If the spy stuff doesn't work out, you should consider catering.

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2024

#15 : Mr & Mrs Smith 

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine’s fresh take on the movie that brought Brangelina together might not have been quite as sexy – but they certainly still brought the chemistry. Their coupled-up assassins, John and Jane, portrayed a real relationship (there’s even a first-fart-in-bed scene) set amid the constant paranoia, impressive gun-shooting and deadly glamour of the world they occupied. It was bags of fun, but <spoiler alert>

I'd heard this was good, watched the first episode, enjoyed it, forgot what happened and never watched any more. And I've never seen the original film so I can't compare it with Brad and Angelina, but it can't end any worse than that, can it?

Donald Glover (who is probably best known as Childish Gambino, but has also appeared in Community and Atlanta) and Maya Erskine (who's been in quite a few things, but I didn't recognise many of them) play John and Jane Smith - two people who are hired by a mysterious organisation to act as a married couple whilst performing spy & assassin missions.  And their chemistry is pretty good - apparently, Maya's role was initially going to be taken by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but her and Donald had "creative differences" but it would have been interesting to see what she would have done with it. 

They go on what is ostensibly quite an unbelievable journey (OK - a very unbelievable journey) but it still has relatable components. All of which is a testament to the writing, combining the somewhat unusual spy/assassin business with everyday life stuff like dinner parties, relationship issues and couples therapy. I wasn't completely convinced by the last episode which does get a bit silly (and they're TERRIBLE shots for assassins) but I stayed intrigued as to how it was going to end right until the last seconds.

It has quite the list of guest stars including Sharon Horgan, Parker Posey, Ron Perlman, Sarah Paulson, Michaela Coel, Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Dano and John Turturro - the mostly episodic mission-based nature of the season works quite for such things. Also, amusingly, Donald Glover's mother makes her acting debut in this - playing his mother! Fortunately, she does a pretty good job of it - imagine if they had to fire her...

They obviously spent quite a bit of money on this and it all looks gorgeous - particularly the episode in Italy based around Lake Como. Beau-ti-ful. If I had to niggle, I'd say that the mysterious organisation is possibly a little too mysterious for my liking - we never really get a handle on what they might be up to or why (I guess it's money, because it always is). I do have a MAJOR complaint though which has nothing to do with the season at all but relates to The Guardian's spoiler alert (which I've removed above) because it was completely unnecessary and really spoiled things.

Overall, I'd say this is pretty silly but very enjoyably watchable escapist entertainment enlivened by two good central performances and a load of decent guest stars - sometimes watchable trumps everything else and I there's a good argument we've got that here.

#14 - Really very lovely

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I got caught compiling my own news

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #35 :  SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver If, as Justin Vernon recently suggested, this is the last ever Bon Iver album, it’s a beautiful redemption arc: a loving send-up of his anxious, myopic sad-sack self blossoms into a radiant appreciation of possibility, sensuality, risk. Everything Is Peaceful Love has one of the year’s best refrains: “Damn if I’m not climbing up a tree right now!”, giddy with thrill and absolutely no idea of what to do when you get up there other than enjoy the view. And while there are gorgeously passionate songs here, it’s the ones about gracefully letting go of an unviable love that really underscore the admirable humility in Vernon’s bowing out. I always feel like I should enjoy Bon Iver albums more than I do - they feel like they have the ingredients I need but come across a bit detached and miserablist for me to actually want to revisit them - but The Guardian suggests there may be hope for this...
Read more

Left you in Catford 'Spoons and you were all alone

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #47 :  Dead Channel Sky - c lipping. Clipping frontman Daveed Diggs is best known for being in the original cast of Hamilton, and for all that this album is filled with noisy industrial rap, you can easily imagine it being successfully adapted for the Broadway stage. Dead Channel Sky is set in a cyberpunk dystopia not dissimilar to the scorched-sun “real world” of the Matrix, humming with janky tech and populated with fascists and freaky hedonists. Producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes render it in acid squiggles and revving breakbeats, while Diggs delivers his mutoid poetry like a prophet jacked up on some amphetamine he’s synthesised in a backstreet lab.  Somewhat surprisingly, this is our second visit with the pretentiously named clipping. - last time I described it as "unremittingly grim", so obviously I'm super glad to be back with them. Well, that was "interesting". The first track ...
Read more

But you hold your love like a weapon in your hand

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #14 : pr ivate music - The Deftones This was the US alt-metallers’ first album back after serendipitously getting a huge new following via TikTok, particularly for their sweeter, shoegazier material. But rather than court that audience by cynically remaking Sextape 11 times over, they instead created a balletic cyborg of a record. The riffs could put a dent in concrete masonry, but the groove-metal rhythms are light-footed and, as ever, vocalist Chino Moreno sets out even wider tonal possibilities. It’s as if waves of pain and relief pass across his spirit as he goes from dry croaks to thunderous denouncements to blissful clean singing. The thirteenth album I've previously heard from the list because I met it as a new entry and I'm afraid I won't be relistening to this one because it was (and I quote) " too noisy for my sensitive ears". This debuted at #2 (kept off the top by Wolf Alice) and mana...
Read more