Simple, guilty pleasures exist for good reason. You’ve got ’em, and the 2005 Mr. & Mrs. Smith film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was a guilty pleasure of mine for years. It made fine TBS-rerun background noise, and this could have even been my own personal “Snyder Cut” since I dug the unrated/extended version, too. This enjoyment was cut short by the real-life issues between the two stars, but at one point in time, it honestly felt like enough — for a silly blockbuster movie — that two sexy people did sexy action things and found each other sexy again after discovering that they both led adrenaline-fueled lives as assassins for rival agencies.
Fast forward to 2024, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith has received a reboot that was perhaps inevitable because Hollywood cannot resist pulling old hits out of the attic. Like (undoubtedly) plenty of people, I wasn’t immediately jazzed, so I get the concern. Seriously, I do. Very few revivals/reboots/remakes are worth the resurrection, and most are not fantastic or even worth commentary.
Fortunately, this effort was not wasted, and that has to do with Donald Glover hearing that his pal scored the rights and not really understanding the original story’s purpose: “[I]t’s just two gorgeous people in this situation. But the story I didn’t quite understand.” And yes, that checks out. As fun as the movie was to watch, the actual dynamic between the pair was unimportant. The mere realization of their mutual murder-lives immediately reignited their passion. Marriage problems solved? So they claimed, but this was an adequate 2005 summer-popcorn film. Now, even without the uncomfortable details that unfurled about that leading duo, I don’t think I’d want to watch it again.
Why? Because that damn Donald Glover is ruining things, and I thank him for it. Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a TV reimagining that reworks the whole concept in a tactically and emotionally smart (but not obnoxiously so) way, and much of that credit goes to Maya Erskine, too, after she stepped up to fill those acting shoes when Phoebe Waller-Bridge ducked out. Let’s talk about the three simple ways that this series is worth your time:
Could this be an ongoing story with more seasons? Yes! The ensemble cast includes Ron Perlman, Sarah Paulson, Michaela Coel, and Paul Dano. Each of their characters add layers to the story without distracting from the main duo. The show organizes itself around a ready-made structure, given the ultra-episodic nature of this story — sort-of a mission a week, and there are unspecified leaps forward in time, which are not frustratingly unclear but add to the texture of the story — for guest stars to pop in and disappear at whim.
Additionally, there’s much more intrigue in this series beyond simply “two gorgeous people kill other people and have a final stand-off after their employers try to kill them, only to live happily ever after.” There’s an enduring mystery and a cliffhanger ending that could flow right into a second season, so there should be more if the show’s audience is receptive. However and as with Glover’s Swarm, this season will release in bingeable form, which I feel is a mistake because weekly drops would build the suspense more, but I don’t call those shots (go talk to Jeff Bezos if it makes you mad).
Also, this feels like as decent a section as any to mention that Mr. & Mrs. Smith is very unlike anything that Donald Glover has done in recent years. Atlanta, as brilliant and funny as it was, loved to subvert expectations and do it again two episodes later. It truly kept viewers on their toes, but it also wasn’t a show that you could watch on autopilot. Whereas Mr. & Mrs. Smith picks you up and carries you along with momentum. Like those damn addictive chips called Pringles, once you pop, well, you catch my drift. It’s a clever show, but it doesn’t make the viewer work for what they receive. That’s a sweet spot.
The setup of their jobs is much better: Things go incredibly wrong in the business of death, and also, you have to consider this: how f*cked up are people who agree to do this for a living? Pretty screwed up, as it happens. In a departure from the film, Glover and Erskine’s “John” and “Jane” were hired before they knew that they would be paired with anyone, let alone “married.” They work that discomfort and the sense of discovery hard, in the most entertaining way. Glover is incredible as always, but Erskine steps up to take control of the screen, and boy, their onscreen relationship is as much of an occupational risk as their assignments themselves.
As they get to know each other while disposing of bodies (what an icebreaker that is), they find that their motivations for entering the business differ, and that’s only a slice of what these two could ideally work out in therapy. Of course, solving these issues in the first season would not only distract from the story’s momentum but also kill some mystery, so the show instead peppers some of these deep-down revelations into the way that they handle f*ck ups. That’s honestly the most enjoyable part of this series: the unglamorous moments that aren’t as simple as fleeing the scene by jumping out of a skyscraper like Angelina Jolie did. And this is deeply, morbidly funny stuff.
The marriage exists beyond sexual attraction: Maybe this point is important for a major reason that romcoms have faded out of theaters and are few and far between as streaming releases, too. With all the competition for eyeballs these days, only the rarest of films can succeed by virtue of two people being hot. If there is going to be an eight-episode season of TV, there had damn well better be something else on the table beyond two gorgeous people getting busy, and the hook of whether they will fall for each other also isn’t enough to justify a reboot.
I’ll credit this show with realizing that the “will they or won’t they” question needed to be answered very quickly. From there, even with attraction, these two are still essentially two strangers who have to learn to deal with each other’s quirks and shortcomings, and it’s not always pretty. In fact, that’s a difficult obstacle to overcome for people who marry by choice. And for these two? They are thrown into insane, nearly impossible situations from the beginning, and I’m actually mildly surprised that neither of these characters “accidentally” kill each other at multiple points, but their partnership is structured in such a way that the show wouldn’t work without both of them.
Again, there is a cliffhanger there, and it’s a question that will need to be answered. I’ll be pretty irked if it isn’t settled with a second season. So give this show a shot, won’t you? It’s a rare example of reinvention that not only justifies its existence but updates and surpasses the original.
Amazon’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ will release a full eight-episode season on Feb. 2.
