CI Centre | Masterspy: The Robert Hanssen Story, a CBS miniseries

IT'S been a very long time (like a decade) since the term "miniseries" meant anything other than some awful, expensive epic written by untalented hacks and acted by a stable of network stars.

Think the truly terrible, "The Tenth Kingdom" think the almost-as-bad, "Anne Rice's The Feast Of All Saints," think "Jesus," aka "Jesus for Idiots."

Then, just when I'd lost all faith, along comes "Master Spy," a miniseries based on the traitorous life of disgusting pervert Robert Hanssen, the counter-intelligence (a perfect name) FBI agent who sold secrets to the USSR for 20 years.

If the story alone wasn't riveting enough, this miniseries was written by Norman Mailer, directed by Lawrence Schiller and stars William Hurt, Mary Louise Parker, and David Straithairn.

Perhaps because they went beyond the usual suspects in casting, the performances are off-kilter and perfect. The actors understand that there's a huge, if subtle difference between imitation and crawling inside somebody's skin.

In case you forgot, Robert Hanssen, one of the most trusted FBI agents in the country, was arrested after getting caught selling secrets to the Soviets. No, it wasn't brilliant FBI work that nailed the bum, it was the collapse of the USSR, which meant every crooked KGB agent was out there selling every secret document they could get their hands on.

Hanssen, played brilliantly by Hurt, was an avid convert to Catholicism, a member of Opus Dei (the strictest Catholic society), a family man, as well as a traitor and pervert.

Here's a guy who wouldn't allow his children to use the word "homosexual," but who meantime had his best friend, Jack Hoschouer (Straithairn) secretly watch his wife (Bonnie (Parker) in the shower, had her pose naked for him (so he could mail them to his friend), and even gave Hoschouer FBI spy equipment so he could view Hanssen and his wife having sex in their bedroom.

The miniseries covers everything from the time Bonnie and Bob meet, through their marriage, his life-long intense friendship with Hoschouer, and Hanssen's arrest. All three capture brilliantly the subtle sense that these people aren't right. They're almost like pod people aping "normal."

How Mailer managed to make Robert Hanssen both intensely boring and immensely riveting at the same time is impossible to say. Oh, right, I forgot. Mailer is what we used to call in the olden days, a "writer."

It all adds up to perfection. In fact, if there is a flaw it's that they don't mention the two most disgraceful facts of all: According to Schiller, some of the nuclear secrets Hanssen passed on to the Soviets most probably ended up in Osama bin Laden's hands.

And secondly, the fact that the government cut a deal with Hanssen for info. In return, Bonnie Hanssen collects the traitor's $40,000 a year pension.

What happened to the firing squad and disgrace?