Sleeper Cell (television show)

Sleeper Cell
Title screen from the second series, Sleeper Cell: American Terror
Genre	Thriller Action
Starring	Michael Ealy Oded Fehr Henri Lubatti Melissa Sagemiller
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	18 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Release
Original network	Showtime
Original release	December 4, 2005 – December 17, 2006
External links
Website

Sleeper Cell is an American one-hour drama on the Showtime network that began airing on December 4, 2005. The tagline for the first season was "Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists." and the tagline for the second season was "Cities. Suburbs. Airports. Targets." The series was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Miniseries. The eight-episode second season of the series, titled Sleeper Cell: American Terror, premiered on December 10, 2006. Both seasons of Sleeper Cell were originally aired in an unusual fashion, by filming the entire season ahead of time and then airing the episodes on consecutive nights, such that each brand new season was aired for the first time over a period of less than two weeks. In Australia, both seasons originally aired on the Showtime Australia channel in 2006/2007. Re-runs as of 2008 have screened on the showcase channel (part of the Showtime Australia group of channels).

As extra material on the first season DVDs reveal, the show was originally named The Cell.

Darwyn Al-Sayeed, a 30-year-old American undercover FBI agent who is a Muslim and embracing Islam as his religion, is assigned to infiltrate a terrorist sleeper cell that is planning an attack in Los Angeles. The cell is run by an Arab extremist named Faris al-Farik who disguises himself as a Jewish person. The members of the cell come from a variety of racial backgrounds and conflicting personalities. The series also portrays the hypocrisy and dichotomy of the cell members who claim to be Muslims but engage in behavior that is sinful in Islam (e.g. sex outside marriage) yet they profess a desire to be martyred for Islam.

Darwyn is supervised by FBI senior agent Ray Fuller, also a close friend who worries for Darwyn's safety.