SERIES REVIEW: Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) is a young, cool, laid-back 24-year-old lawyer in the CIA’s Office of the General Counsel, and though he’s only been there a few weeks, he’s already getting in over his head, starting with an investigation into an already chaotic “blackmail attempt” against the CIA by a former agent named Maxine Meladze (Laura Haddock).

The l title of the new Netflix series: The Recruit, was an interesting choice on the part of the creators, as it was the title of another CIA spy thriller from 2003, a relatively fair, if not outstanding, one that starred two big stars, Al Pacino and the still very young (27-year-old) Colin Farrell. (Because of the CIA content here, I initially expected this series to be some kind of spin-off or remake, but it’s not.) In that story, the “rookie” had quite an important role, as in the 2003 film Farrell was a “trainee” at the CIA spy school and was trained as a classic spy by the training officer played by Al Pacino. Another spy movie that also uses the term Recruit is the 2014 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, in which Crish Pine played the classic CIA hero Tom Clancy (whose adventures have since been made into an Amazon Prime series, we wrote about the third season yesterday).

The original choice of title was almost certainly not a coincidence on the part of the Netflix series producers, the difference in terms of story is that Owen Hendricks, played by Noah Centineo, is not a newly recruited secret agent like the heroes of the two films mentioned, but a lawyer in the CIA, in a separate legal department. It soon becomes clear, however, that this is ultimately of little consequence, because in none of the episodes of the series does the action take place in a courtroom, and Hendricks is not doing his usual job as a lawyer, but pretty much the same as we have come to expect from the main characters in spy films and series.

From Russia With Hate

According to the story, Laura Haddock, a CIA spy and agent once stationed in her native Belarus, Maxine Meladze, is currently imprisoned in Arizona when Hendricks takes over her case, and she threatens to expose incriminating evidence against the CIA if he can’t get her out of prison and back to Europe. It’s a tall order for the relatively inexperienced Hendricks, who claims a passion for the law but often finds himself jumping straight into the deep end, having to deal with murderous mobsters, unreliable spies and fellow CIA agents who would rather kill him than advance his career.

In the meantime, Hendricks relies on his roommates Terence (Daniel Quincy Annoh) and Hannah (Fivel Stewart) – the latter happens to be Hendricks’ ex-girlfriend – even though he is not allowed to inform them because of the secrecy of his job. He occasionally calls on his boss Walter Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and his CIA colleagues Lester (Colton Dunn), Violet (Aarti Mann), Amelia (Kaylah Zander) and Janus (Kristain Bruun). Still, he can only trust them as much as he can throw them.

Produced by Alexi Hawley (whose brother Noah Hawley is the showrunner of Fargo and Legion), The Recruit the Lawyer stars (and two supporting characters, also lawyers) with very little legal issues, but is all the more full of energetic action and occasionally poignant drama (The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman helms the first two episodes).

The series is also a sort of breakout point for young Noah Centineo, who the story goes on to suggest is almost more of a womanizer than James Bond, which to me is a bit incomprehensible (at least in terms of the story), since Centineo, who I think looks a bit like a satiated kindergartener, is more of a chattering, stumbling, gawky rookie lawyer and spy-palette who doesn’t have much in common with Ian Fleming’s at once charismatic and charming super-agent. Of course, perhaps the filmmakers want to compensate, since Daniel Craig’s latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, also takes a step back from the classic “chick-magnet” Bond image in this respect. It should be added, however, that when one of the female employees of the “firm” specifically instructs her colleagues to set her up with the young lawyer and then tells her that they are going on a date, and that’s exactly what she does, then The Recruit takes on a completely absurd tone.

Exciting spy story, a pity about the romantic threads

The Recruit is also a classic spy thriller, which gains its momentum from its mysterious plot: as Hendricks delves deeper into Meladze’s past with both the CIA and the Russian mafia, he gets caught up in a complex web of government secrets and untraceable threats. However, the series tries to add more romantic or relationship-oriented scenes and arcs to the thriller elements (not forgetting the obligatory and well-emphasized and overdone woke line about two men in love), and these moments often fall very flat.

The biggest blunder here is perhaps the relationships between Hendricks and his two roommates, Terence and Hannah, which not only seem very out of place in the story as a whole, but are also rather clichéd and boring and would be more suited to a romantic teen series. A fair amount of the series is devoted to the frayed dynamic between Owen and Hannah (Hannah was also Owen’s ex, while there is hardly any chemistry between the two characters and actors, so it’s hard to feel like the two of them ever really belonged together.

Meanwhile, Terence exists almost as a bridge between Owen and Hannah, adding almost nothing to the emotional backdrop or basic story of Blackmail beyond a few interesting details about his life and a few wise revelations. These characters are definite missed opportunities, and although their relationships make sense on paper, their scenes are clunky and corny, full of clichés and dull platitudes.

But fortunately, all the exciting tension missing from Terence and Hannah’s scenes is present in Hendricks and Meladze’s frequent interactions. Laura Haddock does a great “less is more” acting job, serving as a stoic, gritty counterpoint to Centineo’s boyish charm, and Meladze’s backstory is genuinely interesting. From the moment Hendricks meets him, there is a tense energy between the two.

An organization where everyone will destroy their colleagues at any moment for their own career

One of the stronger choices in The Recruit is to portray the CIA, and Washington D.C. in general, as an untrustworthy environment where everyone will destroy their colleagues without hesitation to gain power or advancement. This causes a lot of conflict for Hendricks, whose likeable attitude is dismissed as naivety and whose inexperience is immediately used against him both in Washington and abroad.

The resulting dynamic makes many of the relationships in the series transactional; everyone avoids helping Hendricks lest they suffer a disadvantage. If they do decide to help him, he has to show something in return. The best example of this is Hendricks’ relationship with his older colleague Amelia. When he starts working on Meladze’s case, he asks Amelia for help, and in return, she essentially orders him to go on a date with her.

And this does happen, but there is very, very little chemistry between them. Hendricks doesn’t seem disinterested in Amelia, but he doesn’t really act like he wants a relationship either – it’s just another thing he has to do for his job. Although their pairing is a choice that is in keeping with D.C.’s cold nature, it somehow remains ridiculously unrealistic. It later only serves to create more awkwardness between Owen and the Russian agent Hannah while not even being well-developed or believable enough.

Fair spy action, but the main hero lacks charisma

The Recruit tries to both overstep its bounds and ride the spy thriller genre that has been booming lately (also in the context of the Russian war in Ukraine). The CIA’s presentation and the spy thriller’s main plot is fair. The action scenes are nothing to complain about (although it is not even close to James Bond or the aforementioned Jack Ryan season 3). Still, the overdone romantic threads, the often rather flat supporting characters and the occasional sweaty humor are not exactly the series’ strengths.

As for the main character, Noah Centino, for me, the young actor was not charismatic or convincing enough in the role – especially when compared, for example, to Colin Farrell in the “original” 2003 The Recruit, where Farrell played the “recruit”. Of course, the script has much to do with this, especially as the other characters are even more underwritten, unrealistic or poorly portrayed.

All in all, The Recruit is an entertaining CIA series with fair action and an interesting story. The realistic portrayal of the CIA is also a positive of the series, but it could benefit from better dialogue, more developed characters, and more nuanced relationships between them. Owen Hendricks may have been too involved in the various threads, but the same can be said of the series creators.

-BadSector-