LOOKING for honest reviews on new and old movies and series? we have you covered, in this new series, Odette Parfitt has you covered and lets us know if it’s worth the stream.
Platform: Netflix
Basic plot:
Twenty-something Owen Hendricks starts his job as a lawyer for the CIA – and everything goes sideways fast. OK, you want more detail? Fine. He finds a prisoner awaiting trial for murder who happens to know way more than she should about CIA operations, and has to manage the situation as it constantly escalates.
How it was probably pitched to the producers:
What would it look like if a normal guy gets shoved into the spy life with zero experience or self-preservation instincts?
Thoughts:
So I promised I would stop only reviewing high school dramas and romcoms, and this is me fulfilling my promise because The Recruit is definitely neither of those.
I’ll admit I was drawn to the show more by Netflix’s boyfriend Noah Centineo than by the premise, but at least the writers didn’t rely on his popularity alone to get us through the first season.
The thing that annoyed me the most right in the beginning was also the thing that made me respect the writers in retrospect, and that is the fact that Owen Hendricks comes across as a total moron.
Stay with me on this: the guy joins the CIA and within a couple of days goes to the Middle East to a covert black ops site with no prior warning to have a chat with an undercover agent. Would anyone who has ever seen a spy movie think this was a good idea? But that’s kind of the point, I think – the fact that he is just an ordinary dude and not John Wick going into this new world of espionage and backstabbing.
On that note: everyone in the CIA is apparently out to get each other. It’s all secrecy and mistrust and it makes for some thrills because as the viewer you can’t trust any of the characters either. Or, as the early dialogue goes:
“Can I trust you?”
“When our interests align.”
Bottom line – is it worth the stream?
I would say yes, if you are interested in legal/spy shows. It’s also perhaps the most male-viewer-friendly thing I’ve reviewed recently.
Watch this if you like:
- Shows like Alias (wow I feel old now)
- Noah Centineo
- Existential crises against the backdrop of a mini murder spree
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