Yeah that’s more or less it. It doesn’t have to be exhilarating necessarily (it can be compelling, or deep). I am not sure how to edit my post but I want to add Moneyball to my examples list; that’s not exhilarating per se, but it’s one of my favourites.

I also like real-life accuracy (or well researched near-accuracy) to go with this. And some academia/ thought process that is shown (so: tough spy guy just being a good tough spy guy isn’t quite enough).