‘Master Spy’ is not a masterful account

John le Carre was probably on the mark when he called spies “a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors ... sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.”

Much of real-life espionage is surely James Bond-less, offering less excitement and glamour than tedium and drudgery. That Le Carre regularly has fashioned such grayness into fascinating intrigue, from “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” to “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” attests to his skill as a novelist.

Quite the opposite is “Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story,” a collaboration by Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller that delivers drabness without any redeeming fascination. Mailer and Schiller have worked as a team previously. The genesis of their turgid CBS two-parter is nearly as convoluted as the mind of its real-life antihero. First came the “Master Spy” teleplay that Schiller had Mailer write, then “Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen,” Schiller’s book based on Mailer’s script and research.

Lastly comes the Schiller-directed production itself, a surrealistic one that fails to translate the life of convicted spy Hanssen into anything approaching a narrative meriting four hours of TV. Schiller’s book about this patriot-turned-poseur is more readable than its companion drama is watchable. How curious that a species as twisted and venal as Hanssen -- who used his high position in the FBI’s counterintelligence unit to sell out his country before his arrest in 2001 -- can be this dull on the screen.

Played here by William Hurt, Hanssen is now serving a life sentence without parole after spending most of his 25 years with the FBI spying first for the Soviet Union and then the Russians. Using the code name Ramon, he collected a small fortune from Moscow for using his access to make a devastating breach in U.S. security.

The book’s title is significant, for mind readers Schiller and Mailer attempt to speak for Hanssen by having him repeatedly aim Shakespearean soliloquies at a mirror. “If the KGB doesn’t come apart, maybe you won’t either,” he tells his reflection. And later, when the FBI begins unraveling Ramon, he informs the mirror, “It’s over.” As well as stultifying, especially as we hear only the imaginations of Mailer and Schiller, for Hanssen was not interviewed by them.

The Hanssen introduced here seems an unlikely secret agent. On the surface, he’s the classic square, an impassive geek whose leaden face is creased only rarely by a noncommittal smile. He expresses himself obliquely and is so awkward physically that Hurt has him rocking from side to side as he walks. He and his wife, Bonnie (Mary-Louise Parker), have six children. They are devout conservative Catholics and regular churchgoers. In addition, Hanssen is known to be passionately anti-Communist. But early in his FBI career he needs money to make ends meet, and the rest becomes history.

“Master Spy” has Hanssen being abused by his nasty father (Peter Boyle) and treachery being in his blood. He betrays not only his country but also Bonnie, by offering her to his smarmy best friend, Jack Hoschouer (David Strathairn), like fresh meat. He allows him to secretly ogle her in the shower and peep at his wife and him having sex, ultimately inviting Hoschouer to have at her himself.

Meanwhile, Hanssen is turned on sexually by a beautiful stripper (Hilit Pace), and, although he can’t quite bring himself to go all the way, he buys her expensive gifts during a weird romance that threads through much of Part 2.

It reads more titillatingly than it plays. Even as Hanssen’s sexual senses explode, his eyes remain dead. As does much of his story.

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‘Master Spy’

What: “Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story”

Where: CBS

When: Part 1, Sunday, 9 p.m.; Part 2, Nov. 17, 9 p.m.

Rating: Part 1 is rated TV-MALV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17, with advisories for coarse language and violence). Part 2 is rated TV-MALS (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17, with advisories for coarse language and sex).