Noah Centineo is well cast as reckless but lucky CIA recruit Owen Hendricks, Laura Haddock (as Max Meladze) is sufficiently bad-ass (with the necessary cracks in the surface) and all the supporting actors turn out decent performances aided and abetted by some witty and smart writing. As per typical 2020s productions - we have gender flipping turned up to max (no pun intended) with not just one toxic male template - violent, pathological, ruthlessly efficient - turned female, but three (at least).
Be prepared for lots of scenes where women generally outclass the men in all areas - including being the office sexual predator (go justice!). Thankfully, this is all handled with a degree of humour and charm and if the idea of a murderous female east european assassin sounds a bit 'Killing Eve' - imo, 'The Recruit' is genuine fun as opposed to annoying and repetitive (which KE descended into).
I've no idea how accurate the little details of CIA ops are - but the code names, references to procedure and allusions to the endless bureaucracy involved, all added to, if not realism, then at least a sense the writers had done some homework. There's a running joke involving the avoidance of responsibility and hence lack of intelligence sharing, which silly as it sounds, probably has some basis in reality.
The central premise - view a standard CIA op from the perspective of a newbie - actually works, in terms of refreshing aspects of the genre. A car chase, a physical fight with the bad guys, an interrogation or an undercover infiltration - these are all things we've seen on screen a hundred times before. But seeing them from the rookie's perspective does two basic things - it introduces an element of unpredictability and it, potentially, makes the whole thing a bit more relatable (not that we have to constantly see ourselves on-screen, more that superhuman competence can be boring to watch. We want our heroes to succeed, but we need them to occasionally fail).
There were certainly moments when Hendricks' lack of knowledge was taken to ridiculous extremes.
As one example, he has apparently not only never shot a gun before (or witnessed someone shooting a gun), but lacks the basic common sense to realise that the shoulder rest on a sub-machine gun is there for a reason.
At other times Hendricks acts like a conscientious objector with a death wish - refusing to carry a gun or wear a protective vest, for example. He also displays a ridiculous naivety as to what CIA work might entail - but, really, none of this matters too much. It's not a straight out comedy, but we're not intended to be taking any of this too seriously.
The unpredictability of a central character, who at one moment displays exceptional intuition and reasoning but the next says or does something stupid, may not stretch to multiple series - at some point 'The Recruit' will meet the end of its character arc. Hopefully the writers will resist trying to push things too far or simply repeating the same 'jokes'.
So far, though, it gets the basics right.
Be prepared for lots of scenes where women generally outclass the men in all areas - including being the office sexual predator (go justice!). Thankfully, this is all handled with a degree of humour and charm and if the idea of a murderous female east european assassin sounds a bit 'Killing Eve' - imo, 'The Recruit' is genuine fun as opposed to annoying and repetitive (which KE descended into).
I've no idea how accurate the little details of CIA ops are - but the code names, references to procedure and allusions to the endless bureaucracy involved, all added to, if not realism, then at least a sense the writers had done some homework. There's a running joke involving the avoidance of responsibility and hence lack of intelligence sharing, which silly as it sounds, probably has some basis in reality.
The central premise - view a standard CIA op from the perspective of a newbie - actually works, in terms of refreshing aspects of the genre. A car chase, a physical fight with the bad guys, an interrogation or an undercover infiltration - these are all things we've seen on screen a hundred times before. But seeing them from the rookie's perspective does two basic things - it introduces an element of unpredictability and it, potentially, makes the whole thing a bit more relatable (not that we have to constantly see ourselves on-screen, more that superhuman competence can be boring to watch. We want our heroes to succeed, but we need them to occasionally fail).
There were certainly moments when Hendricks' lack of knowledge was taken to ridiculous extremes.
As one example, he has apparently not only never shot a gun before (or witnessed someone shooting a gun), but lacks the basic common sense to realise that the shoulder rest on a sub-machine gun is there for a reason.
At other times Hendricks acts like a conscientious objector with a death wish - refusing to carry a gun or wear a protective vest, for example. He also displays a ridiculous naivety as to what CIA work might entail - but, really, none of this matters too much. It's not a straight out comedy, but we're not intended to be taking any of this too seriously.
The unpredictability of a central character, who at one moment displays exceptional intuition and reasoning but the next says or does something stupid, may not stretch to multiple series - at some point 'The Recruit' will meet the end of its character arc. Hopefully the writers will resist trying to push things too far or simply repeating the same 'jokes'.
So far, though, it gets the basics right.