Before Shawne Benson worked at PlayStation, she was a musician struggling to make ends meet. On Instagram, she still posts the occasional piano ballad, but these days, Benson says she’s found a new outlet for her musical passion: curating video games for the over one hundred million people who own a PlayStation console.

“I like to think of it like you're making a mixtape,” Benson tells Inverse, describing the mix of games she helps shepherd to PlayStation’s platform in any given year. “The feeling of ups and downs, with different pacing and vibes that create an overarching composition.”

As PlayStation’s Global Head of Third Party Portfolio and Acquisitions, it's Benson’s job to know what games will resonate with the PlayStation 4 and 5 owners around the world. While much of what she’s on the lookout for comes down to what she likes to play, it also takes a bit of intuition and a keen eye for the future of the gaming business. There’s no better example of her sixth sense for special games than a moment she recalls from her interview with Sony back in 2016. Asked what third-party game she’d pursue as a PlayStation exclusive if hired to join the team, Benson had an inspired choice.

There are certain expectations for a spy series: a sexy leading man or woman, thrilling action setpieces, conspiracies that go all the way to the top, perhaps the threat of nuclear warfare. It’s the kind of escapist storytelling regularly headlined by ultra-cool movie stars like Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig, or, indeed, by Michael Fassbender. So when The Agency opens on Fassbender’s covert CIA operative returning home after a six-year deep undercover mission, only to meticulously search through his apartment to destroy the bugs planted everywhere, you may think, “Oh yeah, I’m in for the coolest sh*t ever.” But The Agency, an upcoming 10-episode series on Showtime executive produced by Fassbender and George Clooney, is doing something much more interesting than the typical spy stuff.

The Agency adapts the 2015 French spy series Le Bureau des Legendes, which was based on real accounts by former spies and inspired by contemporary events. The U.S. remake takes a similarly grounded approach by depicting not just the glamorous double lives of the CIA’s deep undercover agents, but the decidedly unglamorous work lives of their handlers and bosses. The result is a sophisticated new spy series that is equal turns thoughtful and thrilling — willing to give as much time to its characters’ crumbling psyches as it does to hot-button political issues and international crises. It’s refreshing to see such a smart spy series try to make sense of our complicated world... especially as reality falls short of expectations.

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