Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Season 1

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith tackles the intricacies of interracial relationships by showing us tough but open conversations.”

Title: Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Episodes Reviewed: Season 1
Creators: Francesca Sloane 👩🏼🇺🇸 and Donald Glover 👨🏾🇺🇸
Writers: Francesca Sloane 👩🏼🇺🇸 (6 eps), Yvonne Hana Yi 👩🏻🇺🇸 (3 eps), Donald Glover 👨🏾🇺🇸 (2 eps), Carla Ching 👩🏻🇺🇸 (1 ep), Stephen Glover 👨🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), Adamma Ebo 👩🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), Adanne Ebo 👩🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), and Schuyler Pappas 👩🏼🇺🇸 (1 ep) based on the film directed by Doug Liman 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Sam 🧑🏻🇺🇸🌈

—SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 4.5/5

Following the popular 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, co-creators Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane offer a creative take on this spy romance for Prime Video. Although the new Mr. and Mrs. Smith are knowingly paired as undercover operatives rather than oblivious spouses who are secretly assassins, the electrifying chemistry between the lead characters and thrilling action remains as captivating as ever.

The latest series follows two strangers who go by the aliases of John Smith (Donald Glover), a compassionate man with dreams of a family, and Jane Smith (Maya Erskine), a brilliant but guarded woman. Working undercover as a married couple for a mysterious organization, they try to stay strictly professional. But as feelings spark, their personal lives get tangled up in their dangerous missions.

At its core, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is about the value of human connection. No matter how wild the missions are, the story always returns to Jane and John’s care for each other. This emotional layer adds depth to the gripping danger of spy life, making us root for them as they face impossible odds. Full of twists, this show keeps viewers on their toes while keeping the narrative grounded with a compelling love affair.

Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

Not only are Mrs. and Mr. Smith given equal screen time in the series, Jane demonstrates more spy prowess than John when it comes to their missions. She takes a more calculated approach and focuses on achieving the assigned goals, whereas John relies more on spur-of-the-moment thinking and doesn’t always prioritize the mission. It’s clear which of their skill sets impresses their boss more: “Hihi,” nicknamed for the supervisor’s signature greeting, recognizes Jane’s hard work and gives her more opportunities to advance her career.

This emphasis on female empowerment extends beyond work. When Hihi offers Jane the option to replace John with another man, it gives Jane the upper hand in their personal relationship as well. Unlike so many situations, both on screen and off, it’s great to see the wife's career dictating how the husband's life will look rather than the other way around.

The show also tackles female competition with a clever twist. In “Infidelity” (Season 1, Episode 7), Jane confronts Bev (Michaela Coel), a woman John romances for a mission. At first, Jane pretends to be upset about John cheating on her, playing into the trope of women viewing one another as competition. But this quickly gets subverted when we realize that Bev isn’t especially interested in John as a lover; she is, in fact, a rival agent who’d been manipulating John for her own reasons. Bev is ultimately a minor character, appearing in just this episode, but she still sits outside of stereotypes. She and Jane both prove to be so much more than mere objects of male desire. Instead, they—and other female characters, such as a veteran Mrs. Smith spy played by Parker Posey and Sarah Paulson as a business owner who works from home and juggles being a mother—portray powerful women excelling and gaining the recognition they deserve. Future action series should follow this example and pick up the many tantalizing threads that have yet to be explored in this traditionally male-dominated genre.

Race: 5/5

In the film, Jane and John Smith are played by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, both white actors. Here, Jane describes herself as half-Japanese and half-Scottish white, aligning with Erskine’s own heritage. John is played by Black actor Glover. Writers actively choose to incorporate Erskine and Glover’s racial identities into their stories and plot development, which deepens their overall characterizations.

The series tackles the intricacies of interracial relationships by showing us tough but open conversations, using Jane and John as mouthpieces. A full episode is dedicated to the couple’s visits to therapy after a mission highlights glaring differences in how they each handled and interpreted a racially charged situation. John had infiltrated a group of Black male targets, with Jane listening in. As the men played cards, talk turned into a cavalier discussion about Asian women that was rife with stereotypes.

As the scene plays out, one man says, “I love me some Asians,” describing them as “low-key conservative” and that “They know their role.” John rebuts that his wife isn’t “like that at all,” but then scrambles to maintain the precarious group trust he’d established by following up with a comment about his wife being “low-key Korean,” itself another stereotype. Frustrated, Jane shoots two of the men, leaving John to take out the third. Their argument over this incident underscores the complexity of code-switching, exacerbated by issues of gender and race. To see Black and biracial Japanese American characters explicitly hash out their unique experiences this way feels particularly refreshing.

The season finale gives viewers a sense of resolution in the couple’s growth: When the two are dosed with truth serum, their underlying insecurities rise to the surface. Jane confesses that she is bothered by John joking that he views her as “white.” John apologizes, demonstrating that he’s learned the harmful impact of his words. The series allows its main characters to make mistakes and hurt each other, but shows that it's worth the discomfort and perseverance to reach a deeper understanding.

LGBTQ: 1/5

While Mr. and Mrs. Smith improves on past iterations in matters of race and gender, it still fails to represent queer relationships. Furthermore, it reinforces heteronormative expectations about family and professional lives.

Take the episode about Jane and John observing a couple with a son. At one point, the mother’s life is threatened, and John refuses to let her die because she has a child to take care of. Thus, the show implies that a family must have a mother and father who raise a child. This excludes LGBTQ families formed through same-sex partnerships, single parenting, or adoption.

The structure of the spy agency also relies on heteronormativity. Every single couple mentioned or shown is a male-female pairing. The question of whether same-sex pairings exist, or if queer people must obscure their sexuality to fit into this world, is never examined.

The omission of queer people is particularly glaring, given that 1 in 13 American adults consider themselves queer. By neglecting to acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ spies, the show portrays this career path as incompatible with queer identities. Not only is this unrealistic, but it also contributes to the marginalization of LGBTQ people in popular narratives.

Mediaversity Grade: B 3.88/5

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a must-watch for those who enjoy multilayered commentary about interracial relationships and female empowerment. However, it can also be challenging to watch a show that upholds heteronormative concepts. I just hope that the next season will continue having important, sometimes difficult discussions, while still delivering the action and thrills that make the series so entertaining to watch. There’s also a huge opportunity for the show to address the gap in LGBTQ representation, and I hope it’s one they don’t sleep on.

Like Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Try these movies with female spies in leading roles.

Grade: BLiJuly 3, 2024Female/Nonbinary Creator, Great for: Gender, Great for: Race