Loosely based on Doug Liman’s 2005 film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Amazon Prime’s new Mr. and Mrs. Smith only really relates to its predecessor by name. The show deviates from the premise of the original, which saw the two stars play a husband and wife unaware that the other is a spy working for a rival organization. The reboot instead follows Pen15’s Maya Erksine and co-creator of the show Donald Glover (otherwise known as Childish Gambino) as two spies paired together as an undercover married couple, navigating their relationship along with high-octane missions.
Over the course of eight 45-minute episodes that fly by during a sleep-deprived night or two, the couple’s relationship develops alongside their larger-than-life spy escapades. Co-creator Francesca Sloane, who worked on the surrealist comedy Atlanta with Donald Glover, brings much of the laid-back hangout sensibility of Atlanta to this show. Much of the joy of watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith unfold lies in the nonchalance of its action sequences—a quiet, reflective scene of kitchen contemplation set to Alabama Shakes could quickly descend into a shootout.
Yet, this is not to say that the action sequences are poorly staged or lazy. Sloane, Glover, Erskine, and the impressive slew of guest directors behind the show strike an endlessly watchable balance between adrenaline-filled set pieces and dramatic heft with the more tender, vulnerable moments between the couple. The breathless final episode is essentially one long action sequence that makes fantastic use of the show’s setting in New York City for several dynamic, well-choreographed fight sequences.
Episodes span various destinations, including Lake Como in Italy and ski slopes in Switzerland, that are gorgeously shot and make for exciting, sometimes Bond-esque, set-pieces. However, it is in this sometimes fantastical realm that the show can falter—it alternates between indulging in over-the-top devices like truth serums and trying to imagine what a secret spy organization might look like in grounded, real-life. This is where the realism of the show’s dialogue and the more surreal plot elements can clash, making it difficult to buy into Glover and Erskine as spies.
But it is in that realism that the show finds its heart. Glover and Erskine’s chemistry bounces off the screen and prompts the audience to genuinely invest in the relationship, which perfectly supplements and adds emotional weight to the action. Glover has an effortless charisma about him that is well-suited to his character, and Erskine brings both likability and a complex standoffishness to Mrs. Smith. So much time is dedicated to understanding these two characters and their complex dynamic that viewers will find themselves wanting more of it by the end of the final episode.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is also an exceptionally well-directed show; Hiro Murai, who directed many episodes of Atlanta and Barry, helms the first two episodes, and Glover directed the season finale. All of the individual episode directors are great at capturing the same understated visual language that made Atlanta so engaging episode-to-episode. The action is not choppy or edited to incoherence like many modern action films. Instead, the show uses long takes to let the viewer actually watch the fight sequences unfold. Beautiful wide shots let us take in the many environments the show finds itself in, from exotic locales to the stylish apartment inhabited by the titular characters.
The show’s marketing plays up its impressive roster of guest stars—and they do not disappoint. From Paul Dano to Alexander Skarsgard, there are a number of surprise appearances in parts of varying sizes, all of which fit perfectly into the world built by Sloane and Glover. Sarah Paulson plays a therapist in one of the season’s highlights, a quasi-bottle episode that really unpacks the relationship and lays much of the thematic groundwork for the final episodes.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith uses its overplayed, spy-movie setup to underscore the various stages of its titular pair’s relationship over one short season. It is a sort-of romance, sort-of action flick, sort-of hangout comedy that you will not be able to get enough of.
Ari Desai ’27 (adesai@college.harvard.edu) watched the entirety of Mr. and Mrs. Smith instead of doing his p-sets.