Recxpectations: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

When I first heard that Amazon was making a TV version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, I was fired up. Two great voices coming together to remake one of my favorite action films. (And if you haven’t had a chance, check out the dueling commentaries on the DVD - one by the producers who struggled to rein in Doug Liman, and one with Liman and screenwriter Simon Kinberg, who kind of revel in what they got away with.)

When Phoebe dropped out of the show due to creative differences, I wasn’t too phased. Her and Donald were kind of an odd couple and I had faith that Glover and Maya Erskine would work better.

When the show finally dropped, I ignored my usual advice - I went in with sky-high expectations and, well, sadly, the show just isn’t for me. I seem to be in the minority on this one (it has a 77 on Metacritic and the general vibe I’ve gotten on Threads is people really enjoying it) but I’ll still try to give my objective Recommended Expectations.

Synopsis: “John and Jane Smith become secret agents for a mysterious organization. Their work puts both their skills as spies and their relationship to the test. The two have to deal with a world full of dangers.” (from Google)

DON’T EXPECT: Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Premise-wise, I could argue that Amazon’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is almost closer to “Charlie’s Angels” or “The Scarecrow and Mrs. King” than it is to the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. The show is about a couple of strangers, forced to work together for an unknown boss and pose as a couple, coming together to carry out their various risky assignments. The entire hook of the original film - the fact that John and Jane didn’t know that their partner was an assassin - is gone.
I understand the draw of naming the show after a popular IP but I also think it puts unfair expectations on the new show since it isn’t even trying to be the same premise.
So from the jump, viewers should realize that this is a remake in name only.

EXPECT: a relationship drama
The core of this version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith is the evolving relationship between John and Jane. The missions are episodic and mostly throwaway storylines; what will hook the audience is the chemistry between Glover and Erskine.

EXPECT: a selection of episodes
For me, the weirdest part of Mr. and Mrs. Smith is that it feels like a selection of episodes from a larger series. There are time jumps between every episode that make it feel to me like this was a 20-episode show but we only got 8 of them. After I started episode 3, I actually paused and looked back to make sure I hadn’t skipped an episode. To give you an idea of how quickly the show moves, John and Jane meet in episode 1 and the title of episode 5 is “Do you want kids?”

DON’T EXPECT: clever spycraft
As I noted before, the missions in the show are pretty much forgettable and there is almost nothing clever about John and Jane’s methods. It’s what I call “blunt force cinema”; there isn’t much style or inventiveness to the proceedings. For instance, in an expensive-looking car chase, the big plan to get away is to shoot at the bad guys, get some distance, and then take an off-ramp while the bad guys keep driving straight ahead. The first episode features the closest thing to problem solving and even that one is pretty basic and requires some suspension of disbelief.
In fact, for the most part, we don’t know any of the motives behind any of the missions so the stakes are always just “Will the Smiths fail?” (Maybe this changes in the last two episodes but I tapped out after the sixth.)
And when it comes to the undercover element of the show, Jack and Jane’s clandestine abilities rank maybe one notch below James Bond introducing himself as Bond, James Bond to every single person he meets. For the most part, it’s such a non-issue that when John bumps into another John Smith at a busy outdoor market, they almost immediately start talking about how they are both undercover spies.

EXPECT: an indie vibe
The movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” was infamously excessive when it came to spending. For example, Doug Liman and the producers went back and forth on the ending so much that they built the set for the final battle in a full-size, fully stocked Target-type store, then they tore the set down completely after deciding to go in a different direction, only to second-guess the change, go back to previous ending, and had to fully rebuild and restock the Target-sized set.
Amazon's “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” clearly wasn’t working with that budget. Again, this is a relationship drama, not an action film, and while there aren’t any full-on bottle episodes, you should expect to spend significant amounts of time in dialogue-heavy, single-location scenes.

DON’T EXPECT: much insight
It’s unfair to compare this show to “Atlanta” but Donald Glover’s involvement is going to make that impossible. But whereas “Atlanta” felt like we were getting an inside look at a world that Glover knew well, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” offers no such insight. Honestly, it doesn’t even seem like there was much research done into the spy genre. To be fair, it’s not like the original felt like a John le Carré novel but I was expecting a bit more from Donald Glover and Co.

I’m not sure if there will be a season 2 of this but if there is another Mr. & Mrs. Smith made - and again, I know I’m in the minority on this - I’m hoping it’ll be Phoebe Waller-Bridge getting a chance to bring her vision to the screen.