The series “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a thriller loosely based on the 2005 film of the same name, came out on Feb. 2, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video. The thriller followed the same married spies narrative as its preceding film and has received mixed reviews from critics. Fortunately, instead of trying to live up to the original movie, the show was loosely based on it instead. As a result, it was still able to portray a story worth watching.
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” was created by Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane, who joined the project after the departure of Glover’s original collaborator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It stars Glover as John Smith and Maya Erskine as Jane Smith.
Glover and Erskine put on great performances, and it was clear how much consideration went into their portrayals of John and Jane Smith. The upfront John and reserved Jane came to life with their acting. The dynamic acting in the latter episodes was particularly noteworthy, as both actors beautifully captured the passion needed for the show’s increasingly intense scenes.
John and Jane were strangers in the beginning of the show, but had both been recruited and employed by the same secretive agency. Their names were not actually John and Jane Smith, but they agreed to abandon their true identities and pretend to be married, in order to work together for the benefit of their reclusive boss.
In the first episode, John and Jane’s assignment was to head to a restaurant, tail a woman, intercept a package from her and hand that package over to their agency. In the second episode, they were tasked with identifying the highest bidder of an art piece, administering that person a dose of truth serum and recording what was subsequently confessed.
In later episodes, John and Jane were asked to do things such as spy on a couple and kidnap a high-value target. It was by completing these assignments and overcoming emotional obstacles together in each episode, that the two characters were able to strengthen their relationship.
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is a character study. It describes two people who have each made a life for themselves in the spy world and are not sure how they feel about being in it together. It also explores deeply personal issues involving marriage, abandonment and intimacy.
At its core, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is about two people who will stop at nothing to protect each other. It is this emotional element that makes the show stand out, as it keeps viewers invested in the characters and their journey.
The show uses a slow burn romance technique to explore the chemistry between its two leads. Their unique chemistry is, after all, what drives the show. Throughout its duration, John and Jane’s relationship transforms from solely comical to both dramatic and emotional.
In a funny scene in which their attraction was still new, John appears without his shirt on and Jane comments, “You lost your shirt.” A minute later, John nervously starts explaining to her why he did not have it on, which makes the entire situation even more awkward.
In this scene, John has been caught in a vulnerable moment that illuminates the biggest difference that existed between him and Jane when they were getting to know each other. While he would prefer that they become better acquainted, she would prefer that they maintain a strictly professional relationship. This created an interesting dynamic, and it is one that changed many times over the show’s eight-episode duration.
Some say that Glover and Erskine were not able to create the same chemistry between themselves that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had in the original film. However, John and Jane are meant to be flawed in the show, and the series was not created in an attempt to recreate what existed in the original anyways.
John and Jane’s attempts at relating romantically in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” created considerable tension and intrigue between them and despite their initial awkwardness, they gradually formed a relationship that was uniquely their own. Informed by the trauma of the job, their arranged union became so much more than just work, despite its unusual complications.
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” also featured a plethora of celebrity appearances with Úrsula Corberó as Rooney, Sharon Horgan as Gavol Martin and Sarah Paulson as John and Jane’s therapist.
TV spin-offs are known to be weak because they try to recreate the glory of their preceding films. However, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” does not try to do that; instead, it created an entirely different narrative for itself and ended up a worthwhile watch because of it. This proves that the best television spin-offs are often those that explore a completely new set-up instead of trying to follow that of their predecessors, with this show being a prime example.
