“This is a fictional account of deeply researched events.” That is how Ghosts of Beirut starts off.
It is not quite The Great’s “An occasionally true story,” but an
interesting way of telling us this ripped from the headlines story may or may
not actually be how the story went down.
The titular character is Imad Mughniyeh, the founder member of Lebanon’s
Islamic Jihad Organization, second in command of Hezbollah, and was credited to
killing the most Americans before the 9/11 attacks including the 1983 U.S. embassy
bombing.
The show follows Mughniyeh follows him as a 21-year-old though
his over quarter century reign of terror threw his eyes and the CIA and Mossad agents
they tried to hunt him down. The fictional
retelling of his story is intertwined with real talking head comments from
journalist and the agents who were in the CIA at the time and well as real footage
of newscasts reporting many of the terror attacks credited to Mughniyeh.
Covering multiple decades in four episodes means a lot of
jumping around and with much of the emphasis on Lebanese characters and many
Mossad agents the show has plenty of subtitles.
Still Ghosts of Beirut is an important highlight on someone most Americans
do not even know the name even if they lived through the eighties and definitely
remember his warpath. The limited series
stars an international cast including Dina Shihabi (Jack Ryan, Archive 81),
Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a
Slave), Iddo Goldberg (Snowpiercer), Hisham Suleiman (Munich, Fauda), Amir
Khoury (Image of Victory) and Rafi Gavron (A Star is Born).
Ghosts of Beirut airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime, but you
can stream or watch all four episodes On Demand starting Friday.
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