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''The Assets'' is a 2014 eight-episode [[{{Miniseries}} miniseries]] which aired on Creator/{{ABC}}. It is based on the true story of Aldrich Ames, the CIA operative who spent years selling secrets to the Russians before he was finally caught by his own co-workers. Paul Rhys stars as Ames, with Jodie Whittaker as Sandy Grimes, the agent who eventually smoked Ames out.
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''The Assets'' is a 2014 eight-episode [[{{Miniseries}} miniseries]] which aired on Creator/{{ABC}}. It is based on the true story of Aldrich Ames, the CIA operative who spent years selling secrets to the Russians before he was finally caught by his own co-workers. Paul Rhys stars as Ames, with Jodie Whittaker Creator/JodieWhittaker as Sandy Grimes, the agent who eventually smoked Ames out.
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* MoscowCentre: Cleaning the CIA's clock, due to all the info they are getting from Ames.
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* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Ames, who has beaten two polygraph tests, is reduced to a stammering wreck when an interviewer asks "How would you spy?". This helps Sandy convince her coworkers that Ames is the mole.
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** This trope gives its title to "Check Mate". The KGB boss in Moscow likes to puzzle over a chessboard. And the FakeDefector is revealed to be a great chessplayer.
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** This trope gives its title to "Check Mate". The KGB boss in Moscow likes to puzzle over a chessboard. And the FakeDefector is revealed to be a great chessplayer.chess player.
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Ames has one under his bed ("Jewel in the Crown").
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Ames has one under his bed ("Jewel in the Crown"). A flashback in "What's Done Is Done" shows how he got it.
* CallForward: In "A Small Useless Truth", Polyakov confidently predicts the fall of communism to his KGB interrogator.
* CallForward: In "A Small Useless Truth", Polyakov confidently predicts the fall of communism to his KGB interrogator.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Done to Dmitri Polyakov by the KGB after more sophisticated interrogation techniques fail.
* FakeDefector: In "Check Mate" a KGB agent offers himself to the CIA and then asks to defect. It's a ruse, meant to find out the CIA's exfiltration techniques. He never shows at the rendezvous.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: In "What's Done Is Done", Valery Martynov's little girl gives him a crayon drawing of the family before Martynov leaves on what he thinks is a routine trip to Moscow. Upon arrival Martynov is arrested, and executed shortly thereafter, due to Ames exposing him as a mole.
* FakeDefector: In "Check Mate" a KGB agent offers himself to the CIA and then asks to defect. It's a ruse, meant to find out the CIA's exfiltration techniques. He never shows at the rendezvous.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: In "What's Done Is Done", Valery Martynov's little girl gives him a crayon drawing of the family before Martynov leaves on what he thinks is a routine trip to Moscow. Upon arrival Martynov is arrested, and executed shortly thereafter, due to Ames exposing him as a mole.
* HoneyPot: Clayton Lonetree is ensnared by a sexy KGB honey pot in "A Small Useless Truth".
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* SmartPeoplePlayChess: In "Trip to Vienna" Yurchenko is introduced puzzling out a chess problem.
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* SmartPeoplePlayChess: ProtagonistCenteredMorality: DiscussedTrope when Edward Lee Howard asks why Russians who give secrets to the USA are regarded as heroes, while he is called a traitor when the CIA suspects him of giving secrets to the Russians.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess:
** In "Trip to Vienna" Yurchenko is introduced puzzling out a chessproblem.problem.
** This trope gives its title to "Check Mate". The KGB boss in Moscow likes to puzzle over a chessboard. And the FakeDefector is revealed to be a great chessplayer.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess:
** In "Trip to Vienna" Yurchenko is introduced puzzling out a chess
** This trope gives its title to "Check Mate". The KGB boss in Moscow likes to puzzle over a chessboard. And the FakeDefector is revealed to be a great chessplayer.
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Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason. Cancelled after only two episodes aired.
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Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason. Cancelled after only two episodes aired.
aired, with the remaining episodes burned off during the summer repeat season.
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* CallingTheCopsOnTheFBI: Edward Lee Howard sics shopping mall security on the CIA agent following him as part of an exercise. ("Trip to Vienna")
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* SmartPeoplePlayChess: In "Trip to Vienna" Yurchenko is introduced puzzling out a chess problem.
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Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason.
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Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason. Cancelled after only two episodes aired.
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Ames has one under his bed ("Jewel in the Crown").
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* HiredToHuntYourself: In "Jewel in the Crown", Ames is tasked with debriefing KGB defector Vitaly Yurchenko, and finding out from Yurchenko who the mole is. Ames is terrified that Yurchenko will expose him during their interview, but Yurchenko instead exposes another mole, former CIA agent Edward Lee Howard.
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''The Assets'' is a 2014 eight-episode [[{{Miniseries}} miniseries]] which aired on Creator/{{ABC}}. It is based on the true story of Aldrich Ames, the CIA operative who spent years selling secrets to the Russians before he was finally caught by his own co-workers. Paul Rhys stars as Ames, with Jodie Whittaker as Sandy Grimes, the agent who eventually smoked Ames out.
Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason.
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!!Tropes:
* TheHandler: Sandy Grimes is this for "GT Weigh", one of the CIA's Russian moles. She is emotionally upset when he is caught and executed.
* IncrediblyObviousTail: Done by the KGB in the first episode, as they follow a CIA agent leaving the American embassy. Turns out to be deliberate, as the KGB is trying to trick the CIA into thinking that they followed the CIA guy to the drop, thus catching the mole. They really knew about the mole and the drop all along, thanks to Ames.
* InspiredBy: The opening chyron states that the show is "inspired by true events".
* TheMole: Hello there, Mr. Ames. Ames also exposes Russians acting as moles for the CIA, including "GT Weigh", the CIA asset caught and executed by the Soviets in the first episode.
* MoscowCentre: Cleaning the CIA's clock, due to all the info they are getting from Ames.
* OvertOperative / OvertRendezvous: Ames plays this to the hilt in the first episode, when he ''walks into the Soviet embassy'', announces himself as a CIA agent who wants a meeting, and hands a parcel to the astonished young Russian staffer standing duty at the door.
* SpyFiction: Yep. "Stale beer" variety, as it is more or less the true story of Aldrich Ames and the mole hunt that caught him.
Debuted to [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-abcs-assets-bombs-668339 record-setting]] bad ratings. Filled with [[FakeAmerican British actors]] for some reason.
----
!!Tropes:
* TheHandler: Sandy Grimes is this for "GT Weigh", one of the CIA's Russian moles. She is emotionally upset when he is caught and executed.
* IncrediblyObviousTail: Done by the KGB in the first episode, as they follow a CIA agent leaving the American embassy. Turns out to be deliberate, as the KGB is trying to trick the CIA into thinking that they followed the CIA guy to the drop, thus catching the mole. They really knew about the mole and the drop all along, thanks to Ames.
* InspiredBy: The opening chyron states that the show is "inspired by true events".
* TheMole: Hello there, Mr. Ames. Ames also exposes Russians acting as moles for the CIA, including "GT Weigh", the CIA asset caught and executed by the Soviets in the first episode.
* MoscowCentre: Cleaning the CIA's clock, due to all the info they are getting from Ames.
* OvertOperative / OvertRendezvous: Ames plays this to the hilt in the first episode, when he ''walks into the Soviet embassy'', announces himself as a CIA agent who wants a meeting, and hands a parcel to the astonished young Russian staffer standing duty at the door.
* SpyFiction: Yep. "Stale beer" variety, as it is more or less the true story of Aldrich Ames and the mole hunt that caught him.
