Sure, the Counterpart trailer starts off like other spy series we've seen before, where a government cog stumbles into a back room and ends up becoming part of a much larger conspiracy. But where Counterpart doubles down, literally, is by introducing a dose of sci-fi. It turns out that this bureaucratic agency is hiding a portal to a parallel dimension, one which holds shadow versions of ourselves. As such, J.K. Simmons Prime gets to meet J.K. Simmons-2, and the results are delightful.

In addition to giving us a spy thriller, Starz's new 10-episode series is clearly also going to be doing a lot of character study with Simmons' Howard Silk and his doppleganger (a concept familiar to comic book and sci-fi fans, but not something you so readily see in this kind of a series). As the synopsis tells us, "the show explores themes of identity, fate and lost love, posing the eternal question, 'what if our lives could have been different?'"

Check out the trailer below:

Counterpart premieres Sunday, January 21st on Starz; here's the official synopsis:

“Counterpart” is about a mysterious world hidden beneath the surface of our everyday existence. Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons) is a lowly cog in the bureaucratic machinery of a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency. When Howard discovers that his organization safeguards the secret of a crossing into a parallel dimension, he is thrust into a shadow world of intrigue, danger, and double cross… where the only man he can trust is his near-identical counterpart from this parallel world. The show explores themes of identity, fate and lost love, posing the eternal question, “what if our lives could have been different?”

“Counterpart” also features Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense, Hyde Park on Hudson, “Manhattan”) as ‘Emily Burton Silk,’ Harry Lloyd (The Theory of Everything, Jane Eyre, “Manhattan”) as ‘Peter Quayle,’ Nicholas Pinnock (Captain America: The First Avenger, “Marcella”) as ‘Ian Shaw,’ Nazanin Boniadi (“Homeland,” Ben-Hur, Hotel Mumbai) as ‘Clare,’ Sara Serraiocco (Salvo, Cloro, Worldly Girl) as ‘Baldwin,’ andUlrich Thomsen (“The Blacklist,” “Banshee”) as ‘Aldrich.’ Academy Award® nominee Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) directed the first episode.