History Series / SleeperCell

* MrFanservice: Yes, this show deals with the extremely serious subject matter of terrorism. Michael Ealy and Oded Fehr are still freaking hot, with Fehr in particular benefiting from the fact that EvilIsSexy.

-->-- '''Darwyn al-Sayeed'''

* TranslationConvention: It can be assumed that this is in play largely during scenes with Arabic speakers conversing in privacy, especially in countries such as Yemen and Saudi Arabia. After all, one wouldn't expect senior Al-Queda members to be using English with each other. This is averted by some dialogue though, which is subtitled Arabic.

* AllMuslimsAreArab: Completely averted, with the terrorists in fact weaponizing this stereotype to their benefit. They purposefully use people of other backgrounds to escape detection. Only two of the original cell's members are Arabs. They are also limited in number in the second season.

* AllMuslimsAreArab: Completely averted, with the terrorists in fact weaponizing this stereotype to their benefit. They purposefully use people of other backgrounds to escape detection. Only two of the original cell's members are Arabs. In the second season, only one is.

Also known as Sleeper Cell: American Terror.

** InUniverse, on a train some thugs start harassing a Sikh man thinking he's a Muslim. Darwyn beats them up and then delivers a lecture pointing out that traditionally Muslims have actually been the ''enemies'' of Sikhs, with conflict going back centuries. He also notes multiple times that Muslim terrorists twist real Islamic teachings to justify themselves, which disgusts him.

* GoodCopBadCop: Farik is incarcerated in Guantamano Bay and subjected to this from a pair of seasoned CIA interrogators. Patrick Erskine is the bad cop, [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques hurling vicious insults and physical attacks at him]]; in turn, Farik meets this line of questioning with useless sarcastic answers. Good cop Robert "Bob" [=McNeil=], by contrast, treats him with respect and decency (in particular earning Farik's gratitude in that he armed [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Afghani mujahideen against the Soviets]]), but he is not afraid to physically retaliate when Farik ends up intentionally scalding him with tea (because Bob declared that there is no God because he saw no afterlife after being clinically dead for many minutes, so Farik's cause must be meaningless). In the good cop role there is also an Islamic chaplain who helps to broker a meeting with Farik's wife Samia in exchange for the terrorist leader's emergency hideout location, but he is disgusted when it turns out the location was booby trapped to wound and kill several investigating SWAT team members and FBI field agents. For this, Farik is extradited to Saudi Arabia, where Bob is joined by a new bad cop counterpart in the form of [[TortureTechnician Hajjaj) who can use interrogation techniques on terrorists which are forbidden even in Gitmo.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: InUniverse, on a train some thugs start harassing a Sikh man thinking he's a Muslim. Darwyn beats them up and then delivers a lecture pointing out that traditionally Muslims have actually been the ''enemies'' of Sikhs, with conflict going back centuries. He also notes multiple times that Muslim terrorists twist real Islamic teachings to justify themselves, which disgusts him.

** Darwyn is upset at the end of the first episode because the FBI surveillance team lost coverage of both him and the targets, leaving him with only himself for protection if his deception was uncovered by the cell. But then the team overcompensates by tailing him and Tommy far too obviously, to the point that Tommy, "an airhead mutt" is easily able to spot them. Darwyn is able to send Tommy off by saying he'll handle it, making it look like Tommy's car was stolen to confuse matters, but he's again very angry with the team and warns them that from now on the surveillance has to be ''passive'', at a distance and with remote methods, rather than right up close and actively risking everything.

** In the second season, Darwyn appears to [[BecomingTheMask go rogue]] by using a white noise generator to mask his instructions to his subordinate cell members from audio surveillance, then having them go on a mission to obtain RDX explosives directly against the orders of his case agent, Warren Russell. Russell sends an S.O. team after them, who averts the trope insofar as the driver Mina and the other cell members don't spot the tail, and yet they ''aren't'' so subtle that Darwyn can't spot them. Darwyn cunningly engineers a scenario where the team would either be forced to expose themselves to the whole cell (causing unacceptable collateral risks) or pull off from the tail (which they do), and the operation to seize the explosives goes forward as planned.

* GoodCopBadCop: Farik is incarcerated in Guantamano Bay and subjected to this from a pair of seasoned CIA interrogators. Patrick Erskine is the bad cop, [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques hurling vicious insults and physical attacks at him]]; in turn, Farik meets this line of questioning with useless sarcastic answers. Good cop Robert "Bob" [=McNeil=], by contrast, treats him with respect and decency (in particular earning Farik's gratitude in that he armed [[UsefulNotes/SovietAfghanWar Afghani mujahideen against the Soviets]]), but he is not afraid to physically retaliate when Farik ends up intentionally scalding him with tea (because Bob declared that there is no God because he saw no afterlife after being clinically dead for many minutes, so Farik's cause must be meaningless). In the good cop role there is also an Islamic chaplain who helps to broker a meeting with Farik's wife Samia in exchange for the terrorist leader's emergency hideout location, but he is disgusted when it turns out the location was booby trapped to wound and kill several investigating SWAT team members and FBI field agents. For this, Farik is extradited to Saudi Arabia, where Bob is joined by a new bad cop counterpart in the form of [[TortureTechnician Hajjaj) who can use interrogation techniques on terrorists which are forbidden even in Gitmo.

** Darwyn invokes this on Farik to turn the cell's talents to justice for a change. Morally disgusted by their financier's use of child prostitutes, he flat out states to Farik that "this is ''not'' Islam!". With initial reluctance, the Saudi boss man leads an assault on the Mexican cartel. He tells the second in command that he can take leadership and a bigger cut of earnings from their [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking prostitution, gambling, drug dealing and pirated DVD sales]]. Just no children anymore.

* GoodCopBadCop: Farik is incarcerated in Guantamano Bay and subjected to this from a pair of seasoned CIA interrogators. Patrick Erskine is the bad cop, [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques hurling vicious insults and physical attacks at him]]; in turn, Farik meets this line of questioning with useless sarcastic answers. Good cop Robert "Bob" [=McNeil=], by contrast, treats him with respect and decency (in particular earning Farik's gratitude in that he armed Afghani mujahdeen against the Soviets), but he is not afraid to physically retaliate when Farik ends up intentionally scalding him with tea (because Bob declared that there is no God because he saw no afterlife after being clinically dead for many minutes, so Farik's cause must be meaningless). In the good cop role there is also an Islamic liason who helps to broker a meeting with Farik's wife Samia in exchange for the terrorist leader's emergency hideout location, but he is disgusted when it turns out the location was booby trapped to wound and kill several investigating SWAT team members. For this, Farik is extradited to Saudi Arabia, where Bob is joined by a new bad cop counterpart in the form of [[TortureTechnician Hajjaj) who can use interrogation techniques on terrorists which are forbidden even in Gitmo.
* HollywoodAtheist: Bob, Farik's interrogator in Season 2, is a mild example (assuming his story is true and not an interrogation tactic to shake Farik). Raised a devout Christian as a child, Bob died for twenty minutes after a drowning accident and saw no afterlife. After that experience, he became an atheist. Farik is not swayed in the least by hearing this.

** Darwyn appears to fake chauvinistic contempt towards Mina when he first meets her, because most Mujaheed would likely feel the same (it's a male-dominated ideology, [[SarcasmMode surprisingly enough]]). But he soon accepts her as a full member of the cell for the sake of the investigation.