A likeable hi-achieving young lawyer lands a job at the CIA. First day, his boss tells him that, unless he convinces a top politician to cancel plans to release CIA info, he won't make it to Day 2. He pulls it off. Assigned "grunt" work that no one else wants, he surprises everyone by finding a real threat in an old stack of "greymail." On his own dime, he flies overseas to interview a senior agent about the greymail, but accidentally breaks protocol and is immediately tortured (!) by that same agent, who doubts he is real. A fingernail is removed. "Nails grow back," he is told after his credentials are finally accepted. THE RECRUIT is a well-financed and well-cast effort that clearly got green-lighted on the promise it would be a combination of FRIENDS and KILLING EVE. A lot of the writing is too clever by half. For example, while chatting with a room-mate who is also his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist casually picks up her dirty underwear and sniffs it. The writers try extra hard to show you how clever this show is going to be, and more often than not get in their own way. KILLING EVE brilliantly managed this difficult mix. Like its own protagonist, THE RECRUIT constantly struggles with its own desire to over-achieve. You need to watch quite a few episodes to get comfortable with it. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))
Review of The Recruit
