Butterfly

Butterfly is much like every other spy/assassin/espionage thriller out there. Although the acting was really good throughout, with great locations, the directing and writing let the storyline down dramatically. It could have been so much more entertaining and engrossing. With predictable plot-twists and the usual plot holes (perhaps great voids) the writers didn't really do a good job with what they had to offer and most of it was borrowed from other TV shows and movies. The opening dialogue of the pilot (ep 1) was copied straight from The Matrix, for example. 5/10 is more generous that what I should be awarding this show, mainly because of the poor job the directors did.

I love DDK. He's a pretty straight forward actor. The young lady who plays Rebecca did a fine job. Don't let the Chloe Bennett fanboys fool ya. The action could've been better but it was pretty good. The only reason this isn't a 10 is because of the sound mixing and that ending was a doozy. Plus I would've loved more episodes.

This East-meets-West spy thriller looks gorgeous and delivers good storytelling! Daniel Dae Kim & the Korean cast (Kim Tae-hee, Park Hae-soo, Kim Ji-hoon) absolutely shine with authentic performances. Production values are a standout, considering the writing swings from, good-to-average, throughout the series.

BUT... the action is painfully slow, gunshots sound like toy cap guns, pacing drags, ending flops hard, and some non-Korean actors (looking at you, Piper Perabo) deliver lines like yesterday's toast, with the writers repeating the same lines, over and over -

"That's David! That's David! That's David!"

**6/10** - Worth watching for the story & standout performances, but weak action keeps it grounded. Could've been an 8-9 with better choreography, less plot holes, better writing!

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Butterfly sells itself as a slick spy thriller, but what it delivers is a B-movie dressed up in Prime Video gloss. The central flaw? We're told David is an elite agent, yet he has no go-bag, no secured safe houses, not even something as simple as a forged passport. Tradecraft is nonexistent-he feels less like an operative and more like a suburban dad caught in cosplay.

The action sequences are equally hollow. Where Bourne uses pens, magazines, and taxis with gritty improvisation, Butterfly gives us generic car chases, knife fights with too many flourishes, and Rebecca's constant smirks that drain every ounce of tension. It's all style, no substance-action scenes that look choreographed rather than lived in.

Psychologically, the show fumbles again. Jason Bourne was haunted, layered, believable. David and Rebecca? One is inconsistent paranoia, the other a "smirking teen assassin" stereotype. The emotional beats play more like daytime soap melodrama with pistols than a gripping espionage story.

World-building is paper thin. There's no convincing spy infrastructure, no sense of a global intelligence machine. Just pretty backdrops, some melodrama, and occasional gunfire. Instead of espionage with stakes, we get "family therapy sessions with prop weapons."

If Jason Bourne is an apex predator of spy thrillers, Butterfly is Jason in Psycho with a potato gun and a sulking sidekick. A waste of film-yawn-worthy action, ill-prepared agents, and a smirk so overused it should have its own credit in the cast list.

I watch a lot of Korean TV and movies. So I was predisposed to watching this show. I'm only halfway through, and this review assumes the story and pacing continues to the end

I am really enjoying this show. The story is intriguing, it unfolds at an even pace, the cinematography is fantastic and the acting is phenomenal.

Why am I giving this an 7 instead of a 10? Because the only missing element is the action. It's fairly weak, which is surprising because Korean action is much better than this. Lots of jump cuts that show the result, but none of the work. But I just read that this is an American production, which makes more sense, since I never found American TV action all that great.

It's too bad, because I am familiar with a ton of the Korean actors and I know they've worked on physical shows/movies before. Nevertheless, this show is still worth watching.