Noah Centineo’s journey from rom-com king to lead in Netflix spy thriller “The Recruit” has been a bit bumpy. Noah Centineo is, perhaps, the archetypal Netflix star, an actor whose career consists, in large part, of his work on the teen romantic comedy Dreamer. Like the films he has starred in, Centineo has an allure that is short-lived; He is a lovely presence, but one that slips from the mind as soon as seen.
This makes him fit for a show with a lot of action but no real center. “The Recruit,” a new Netflix drama created by Alexi Hawley, finds Centineo’s character Owen Hendricks in the middle of an international espionage shakeup, during which he runs the emotional gamut from mild interest to mild panic. It’s a show that should draw viewers in — the pilot is directed by “Bourne Identity” director Doug Liman! – But as soon as it appears, it passes.
The Recruit Review
The central idea is quite clever: take the language of the spy thriller and apply it to a generational hero. (Offered a martini at a glitzy party, our juvenile Bond figure orders a White Claw instead.) Owen is a new lawyer at the CIA who stumbles upon a letter from an imprisoned former agency asset (Laura Haddock) is have an account. The conspiracy figure, who goes by Max, is asking for acquittal, for possessing privileged information about US intelligence practices as a form of blackmail. Soon, Owen finds himself in a complicated relationship with a woman whose intelligence involves manipulating the hands of an experienced agency.
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The Recruit feels like it’s on autopilot
There are moments of spark, like when Owen tries to coach Max by dodging a polygraph test. (This viewer learned some shocking information about biological metrics such as a test might use!) But too much of “The Recruit” feels like it’s on autopilot. Bombing and violent action seem to go hand in hand, used somewhat haphazardly to juice interest. Allusions to humor, such as when Owen ruins his suit in Vienna and must buy a sweatshirt that says “Vienna Bitch” to make him feel wrong. Point to the idea that jokes are jokes and Owen’s relationship with his social circle. As well as accusations that his busy detective schedule prevents him from being a fully engaged friend — felt like one of the least interesting parts of the “Alias” reboot 20 years later.
Give this much to “The Recruit” – it ends with a well-done cliffhanger that is brilliantly seeded as the season progresses. It was enough to make me wish that the rest of the series’ narrative was cleaner and that its vision for what it could have been and did was grounded in playful humor. At the end of it, this audience was eager to see what was next for the show; However, it takes a long time to get there.
