Mr. & Mrs. Smith Review: Donald Glover and Maya Erskine Have a Blast in Amazon’s Charming Spy Reboot

It’s funny: I was excited when I first heard that Phoebe Waller-Bridge would co-star with Donald Glover in Amazon’s reboot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and then I was disappointed when Waller-Bridge later dropped out of the project. But now that I’ve seen Maya Erskine paired up with Glover in the series (premiering this Friday on Prime Video; I’ve seen all eight episodes), I’m having a hard time picturing Waller-Bridge, or anyone else, nailing the role quite like Erskine does.

Erskine is fantastic in this, making a sizzling pair with Glover in a funny, breezy reimagining that’s half action-packed spy games and half cute rom-com, and equally adept at both halves. (After misfires like Netflix’s FUBAR and CBS’ True Lies, it’s nice to see an action-comedy that can deliver both the action and the comedy.) Stylishly shot and cleverly conceived, this Mr. & Mrs. Smith ultimately works so well because the two leads work together so well. In a show like this, it’s essential that Glover and Erskine have chemistry — and thankfully, they have lots of it.

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Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith puts a new spin on the premise of the 2005 Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film: Instead of a married couple who don’t know they’re both spies, Glover’s John and Erskine’s Jane are spies placed together in an arranged marriage as a cover story. As the series opens, John and Jane are aimless loners recruited by a mysterious organization, answering probing personal questions from a faceless computer. They’ll have to completely cut ties with their pasts to sign on, but both of them have nowhere else to go and no better options for gainful employment. (Jane laughs: “You’re gonna pay me not to talk to my dad? Where do I sign?”)

On their first night together in an enviable New York City brownstone, John and Jane are gifted a bottle of Champagne, a pair of wedding bands — and a stash of automatic weapons. (This is the kind of relationship where the question “Have you ever killed anyone?” counts as small talk.) They’re strangers, so John and Jane have an awkward energy together at first, but the spy missions bring them closer together: At one point, he talks to her through an earpiece, establishing a playful intimacy that practically gives off sparks. They share a sly sense of humor, needling each other with witty banter and letting bits and pieces of their past lives slip out along the way.

I loved Glover on Atlanta and Erskine on PEN15, but pairing the two of them up exceeded even my lofty expectations. Glover’s John is cool as a cucumber, dressed to kill and ready for action, but Jane helps him let his walls down and get a little goofy. Erskine, meanwhile, is hilarious, bringing all the teasing sarcasm that made her time on PEN15 so great. Their missions cruise along at a brisk pace, as they trot around the globe armed with slick James Bond spycraft, but this is really less of an action show and more of a comedy with action scenes, which plays to Glover and Erskine’s strengths. It’s the quiet moments after the missions, with John and Jane giggling together in bed, that really make this Mr. & Mrs. Smith special.

Each week brings a new mission with a new big-name guest star… although some of them, sadly, have very short life spans. (Among the highlights are John Turturro as a weirdo billionaire and Sarah Paulson as a touchy-feely therapist.) Fans of Glover’s Atlanta will recognize how he loves to subvert expectations with odd tonal shifts and random bursts of dark humor, and he brought along a few members of his Atlanta crew here, too, like co-creator/showrunner Francesca Sloane and ace director Hiro Murai. We’re in good hands, and with Glover and Erskine providing such a solid foundation, we’d be happy to watch John and Jane play spy games for years to come.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Donald Glover and Maya Erskine make a terrific pair in Amazon’s funny, breezy update on Mr. & Mrs. Smith.