Mr. and Mrs. Smith's first episode shows a slow, low-action spy story. A very slow one. Would you give up your life to go live together with someone else and pretend the two of you are married while you carry out spy missions? That is the question John and Jane Smith (Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, known for Community and PEN15 respectively) are faced with the beginning of the first episode. That is, after we as viewers get to see what has happened to the presumably previous Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the opening scene.
This first episode sets the setting. The two meet each other for the first time in their new house, get their first mission, and complete it. In this process, both the two of them, and the viewer get very little information on what is going on. What exactly is the organization giving out the mission? What is the goal? Why them? This is not necessarily a problem, but it does mean that the end of the first episode is a bit unsatisfactory in that regard. Nonetheless, there is promise for more.
The major part of the episode is not really spent on the mission, but rather on the two ‘married’ strangers getting to know each other. Perhaps that is also why the episode is called “First Date”. While they have to wait when tailing a woman and intercepting a package, they slowly start to get to some information out of the other. These scenes are slow. Very slow. What also does not help is that the chemistry between them is not that great (yet?), and that some of the acting feels a bit wooden.
Nonetheless, the show shows promise. The episode ends with a ‘what is to come’, which shows scenes where the chemistry seems to have improved (or maybe they cherry-picked those). It seems that the rest of the show will be about how their love for each other grows as they continue going on missions. I do not mind watching a slightly less action-focused spy mission for a change, but I do really hope that in the episodes to come, they manage to fix this slow conversation problem, because especially the middle part of the episode just took too long. Is character bonding really best shown when one of the two has to text rather than speak? That's just not efficient, at all.
I will probably watch the rest of the episodes, just to see where it goes. The ending of the first episode did suddenly spark some promise. But it will probably take me a while to watch the whole thing. The slow-burn does not inspire binge-watching.
About the writer, Nienke de Boode
She started with watching NCIS, CSI and Bones, but over time her passion for TV shows has grown to what it is today, with dozens of shows that need to be watched. You can always wake her up for a good crime show, but she is also open to different things. Comedy and fantasy are on her list of favourites as well. Since October 2014, she also writes for MySeries to combine her love for TV shows and writing.
