Reviews

Tehran Season 3 Delivers an Emotional Gut Punch While Thrillingly Exploring the Cost of Conflict

January 31, 2026 5 Min Read

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Tehran season three once again proves why it is one of the most powerful and unsettling series Apple TV has released. Watching it now, at a time when tensions in Iran around freedom, humanity, and basic rights are at a breaking point, feels especially heavy. While the series is fictional, so much of what it depicts reflects real experiences people in Iran live with every day, and that is what makes it hit so hard for me.

At its core, Tehran follows Tamar Rabinyan, an Israeli Mossad hacker agent who infiltrates Tehran under a false identity to sabotage Iran’s nuclear reactor. Tamar was born in Tehran, which makes her mission deeply personal and painfully complicated. She is not driven by ideology or loyalty to a nation. She is driven by survival, love, and the consequences of choices that were never entirely hers. The show is not trying to function as a documentary or explain geopolitics in clean terms. What it explores instead is the emotional toll of an ongoing, unspoken intelligence conflict where no side truly wins.

One of the smartest things the show continues to do is refuse to position anyone as the good guy. Israel is not portrayed as heroic or righteous, but Iran is not idealized either. What the series exposes is how destructive this constant cycle of covert retaliation really is and how it damages people long before it achieves anything strategic.

Shaun Toub as Faraz Kamali in Tehran Season 3, whose love for Iran drives morally destructive choices.

This balance between political tension and human consequence is especially strong in season three. In episode two, there is a moment where a woman is beaten in public, and Tamar risks herself to intervene. That scene is devastating because it feels painfully real. I have witnessed moments like this firsthand while visiting family, watching female relatives be treated differently the moment they stepped outside. Season three keeps those realities at the heart of the story, making it emotional without ever taking away from the high stakes thriller it also delivers.

Tamar remains the emotional anchor of the series. She is still innocent at her core and never intended to live the life of a spy forever. Everything she does is rooted in love, particularly her love for Iran. That makes her arc especially tragic when mirrored against characters like Shaun Toub‘s Faraz Kamali, who also claims his love for Iran as their motivation but acts with far more destructive intent. The show is deeply interested in how love can justify radically different moral choices and how those choices ripple outward.

This season places a strong focus on relationships, especially the unlikely ones formed under pressure. Some evolve into genuine bonds, while others end in quiet heartbreak. One of the most meaningful arcs for me is Nahid’s pursuit of freedom. Nahid Kamali, played by Shila Ommi, has remained in Iran because of her husband, IRGC Captain Faraz Kamali. Even though she loves him—and loves her country—she is worn down by a life dictated by fear, surveillance, and constant pressure. Her desire to reunite with her family abroad, while knowing what she would be leaving behind, feels painfully real. When Nahid finally gains her freedom by the end of the season, it feels earned and deeply emotional.

What makes her journey even more powerful is her connection to Tamar. The two women stand on completely opposite sides of this shadow war—Tamar as a Mossad agent, Nahid as the wife of an IRGC captain—yet Tamar approaches her not as an enemy, but with compassion. In a world defined by suspicion and betrayal, Tamar’s promise to help Nahid escape becomes a rare act of humanity, grounding the season in empathy rather than ideology.

Sasson Gabai as a Mossad agent in Tehran Season 3, forming a fatherly bond with Tamar while risking himself.

Sasson Gabai appears as another embedded Mossad agent forced to endanger himself to help Tamar. While the role risks familiarity, Gabai brings restraint and nuance, never allowing the character to become cold or overly sentimental. Watching his relationship with Tamar evolve into something almost fatherly is especially affecting, particularly when contrasted with how fraught their first meeting is and how his journey ultimately ends.

Season three also expands the world of Tehran with new characters. Hugh Laurie joins as a South African nuclear inspector whose true motivations sit at the center of the season’s mystery. As the season unfolds, his intentions gradually come into focus, and by the end, everything clicks into place. He shares a genuine love for Iran and a desire to do what’s right, even when his moral compass initially feels unclear. His ending is tragic yet noble—and quietly ironic in how it ultimately intersects with Kamali.

Hugh Laurie as a South African nuclear inspector in Tehran Season 3, central to the season’s moral and political conflict.

Despite its emotional weight, Tehran remains relentlessly tense. The pacing occasionally slows, but when the stakes rise, the series snaps back into high gear. The fear surrounding the IRGC is especially effective. Every time they close in, I found myself more terrified of them than any other agent on the board. The show also fully embraces its heightened thriller energy. In reality, embedded agents spend years doing nothing so they can eventually do one thing. In Tehran, Tamar barely pauses long enough to change clothes. She has no stable cover, no permanent address, and no space to breathe. That constant momentum may stretch realism, but it reinforces the show’s core truth. When you are trapped in a conflict, there is no pause button, only survival.

By the end of the season, Tehran is not about victory or defeat. It is about endurance. It is about the personal cost of a conflict that never truly ends. And it is about the people, especially the women, who are forced to carry that cost long after the mission is over.

Watch season 3 now on Apple TV.