Cyber espionage drama ‘The Undeclared War’ a hit-or-miss affair: review

nypost.com:

“The Undeclared War” is a hit-or-miss affair.The new espionage drama, premiering Thursday on Peacock, does a lot of “throat clearing” and takes a long-ish time to get to the point — but once it does, the six-episode series offers a healthy dose of twists and turns that, if not riveting, resonate with the current geopolitical climate.The timeframe here is the near-future.

It’s April 12, 2024 in London when Britain’s GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) is hit with a cyberattack that shuts down virtually the country’s entire online and telecommunications footprint — save for social media.

It’s 15 months after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was removed from office in “a particularly bloody palace coup” staged by Andrew Mackinde (Adrian Lester), the Conservative Prime Minister who’s in the midst of an intense re-election effort.

Russian bots are blamed for the cyberattack: Vladimir Putin is still in power and it’s believed that Russia’s FSB (formerly the KGB) is interfering in the British election for its own nefarious purposes.Enter Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a brilliant young programmer who’s joining the GCHQ for a year, as a “work experience student” before continuing her university education.