Prime Video's 8-Part Spy Series Has No Right Being So Good

Prime Video has diversified its offerings of original series, but one eight-part original from the platform has absolutely no right being as good as it is. Throughout Prime Video’s past few years, the platform has seemed to give itself the time and space to create larger, more sweeping projects. Dabbling more in the world of fantasy and sci-fi, Prime Video’s been quietly creating a large catalog of wonderful originals, but one project that toes the line between drama and action has been a sleeper hit. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which debuted in 2024, was a massive hit for the streamer.

While the 2005 film version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a major hit at the time, the TV series adaptation didn’t necessarily seem like it was going to be something big for audiences. The casting of the show’s first season, which included Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, felt like it was leaning toward a more comedic slant than viewers anticipated, and with the details surrounding what the adaptation would look like kept under wraps, it was tough to glean what version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith was going to be on screen when the show finally made its debut.

Despite hiccups, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a sleek, chemistry-heavy series with great twists and turns. With Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 2 finally gaining some much-needed momentum, it feels like the perfect time to revisit the Prime Video original that doesn’t have the right to be quite so great.

Why Mr. & Mrs Smith Should Have Been A Disaster

David Lee/©Amazon/MGM Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection

Although Mr. & Mrs. Smith branches from the wider premise of the 2005 film, the series was upfront early about the fact that it would be a vastly different idea than what the movie had presented. The entirety of the Prime Video series felt like it may be a lost cause because it wasn’t going to feature any sort of tie to the film, or to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s chemistry, which made the film work more often than the plot itself. Reworking the original film wasn’t the only issue that Mr. & Mrs. Smith faced in its development.

The difference between a spy thriller as a film and a spy thriller as a TV series shouldn’t have been able to move as smoothly as it did. Over the course of eight episodes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith developed an entire world that felt like it had been thoroughly constructed, didn’t rely heavily on nostalgia, and presented circumstances that viewers had to buy into. The show easily could’ve felt uneven or clunky, but instead found its balance quickly and forged ahead.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2 Is Losing The Show’s Secret Weapon

Donald Glover's John Smith and Maya Erskine's Jane Smith taking Ron Perlman's character hostage in Mr & Mrs Smith season 1

As Mr. & Mrs. Smith proceeded, it became clear that the show wasn’t going to be able to sustain its original premise for a long run. The series treated John and Jane’s partnership as the emotional foundation of the series, but their fake marriage felt like a specific-to-the-season occurrence, and not something that viewers would want to see repeated during a second season. Despite being an advantage in the first season, Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 2 shouldn’t pull on the same emotional threads.

Unfortunately, that means Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 2 will be losing the show’s edge. The surprise of finding that John and Jane were both getting to know each other and hiding from each other in equal measure, as well as watching the emotional tension in their relationship build as they balanced their work and their building chemistry, was the charm of Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 1. Moving into the second season, retreading the same path doesn’t seem like an option. Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 2 will have to reinvent itself in an exciting way to captivate viewers.