The Honourable Woman is a 2014 British political spy thriller written and directed by Hugo Blick for the BBC and SundanceTV. It is among the best television series I have seen.
Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Nessa Stein, a London heiress whose late father was a major arms manufacturer and committed Zionist. Gyllenhaal, an American, does a convincing job portraying an English woman. She is also impeccably dressed throughout the series, and Hugo Blick surrounds her with beautiful homes, offices, hotels, and meeting places. The visual presentation is elegant and carefully crafted.
Most of Nessa's family perished in the Holocaust. She and her older brother Ephra (Andrew Buchan) are dual citizens of Britain and Israel. Their mother died in childbirth, and their father was murdered in front of them when they were children in Jerusalem. The story explores how such events continue to shape lives decades later.
The series incorporates the Holocaust, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, kidnapping, rape, chronic trauma, intelligence services, philanthropy, and high-stakes investment. Despite the breadth of its subject matter, it never feels overloaded. Instead, it examines the human consequences of history and politics with unusual depth and nuance.
The New York Times described the series as a "smart, moodily complex thriller" and a "lavish homage to John le Carré." I think that is an accurate description.
I have watched the series many times and recommend it highly.