Parents' Guide to

The Little Drummer Girl

By Martin Brown, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Slow, steady spy drama more about character than espionage.

TV AMC Drama 2018
The Little Drummer Girl Poster Image

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What's the Story?

In THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL, a bombing in Israel motivates Kurtz (Michael Shannon) to assemble a team of spies to try to infiltrate the terrorist network behind it. They capture the man behind the bombing and intend to impersonate him and his girlfriend to investigate the criminals. A mysterious man named Becker (Alexander Skarsgard) grooms and recruits an actress named Charlie (Florence Pugh) to play the girlfriend, and the series follows Charlie's transformation from layperson to spy.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (2 ):

AMC has assembled a knockout cast and creative team for this John le Carré adaptation. Though The Little Drummer Girl can often move slowly, developing the espionage set-up and Charlie's character bit-by-bit, the performances by Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon, and Alexander Skarsgard are note-perfect and the direction by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) is incredible, especially the cinematography, which seems to take the earth tones used by most British spy dramas and enhance them with swaths of vibrant Technicolor. The confident production allows it to delay the typical spy story payoffs and deliver more of a character study about Charlie and her journey from being plucked from obscurity to become a linchpin in a major undercover operation.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the character of Charlie. Why is she recruited to be a spy? What does Kurtz see in her that makes her valuable? How does she feel about being a spy?

  • There's a suggestion that one character has been tortured. Is it okay to use torture and other interrogation methods in order to prevent terrorism? Why or why not?

  • Who are you rooting for in The Little Drummer Girl? Are any characters particularly likable or unlikable? Why?

TV Details

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