Monseur et Madame Smith

I had an absolute blast watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I just binged all 8 episodes over the weekend and it was such a fun show it flew by. This is both a good spy thriller and a good rom-com. Donald Glover and Maya Erksine are both terrific as the leads and every episode has guest stars from other well known actors. It had Alexander Skarsgard, Eiza Gonzalez, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Ursula Corbero, Sarah Paulson, Wagner Moura, Parker Posey, among others. Each episode was a different adventure and they were all fun to watch. Glover and Erksine star as John and Jane Smith. Two loners who are put together to work as spies for a mysterious organization.

The series is a character drama with the facade of an action series. We are deeply invested in these characters and the pacing gives us room to explore their love, and flaws in an intimate way. In a word I would describe the series as warmth. It has deeply human scenes with actors that make you care. The pacing and dialogue are not action drama standard. If you are looking for a series to distract with guns a shoot em ups, this probably isn't for you. It you're interested to see how love, compassion, friendship, and intimacy play out in a world of spies and humor... this is the series for you.

You can tell Mr. & Mrs. Smith was created by Donald Glover because it has the same feel as Atlanta. They shouldn't have called this Mr. & Mrs. Smith though. I think that's why some people left negative reviews because it doesn't resemble the movie at all. I think the people who didn't like it would've liked it more if they called it something else because they went into it expecting the story to be along the same lines of the movie. It's not. It doesn't make it bad though. Both Donald Glover and Maya Erksine were fantastic in this. They have such natural chemistry. This show has plenty of drama, action, comedy, etc to keep you entertained.

I watched all 8 episodes and found them to have the same sentiment as the original movie but with a ton more depth. And also what I thought was better acting, Donald and Maya took every episode and put their full acting strength behind it to give each episode a familiar piece of life with some crazy action involved too. Some of the mid episodes definitely just felt like fillers and since we had the general plot going we didn't feel as we had to watch every second to get the gist. Now to the ending, DIDN'T LIKE, why with 8 full episodes would the series runners leave it on a cliffhanger... not appreciated and made me have mixed feelings toward the entire series. Boo.

After seeing the low ratings for this show, I couldn't help but think, "Oh no, not another disappointment." However, since I'm a fan of espionage-themed TV shows and movies, and having enjoyed the film, I felt compelled to give this TV series a chance. And, I'm glad I did. While the movie leaned heavily on the sex appeal of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, this rendition of Mr. & Mrs. Smith excels in both acting and writing. With only 8 episodes, building a story arc with substantial depth is no easy feat. Yet, this series manages it admirably. Each episode is fun to watch, and it's evident that the cast relished portraying these deadly characters. Although it was seemingly written as a limited series, I'm really hoping for a second season.