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Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith series is a clever interpolation of the classic spy fantasy

Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith reworks the original film’s story into a nuanced and thorny exploration of relationships.

While Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s inability to stop smoldering at each other was why most people enjoyed watching the original Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the film’s story about a married couple realizing they’ve both been hiding secret lives as spies was an intriguing example of how well the romcom and action genres could complement one another. And because John and Jane sign up assuming they’ll be carrying out their assignments individually, the duo aren’t sure what to make of their situation when their handler — an unseen presence whose secure text-based messages almost always open with “Hihi” — informs the pair that they’ve been tasked with working together as partners in the field. Though the show’s premiere — directed by Glover’s longtime collaborator Hiro Murai — is a slickly shot origin story that presents its eponymous couple as the centerpieces of a classic spy thriller, Mr. & Mrs. Smith ’s eight-episode-long first season quickly establishes how its narrative is always working through a number of ideas about the material realities of being in a committed relationship.

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