his loved ones is at stake.The Americans' Noah Emmerich and Hadar Ratzon-Rotem do the solid secondary heavy lifting here, as Eli's handler, Dan, and wife, Nadia, respectively. Both of them do the best with their back-at-home roles, worrying about Eli for vastly different reasons. Emmerich's Dan bounces back and forth between his guilt over losing a past agent and the inappropriate feelings he might be developing for Nadia, while she thanklessly raises her children alone, in an era when people could spirit away and remain uncontactable and unaccountable.