Under the lens takes a deep look at films by focusing in on one or two particular areas of the picture that helped to define it for better or for worse.
The Recruit is a 2022 spy thriller television show released by Netflix. Created by Alexi Hawley, it stars Noah Centineo, Laura Haddock and Colton Dunn. The story follows a brand new lawyer at the CIA who gets entangled in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her long-term relationship with the agency.
UNDER THE LENS: HUMOR
Humor: The Recruit had the dubious task of taking an organization like the CIA and creating a show that was at once a comedy, but also a spy thriller, yet also a violent and paranoid unreliable narrative. Many shows and motion pictures have failed at this task, but The Recruit manages to not only do it, but excel at it! Creator Alexi Hawley is not a stranger to balancing humor and drama with his show The Rookie on ABC, The Recruit is at its core a story about people trying to escape their self-destructive habits and the pasts that made them that way. This very heavy and sobering message is tempered by lots of humor as we see our heroes and villains get up and fall down over and over again.
We all have self-destructive habits and it can be easy to simply fall into them, but the message of The Recruit is that no matter how bad our past, or how enabling people in our lives are. We have a choice to walk away from those habits and become a new person. We see this when Owen talks with his ex-girlfriend who tells him that she sees the guy he is inside, and that if he could just get his shit together he would be an amazing person. Owen is concerned at what he is seeing about himself and asks the question “I am a bad person” its a question that perhaps we should all ask ourselves every once in a while.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The show managed to work all its characters into the narrative well, no one was left out
- The small cameo by Nathan Fillion was fun
- The show balanced violent paranoia and quirky humor well
QUOTABLE QUOTE
Owen Hendricks: Higher stakes, a bit more challenging, but the bottom line is… I’m a guy that doesn’t mind falling on his face.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Have you ever had someone you were trying to help who you were not sure was trustworthy? What did you do?
CONCLUSION
Overall The Recruit is a rowdy, violent, and comedic romp through the world of the CIA, its full of bad stabbings, assassination attempts, and endless lies and lies to hide those lies. Owen is a likely hero who we just WANT to cheer for, he is the everyman who is in way over his head but always manages to find a way through it all. Laura Haddock is electric as Owen’s psychopathic asset who just may care more than she lets on. The Recruit is a strong first season, and promises even more in its second, that being said it does suffer from a finale that feels slightly underbaked and unfinished. However, the season cliffhanger is a good one that promises to explain just what is going on. If you enjoy spy shows with humor, then check this one out!
