The Sympathizer (Vietnamese: Cảm tình viên) is a historical black comedy drama miniseries based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen.

In early meetings, producers were uneasy about this requirement, but after political unrests during the Trump administration, the murders of George Floyd in 2020 and of six Asian-American women in Atlanta in 2021, the tone shifted.

[4] In April 2021, Viet Thanh Nguyen announced that the novel had been optioned by A24 to be adapted into a television series with Park Chan-wook directing.

[14] The actor Phanxinê, who is a well-known filmmaker in Vietnam, wanted to keep his involvement in the project private for as long as possible to minimize the political backlash he might receive.

[18] Downey shaved his head for the series in order to save the time required to use a bald cap for each of the various characters he portrayed.

The website's consensus reads: "The Sympathizer does a solidly satisfying job of adapting its ambitious source material, conveying its core themes even as it occasionally struggles with its structure.

"[21] On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[26] After the series premiered, many articles about its production that were previously published in major newspapers were no longer accessible online, as if there was a censorship directive from the highest level or due to self-censorship, although unevenly applied.

It called on young viewers to "heighten vigilance for false information regarding territorial sovereignty as well as Vietnamese history that hostile forces cleverly integrated or propagated via cinematic works.