This series is a hit, according to the numbers posted on Netflix's Top 10. It comes only three months after the very similar The Recruit (2022). Both this and The Recruit center on a young, White man who gets pulled into an international conspiracy. The tone of this series is very different from The Recruit by Alexi Hawley. Hawley's series is more comedic. Like with Hawley's network creation, The Rookie (2018), The Recruit operates by mostly trading on the charisma of its protagonist. Hawley's series had Noah Centineo, the Internet's It Boy who rose to fame about five years ago. He's funny in the typical, Millennial way but with a ruffled sex appeal.
Here, creator Shawn Ryan (S.W.A.T. and The Shield) isn't going for that kind of humor or charm. Ryan's series is adapting the novel by Matthew Quirk, which is going more for Kiefer Sutherland in 24 (2001) in more ways than one. Quirk and now Ryan might also be going for what John Krasinski was doing in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018). This series is more about a disillusioned boy scout who's highly competent but is a frustrated patriot, as opposed to Hawley's protagonist who was naive and more bumbling.
Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy and Super8) stars as Peter Sutherland, a FBI agent who helps to stop a terrorist attack in Washington, DC. However, because his father was accused of committing a crime against the United States, people are suspicious of Peter. With the help of the U.S. President's Chief of Staff, Peter is given a new job in the White House. His job is to work in the basement in a windowless office and answer a phone for certain kind of emergencies. The problem is that the phone never rings.
Oscar-nominee Hong Chau (The Whale and Downsizing) co-stars as Diane Farr, the Chief of Staff who gets Peter the job in the White House. She's strong and stoic. She seemingly believes in Peter when his boss at the FBI doesn't. She's devoted to the female President and protecting the integrity of the person in the Oval Office feels very important to her. She'll do anything to protect that, even if it means going to extremes. She is someone that Peter trusts because she seemingly trusts him when no one else would.
The series kicks into a higher gear though when all of a sudden the phone that never rings does ring. Peter thinks that it's a wrong number, but he quickly becomes pulled into an assassination plot where two people are killed and another person goes on the run. Peter is meant to be a glorified secretary but he immediately morphs into a bodyguard who has to protect that person on the run.
Luciane Buchanan (Sweet Tooth and Filthy Rich) also co-stars as Rose Larkin, a woman who worked in the tech industry. Her specialty was cybersecurity. She goes to her aunt and uncle's house after she loses her tech job. One night, her aunt and uncle's house is invaded. The two invaders are clearly trained killers. Rose barely escapes and has to go on the run. She then has to figure out who those killers are and why they came to her aunt and uncle's house. She has a higher dose of skepticism in the government. She's not the boy scout that Peter is. She's more willing to circumvent or even break the law than he is.
Peter is assigned to protect Rose after she narrowly escapes the assassins. He becomes her veritable guardian. Just like in the film The Bodyguard (1992), an attraction and romantic feelings start to form. It's almost cliché. If Rose were a boy, would this narrative have leaned toward the romantic? It's charged because Rose's life is threatened and Peter becomes her savior. When Peter becomes embroiled in the conspiracy to where he starts to go down the same path as his father, Peter becomes isolated so that Rose is the only one he can trust, even in opposition to Diane Farr. Those charged circumstances can push romantic tendencies, but it's a bit eye-rolling.
Fola Evans-Akingbola (Siren and Black Mirror) plays Chelsea Arrington, a Secret Service Agent who is assigned to protect the daughter of the Vice President. She's an ambitious person and wants to have a command position. Yet, she's developed somewhat of a personal connection to the Vice President's daughter. She forms a friendship with her. Others in the Secret Service don't approve of her tactics, but she wants to put forward a strong, professional image, which also gives her a bit of a tough exterior as well. At first, it's not clear how Chelsea's story intersects with Peter's. It feels like the series is diverting for no reason, but that eventually changes in a compelling way.
The series also diverts time to focus on the two killers, played by Eve Harlow (Star Trek: Discovery and The 100) and Phoenix Raei. It develops them in a way that's supposed to be meaningful, but it felt like a waste of time. The scenes with just those two characters were the only ones that didn't add up or feel compelling in any way. Otherwise, this was a pretty edge-of-your-seat series.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 10 eps.
Available on Netflix.
