I wish my mind worked like Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover’s.
I watch the 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie action vehicle Mr. & Mrs. Smith and see a middling Doug Liman action movie mostly saved by the charm of its two leads and the headlines about the events on set. They watch the same movie and see the trappings of a clever deconstruction of both the spy/action genre and married life. They see their new TV series versions of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which debuts on Prime Video on Feb. 2nd.
For those who weren’t alive in 2005 or may not have watched the film since it released way back when, Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a pretty big hit then, with two of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the leading roles as private spies, though neither one knew the other one was a spy. It was okay as a movie, made lots of money, and talks of a sequel persisted for years but never came to fruition. That is until Amazon bought MGM, and thus the rights to the movie, allowing Sloane and Glover to turn it into something the same and yet completely different.
This version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith focuses on John Smith (Glover) and Jane Smith (Maya Erskine), a pair of lost souls who are recruited by a secret organization to carry out dangerous missions while living undercover as a married couple in a luxurious New York brownstone. Already, things are a bit different, as the duo knows they’re both spies from the start, and their relationship is one set up by someone else, not built on a chance meet cute. This, along with the fact that it is a series and not a film, brings out a far more nuanced take on the concept that plays out in a meta-deconstruction of both genre and theme.
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The series is set over an extensive period of time. In each episode, we check in on the “happy” couple performing some new task for the mysterious supervisor that they’ve endearingly named Hihi, thanks to his greeting in their chat messages. There’s a throughline here, of course, but most episodes also stand on their own as mini-narratives about a certain aspect of relationships, each couched in an action movie cliche or trope. For instance, the first episode is called “First Date” and sees the pair not only tailing someone but also going on a first date to a coffee house to do so. A later episode is called “Do You Want Kids,” but plays out as an escort mission in which the pair must deal with a cranky older man acting like a child as they try to save his life. Through clever twists like this, Mr. & Mrs. Smith turns rote spy action into a character study of marriage, its ups, downs, and in-betweens. It’s also pretty funny, with just the right amount of wit to feel natural and not forced.
Much like the film, however, the series survives thanks to the charm and chemistry of its two stars. The first episode opens with the death of two strikingly beautiful spies on the run (I won’t ruin the cameos), boldly stating that this Mr. and Mrs. Smith are not action stars. No, they’re more human and interesting. While both Glover and Erskine are attractive people, they aren’t your traditional-looking movie spies. However, they are perfect. The pair wonderfully bounce off each other in both arguments and flirting, making for a couple you not only enjoy watching but that you believe despite the outlandish circumstances of their relationship. The show knows that this is its strength and happily plays into them, with much of the series devoted to the pair flirting, arguing, or just having charming rom-com conversations instead of spy stuff.
However, whenever the spy stuff does kick in, it’s surprisingly tense. Part of that is because the pair aren’t super-action heroes but instead regular humans. The action is intense, interspersed with great humor, and grows as the characters themselves do. We see both John and Jane become better spies, and as they do, the action becomes bigger and bolder. By the end of the season, we’re watching completely different, evolved characters delivered pitch perfectly by our two leading stars.
The only complaint one might have is that the series feels slightly lost in the middle of its first eight episodes. A visit to a marriage counselor is fantastically well done but also feels a bit like filler. A great filler episode is a very small gripe, however, and it features one of the series’ funniest punch lines, steadily built throughout the entire episode.
It is almost a shame that Mr. & Mrs. Smith is tied to the original film so obviously. The show is light years more interesting, involving, and clever than the film ever was, and it’s worrisome that people might not check it out, thinking that it’s just another cash grab. But for those who know Glover’s work, it should come as no surprise that it is nothing like that. In a kind of inverse “a rose by any other name” situation, this series would indeed benefit by any other name. Still, those who do get past its remake status will discover some of the best action/comedy/spy/romance/drama streaming we’ve seen in a while.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is available to stream on Prime Video on Feb. 2nd.
