On December 16, the series “Recruit” was released on Netflix, which invites the viewer to plunge into the dangerous world of espionage passions and adventures. The most famous name among the creators here is the director of “The Bourne Identity” and many successful films, Doug Lyman. But his participation was limited to producing and directing the first two episodes, and the rest of the material was handled by lesser-known cinematographers. In this review, we tell you whether they all managed to create a truly exciting story in the spy action genre.
“Recruit” / The Recruit
Genre spy action
Directors Doug Lyman, Emmanuel Osei-Kufur, Alex Kalymnios, Julian Holmes
In roles Noah Centineo, Laura Haddock, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Colton Dunn, Artie Mann
Premiere Netflix
Graduation year 2022
Site IMDb
24-year-old lawyer Owen Hendricks begins his work at the CIA and immediately faces a lot of problems. Older and more experienced colleagues not only prevent a young employee from better adapting to a new place, but also impose the most unattractive routine on him. Thus, Owen is forced to dig through massive folders with letters from psychos who in one way or another threaten the management.
The boy’s job is to assess the risks and the level of threats, although everyone knows that most of them are just the delusions of madmen. However, one of the letters turns out to be really threatening, because a woman from the prison promises to reveal terrible secrets if the administration does not facilitate her release as soon as possible.
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This is how Owen meets an agent with the beautiful name of Max Meladze (not Dominika Yehorova, thank you for that), who previously worked in Russia and Belarus, and now sits in Phoenix, Arizona, for murder. This meeting will lead to an extremely large number of events and plunge Hendricks into an extremely dangerous spy adventure.
Already from the description of the plot it becomes clear that the main character of “Recruit” is very far from the image of tough guys like James Bond and has no experience. He does not understand professional acronyms, does not know the elementary rules of conducting work “in the fields”, does not know how to shoot. But, surprisingly, he does well thanks to his own intelligence and great luck.
The authors quite competently use this boy’s inexperience to defuse the atmosphere and make us laugh, although this does not prevent rooting for him at all. The unfortunate must risk his life, travel from one dangerous point on the world map to another, and most importantly, learn not to trust anyone. And these events, covering a wide geography, are interesting to watch until a certain time.
But from the third episode, the story begins to slow down, and the endless throwing of the long-suffering CIA officer gets boring. In addition, there is nothing in the plot that fans of the genre might not have seen before. It is noteworthy that the creators sometimes satirize the very serious spy work, and that the series is aimed primarily at entertainment. And he mostly succeeds in this.
However, it’s also clear that writer-showrunner Alexei Hawley, who previously worked on the successful Rookie with Nathan Fillion, and his creative team had to stretch the plot for those eight Netflix-standard episodes. This turns out to be a significant drawback, although neither series descends to the point where the interest disappears altogether. And this is good.
“Recruit” is a variation of the well-known zero series “Spy” with Jennifer Garner in the lead role. But, unlike the last one, this project does not refuse to address the spy theme from the comedic and ironic side. Of course, it doesn’t come down to cursing in the style of some “Johnny English”, but there is something to laugh about.
For example, at a glamorous party, a local hero refuses a martini offered by the bartender. While James Bond would have long ago ordered “shake, but don’t mix”, Hendrix prefers “beer”.
When at a work meeting for the sake of secrecy, the agents inform the manager using allegories, the naive Owen hits directly, which confuses everyone present. And in the story, the funny Azyr surzhik is next door to the disgusting Russian rap, although it doesn’t sound long and doesn’t have time to get out of his head.
It is hard not to notice the similarity between Laura Haddock’s heroine and Evelyn Salt from Jolivska. Moreover, it is manifested not only in the connections of the girls with the CIA and Russian structures, but also due to their appearance. In addition, both stories featured a secondary character with the typical surname Orlov: it’s time for the screenwriters to think about some diversity.
And the British beauty Laura Haddock had to learn a few phrases in Russian. Of course, this is not the level of the iconic “what is your evidence”. But once again we have to watch how a person in an English-speaking project is forced to squeeze out this broken Russian. Such things do not decorate the story at all.
In general, “Recruit” is a good spy series. No more and no less. It is able to interest and entertain the viewer, and this is enough to pleasantly spend free time near the screen.
Pros:
moderately fascinating story, good dynamics of the development of events, pleasant actors, nice comedy and unobtrusive dramatic component, good action, witty moments associated with cool Ukrainian dubbing, appropriate use of profanity without inflections, unexpected finally
Cons:
an attempt to stretch the story and, as a result, unnecessary plot arcs, a small number of really cool action scenes, Russian rap
Conclusion:
The Recruit isn’t a revelation in the genre, but it works well as a one-off adventure. By its middle, the series begins to tire, primarily due to the accumulation of monotonous events and secondary storylines. But in general, this is a decent work, capable of a good distraction and even giving the opportunity to laugh a little at very serious spy wanderings
