The Recruit Review: Netflix Series Stages an Original and Exciting Story For The Small Screen

Cast: Noah Centineo, Laura Haddock, Aarti Mann, Colton Dunn, Fivel Stewart

Creator: Alexi Hawley

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

The series The Recruit arrives on Netflix on Friday 16 December, an excellent product dedicated to the small screen that mixes elements typical of the spy genre and action ones with balance and a strong sense of entertainment. It is no coincidence that the series created by Alexi Hawley is directed in its first two episodes by director Doug Liman, who has made some of his most successful films with action cinema and spy stories.

In our review of The Recruit, we will focus precisely on how much the Netflix serial product starring Noah Centineo manages to synthesize a tight narrative structure without a moment of respite with styles and clichés of the genres of which it is the standard bearer. Without, however, falling into mannerism and artistic derivation without ideas.

The Recruit Review:  The Story

A rookie lawyer named Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) who has just started working for the CIA experiences a sudden upheaval in his life when he encounters an outside resource requesting a release from the agency. Once the asset tries to expose her long-term relationship with the agency, Owen Hendricks soon becomes entangled in a complex international intrigue. As the young lawyer negotiates with the asset, he soon finds himself at odds with menacing individuals and groups, risking his life as he tries to fulfill his duties, inside and outside the CIA offices.

The Recruit is a series written and created by Alexi Hawley that debuts on Netflix starting Friday, December 16; a serial product that, however, owes much to the cinematic legacy of recent decades, above all to that linked to action and spy feature films. Nothing to do with the immortal and evergreen adventures of James Bond in the British house, but more with the parts of the great entertainment cinema led by the direction of Doug Liman.

The Recruit Review and Analysis

It is no coincidence that the American director ventured behind the camera in the first two episodes of The Recruit, branding the series with themes and elements already addressed in some of his famous previous films. However, the TV show created by Alexi Hawley only starts from the assumption of the best spy stories, and then completely overturns the axioms of the genre and the expectations, both of the public and its characters.

Emblematic in this regard is the character of Owen Hendricks played by the good Noah Centineo, perfectly placed in the role of a very young and enterprising CIA lawyer who, gripped by the ghosts of his past and by a difficult family situation, hides the pain and suffering private in work and action, but postponing embroiled in a diplomatic crisis bigger than him. As Owen often states during the eight episodes of The Recruit, he is only a lawyer, not a spy!

Perhaps the trump card of the adrenaline-pumping original Netflix series lies in this reversal of the clichés of the spy genre, namely in having been able to entrust a very young budding interpreter with a leading role in a story with a high rate of action and tension, giving him a difficult past and a characteristic weakness typical of his age: impudence, resourcefulness, guts, a good dose of irresponsibility and an innate talent for knowing how to be in the wrong place…at the right time! So states the tagline of The Recruit, as if to emphasize how much Alexi Hawley’s spy series wants to play with the expectations of the savviest audience, overturn them at least in part and give back to its television audience the portrait of an improbable, irresistible, fallible action hero and recklessly brave. Not much.

Also thanks to the direction of Doug Liman, here behind the camera of the first two episodes but who in a certain way gives an indelible trademark to the entire narrative and visual structure of the Netflix series. The American director, already the author of popular spy movies and action thrillers in the past years such as The Bourne Identity and Fair Game, enjoys giving his television audience a fresh, original, and never boring product, which mentions his filmography without, however, turning into a pale imitation or manneristic version.

A value that is becoming increasingly rare in the international television scene these days, here at the service of a male portrait that is never banal and always at the service of the story he wants to tell, enhanced by the irresistible imperfections of his young and gritty protagonist. After a short career in often sentimental films, the time has perhaps come for Noah Centineo to sharpen his claws and prove his worth as the It Boy on the big screen for the next few years.

The Recruit Review:  The Last Words

The Recruit is a television series that takes the best of the great action and spy cinema of recent years and stages an original and exciting story for the small screen in which the young protagonist (played by a good Noah Centineo) plays the part of the lion and conquers for his imperfect sympathy. Directs (in some episodes) the excellent Doug Liman.