The first episode of the spy thriller series from Prime Video “Butterfly” begins with a pair of interconnected action sequences that drop the audience into his world fatal secret operations. I was immediately reminiscent of one of my favorite espionage shows “alias” when I wore a striking wig and a fake pregnancy belly when I carried out the murder of a high-ranking Russian civil servant who is in Seoul for a diplomatic meeting in Seoul.
“Butterfly” remembers “alias” in another important way when Rebecca has teamed up with her father David (Daniel Dae Kim), a co -pion that unexpectedly comes back into her life after years. “Butterfly” is loose on comics created by Arash Amel, and is rapidly and entertaining, without the heavy, drawn conspiracy of a prestige drama or the unwieldy efforts to build up the world, the prime video's potency spy franchise “citadel”.
The creators, Steph Cha and Ken Woodruff, provide consistent action, action and interpersonal drama within six lively episodes.
'Butterfly' delivers familiar but satisfactory spy thriller dynamics
While Rebecca conducts her mission at the beginning of this first episode, David conducts his own mission in a karaoke lounge, directly opposite the city. He infiltrates Rebeccas Crew and starts her escape route with the aim of doing her from Caddis, the private hidden agency, in which she works for the ruthless boss Juno Lund (Piper Perabo).
As for Rebecca, David was killed in action nine years earlier, but he was actually missing his death to save Rebecca from the goal of being targeted by his enemies.
At least he says that both Rebecca and himself, but she doesn't buy it quite, and maybe not because he is determined to trace for the years he missed. Observe how Rebecca has developed into an efficient, cold -blooded assassin, has regretted him to leave her in Juno's hands, and he would like to give her the chance in a normal life.
A spy has nothing new that wants to leave the job behind but is held back by larger forces, and “Butterfly” does not reinvent the formula. However, the execution counts, and the creators find clever paths to maintain the conflict between David and Juno, which is angry when she learns that her former business partner is still alive and tries to steal her best agent.
The characters travel through South Korea, with lots of car hunt and shootings on the way and runs a fight that is as personal as it is professional.
The character relationships inform and drive the action
Juno has to take into account her own family member, since her son Oliver (Louis Landau) is also a Caddis employee, although he is only an ineffective analyst that does not constantly meet the expectations of his mother. His insistence on the field leads to catastrophic consequences, and both David and Juno make risky decisions to protect their children.
David now also has to take a new woman into account, and she has her own shady family connections that come into play in the second half of the season and offer food for potential future developments.
After the exciting and complicated action of the first episode, “Butterfly” slows down a little, so that David and Rebecca can come back and Kim and Hardesty have a strong chemistry, both as a cautious spies and as a alienated family members. They combine both in cooking and through surveillance and treat each other as professional, although this means that they can never really trust themselves.
Juno and Oliver have a friendly but less respectful relationship because it expects to simply follow their orders because they know what is best. Perabo, who spent five seasons as the star of another spy thriller of Globe Trotting, who spent “Covert Affairs” 2010s USA, never makes Juno a sadistic, one-dimensional villain, although she is clearly amoral and greedy.
These two sentences of parents and children ensure worthy opponents because they are driven by similar, complementary motivations.
'Butterfly' is perfect for action fans
The character development is largely satisfactory, but what is worth seeing “butterfly” is the kinetic action, and the show is rarely far from another impressive sequence. The highlights include a car/motorcycle hunt along the sidewalks filled with pedestrians and a fight in a narrow kitchen.
Kim Ji-Hoon plays an assassin who is known as a gun who fills the role of purely evil villain when he is hired for Junos dirty work. He gets some of the best action moments of the show, but Kim and Hardesty also have their own easily.
While “butterfly” is nothing groundbreaking, the part of what makes it so refreshing. It would not have been completely out of place ABC next to “alias” or in the USA next to “hidden matters”. It is a bit grasser than these shows, but it catches the same feeling of adventure and intrigue, and that's enough to come back the audience for the next episode.
All six episodes of the first season of “Butterfly” are now streaming Prime video.