5 Spy TV Shows Way Better Than Lioness

This article contains discussions of mental health.

If you've never watched "Lioness," Taylor Sheridan's espionage thriller that debuted in 2023 on Paramount+, you don't know what you're missing. A female-led series that features not one, not two, but three Oscar winners in its main cast — Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, and Morgan Freeman, specifically — "Lioness" centers around an all-female CIA team named after the apex predators that focus on counter-terrorism measures on behalf of the United States. (If you've ever watched a nature documentary, you know that in lion prides, it's the female lions that are the shrewd hunters and fighters.) 

Saldaña leads this metaphorical pride as Joe McNamara, who runs the Lioness unit in her capacity as a senior CIA case officer. As Joe — who was previously responsible, as a Lioness, for the death of real-life figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in this fictional world — deals with a variety of increasingly dangerous cases, she's flanked by allies like her husband Dr. Neal McNamara (Dave Annable), their daughter Kate (Hannah Love Lanier), Joe's boss and CIA Clandestine Services supervisor Kaitlyn Meade (Kidman), U.S. Secretary of State Edwin Mullins (Freeman), and close confidantes and colleagues like operative Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira) and Captain Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez).

"Lioness" is compulsively bingeable and pretty fun, but if we're being honest? There are a lot of spy thrillers that definitely inspired "Lioness" that are just better. If you like "Lioness" but want to level up, try one of these spy thrillers.

When we first meet Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow on "Alias" — a series created by J.J. Abrams that was inspired by a quirky idea he had on the set of his show "Felicity" — she's living a complicated life. Though she tells her friends Francie Calfo (Merrin Dungey) and Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper in one of his earliest-ever roles) that she works a high-pressure job at a bank, she's actually a super-spy for a secret organization called SD-6, which Sydney has been told is a covert branch of the CIA. After getting engaged, Sydney finally tells her fiancé, aspiring pediatric cardiologist Dr. Danny Hecht (Edward Atterton), the truth about her job, she comes home one day to find him murdered in their bathtub ... and when SD-6 operatives start coming after Sydney, she starts to realize that it may not be associated with the CIA at all.

Unfortunately for Sydney, her guess is completely correct. After finding out that SD-6 is a terrorist cell controlled by her seemingly well-meaning boss Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), Sydney goes to the real CIA headquarters, meets agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and agrees to become a secret agent to take Sloane and SD-6 down once and for all. She's not alone, thankfully. Not only are Vaughn and his co-worker and close friend Eric Weiss (Greg Grunberg) keeping an eye out for her in her capacity as a double agent, but her taciturn and surprisingly loving father, Jack Bristow (the incomparable Victor Garber), who's also a double agent with the CIA and SD-6. "Alias" doesn't stick the landing, but the first two seasons are excellent ... and sorry, but they're better than "Lioness."

Few spy shows in the history of this sub-genre are better than "The Americans," frankly — so we can't blame "Lioness" here. It's a tough act to follow! Created by Joe Weisberg, "The Americans," which began its run in 2013 and continued for six genuinely incredible seasons, stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, who live a seemingly normal life in Washington D.C. suburb Falls Church, Virginia with their teenaged children Paige and Henry Jennings (Holly Taylor and Keidrich Sellati). Elizabeth and Philip are far from a normal couple, though; they're Russian assets installed in the United States, their entire marriage is arranged, and they frequently sneak out of the house in various wigs and disguises for dangerous missions, evading both their children and their neighbor and friend Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), who happens to be an FBI agent in the counterintelligence unit.

Rhys and Russell — who met on the set and ultimately wed in real life — are absolutely electric as this fake all-American couple, especially thanks to the initial dynamic (Elizabeth eventually falls in love with Philip, but it takes a minute). Frankly, every single actor on "The Americans" who appears throughout the show's six seasons from Margo Martindale to Susan Misner to Alison Wright to Dylan Baker is flat-out astounding. If you love "Lioness" — or, frankly, you just binged all of "Widow's Bay" or "The Diplomat" and want to see more of either Rhys or Russell, respectively — you cannot miss "The Americans," which set a new standard for spy shows. Plus? The ending of "The Americans" is exceptional.

Sandra Oh made a name for herself in films like "Sideways," "The Princess Diaries," and "Under the Tuscan Sun" — as well as, of course, her phenomenal ten-season run on "Grey's Anatomy" as the driven and determined cardiac surgeon Dr. Cristina Yang — but if you want to see some of her career-best work that doesn't take place in a fake operating room, you must check out "Killing Eve." At the beginning of the show, Oh's titular Eve Polastri is bored to death by her job at the United Kingdom's security agency MI5 ... and when she's fired, that door closes, but another opens in the form of an assignment in a secret faction of the British spy agency MI6. Alongside Carolyn Martens ("Harry Potter" star and stage legend Fiona Shaw), Eve gets way too involved in the hunt for a deeply dangerous Russian assassin and serial killer, Oksana Astankova, who goes by the name Villanelle and is portrayed by the unbelievably incredible Jodie Comer.

With different showrunners handling "Killing Eve" from season to season — Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Season 1, Emerald Fennell in Season 2, Suzanne Heathcote in Season 3, and Laura Neal in Season 4 — your mileage might vary with this series because it does suffer from a slight lack of creative cohesion. Still, Oh and Comer are so magical on-screen together that you might forget about the show's narrative structure and just hone in on their dynamic. If you're looking for a female-led spy thriller that surpassese "Lioness," try "Killing Eve."

Based on an Israeli spy thriller called "Prisoner of War," the Showtime series "Homeland" ensured that Claire Danes remained one of the most in-demand and respected stars in Hollywood thanks to her lead role as Carrie Mathison, a CIA operations officer who becomes convinced that war hero and U.S. Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) is actually a double agent working against America. To make matters more complicated, Carrie lives with bipolar disorder, and thanks to constant stigmas about mental health, colleagues like Saul Berenson (living legend Mandy Patinkin) grow concerned about her ability to perform her job.

It should be said that "Homeland" trafficks in stereotypes regarding the Muslim community in and outside of the United States, which is more of a product of the time (the show came out in 2011) than anything else. Still, "Homeland" — which also features Morena Baccarin, David Harewood, Rupert Friend, Sarita Choudhury, Tracy Letts, Elizabeth Marvel, and even a young Timothée Chalamet in one of his earliest roles as the wealthy, spoiled, and impetuous Finn Walden (son of the United States Vice President William Walden, played by Jamey Sheridan). "Homeland" might be a fraught classic, but it's a classic all the same thanks to incredible central performances from Danes, Lewis, and Patinkin, the first two of whom won Emmys for their roles. 

Even with more and more prestigious actors showing up in small-screen projects — hello, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman in "Lioness" — some actors wait to make this transition. Gary Oldman held out at first, but eventually, the Oscar winner joined the Apple TV spy series "Slow Horses," and honestly? We're so glad he did. On "Slow Horses," developed by British comedian and writer Will Smith (unrelated to the Fresh Prince) and adapted from the "Slough House" novels by Mick Herron, Oldman leads the cast as Jackson Lamb, a disgraced (and rather flatulent) MI6 operative who leads Slough House, which is sort of an island of misfit toys for spies in England who are bad at their jobs.

Don't let this description fool you; "Slow Horses" is funny, yes, but it's also full of solid intrigue, amazing cases, and breathtakingly tense moments. With a cast that includes Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and  Saskia Reeves as well as supporting and guest roles from stars like Olivia Cooke, Sophie Okonedo, and Katherine Waterston, "Slow Horses" is a must-watch, and with all due respect to "Lioness," it's a lot weirder and better than "Lioness."

"Lioness" is streaming on Paramount+ now.

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