Prime Video's 8-Part Spy Thriller Series Is One Of Its Best

Although Prime Video’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith sounded like a strange reboot, the 2024 show ended up becoming one of the streaming service’s best and most underrated spy thrillers. Released in February 2024, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is an in-name-only reboot of director Doug Liman’s 2005 movie of the same name, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Although the original movie is a fun if inessential action comedy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith was more famous for the behind-the-scenes drama of Jolie and Pitt’s on-set affair than the movie’s own story. This was something of a shame since, as 2024’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith proves, its premise is pretty great.

Prime Video’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith Revitalized The Movie’s Premise

In the original movie, the titular pair were a married couple who discovered that they were not only both spies and assassins, but spies and assassins working for competing agencies. Rather than simply rehashing this storyline, the Prime Video show instead focuses on two lonely rookie spies who must pretend to be a married couple while working together.

After establishing this conceit, every episode of Mr. and Mrs. Smith season 1 then sees the duo follow another mission while also ironing out the kinks of their performance as a happily married couple. Stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine have superb chemistry that holds the show together, opting for a more deadpan and comedic approach than Jolie and Pitt’s sizzling romance.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith Made A Familiar Premise Feel Fresh Again

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine with a hooded man in Mr. & Mrs. Smith

While Mr. and Mrs. Smith took a big risk by changing the franchise’s central premise, this turned out to be an ingenious move on the part of the show’s creators. By making the two leads a new couple who are pretending to be long-term partners, the series ensured that its premise felt fresh and original.

Instead of coming across as a mere retread of the existing movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a fun, clever reinvention of the franchise. As such, it is fitting that Mr. and Mrs. Smith season 2 will reportedly reinvent the series again, with a new set of lead actors in the form of Anora’s Mark Eydelshteyn and Companion’s Sophie Thatcher.

While Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s season 1 cliffhanger ending might have left viewers hoping for a definitive conclusion to the story of Glover’s John and Erskine’s Jane, the anthology approach could prove smarter in the long run. After all, the second season could still reintegrate the original main characters in a surprise twist.

When Will Mr. and Mrs. Smith Season 2 Happen

Maya Erskine and Donald Glover in Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 1

Without giving away too many spoilers, suffice to say there is a big twist in Mr. and Mrs. Smith season 1 that proves the show could pull off a revelation like this, as it has done so before. This makes season 2 all the more exciting, as the show is genuinely unpredictable in a way that the original movie was fairly rote.

While 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a slick, by-the-numbers thriller, Prime Video’s show makes the most of its longer runtime to do more with the central premise. As a result, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is one of the streaming service’s best spy shows, and a must-watch for fans of the genre.