Prime Video has been trying to crack the code for making a great spy action drama for quite some time now. The first season of The Family Man was pretty amazing, but then the next two seasons came out, and everything, from the story to the visuals, took a nosedive. They invested a huge amount of money into Citadel and its spin-offs, Diana and Honey Bunny, but all of them were pretty much dead on arrival. As far as I know, the franchise has been shelved as well. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a decent concept, but it was an extremely dour affair. If I stretch the horizons of the subgenre to stories that deal with domestic and international terrorism, then Reacher, Terminal List, and Countdown can be taken into consideration. And, to be really honest, Jack Reacher’s saga is the only real winner out of those three. Now, just when I thought that the streaming platform should give up on this endeavor, they have delivered Butterfly, a show that has emotional depth, action-packed set pieces, and some of the best performances you’re going to see this year.
Steph Cha and Ken Woodruff’s Butterfly, based on Arash Amel’s graphic novel series of the same name, tells the story of David Jung, who gatecrashes an ongoing assassination plot in South Korea to reunite with his long-lost daughter, Rebecca. Almost a decade ago, David was leading an operation in the Philippines, where his entire squad was killed and he himself was presumed dead. Juno, David’s business partner at their private intelligence agency, Caddis, took Rebecca under her wing and essentially turned her into a weapon of mass destruction. Hence, it was expected of Rebecca to kill David as soon as she locked eyes with him without questioning how he was alive. But instead of doing so, Rebecca decides to join hands with David so that they can catch up on all the things that have happened in each other’s lives and become a family again. Since Rebecca is Caddis’ most valuable asset, Juno sends her son, Oliver, and a notorious mercenary, Gun, to take down David and bring Rebecca back home again. In addition to all this, there’s Senator George Dawson, who is looking to put an end to Caddis, as it has been ruining the United States’ international ties with other countries by conducting unsanctioned hits on politicians, bureaucrats, and more.
Arash Amel wrote Butterfly all the way back in 2014, and since then, there have been countless spy movies and shows that have analyzed familial relationships through the lens of espionage. If you have seen Fubar, with the exception of the “dad coming back from the dead” revelation, you will find quite a few similarities between the dynamics of Luke and Emma’s bond and David and Rebecca’s relationship. So, while I can’t give it points for originality, I have to laud Cha, Woodruff, Sung Rno, Dave Kalstein, Diana Son, Denise The, and the rest of the writing team for giving this tired trope so much emotional depth. The dialogue is so beautifully crafted that it made me think that every other show has been delivering garbled nonsense in the name of conversation scenes. The switching between exposition and character exploration is so seamless that I was reminded of North by Northwest, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Notorious, Skyfall, and other great spy flicks, which proved that the stakes don’t have to depend on spectacle. If done right, a father’s struggle to reconnect with his daughter and a daughter’s realization that she is more than a weapon can be as tantalizing as a world-ending event.
That said, Butterfly isn’t short on spectacle. It is filled to the brim with hand-to-hand combat sequences, chase scenes, gigantic practical explosions, and tons of tense moments that involve dangling on wires and infiltrating offices. Now, there’s no doubt about the fact that the stunt team, the actors, the directors, and every department involved in the making of action-heavy set pieces have done their best. But the cinematography and editing aren’t consistent in terms of showing how awesome all of them are. For example, the on-foot or vehicular chases are uniformly thrilling. The shot choices, the cutting, and the “big moments” are all pretty impactful. Meanwhile, the fight sequences are chopped to hell. Too many cameras have been used, and while you can get an idea of the work that’s gone into pulling off the intricate choreography, you rarely get to see the full picture. That said, if you manage to get invested in the plight of the characters involved, then it’s possible that these flaws won’t matter. Also, it’s one of the best-looking and best-sounding shows of the year. I think the team has done a brilliant job of capturing the urban and rural magnificence of South Korea. The colors, the lighting, the lack of digital haze (which is a blessing), the costumes, the production design, the art direction, the music, the score—all of it is spectacular.
Coming to the performances in Butterfly, the whole cast is fantastic. It’s so awesome to see Daniel Dae Kim front and center in a project like this. The man has been in the entertainment industry since the ‘90s. He did some splendid work in Lost and Hawaii Five-0. And yet he has always been relegated to the supporting cast. I know the reason, you know the reason, but if I state it explicitly, it’ll lead to some unnecessary squabbles, which will detract from the point that DDK is a star. He brought me to tears during the scenes where he has to show how vulnerable his character is. I was hooting for him when he was walking away from explosions without flinching. And I really enjoyed his chemistry with his co-stars. Piper Perabo is absolutely diabolical. The way she always keeps you unsure what her character’s thinking should be studied. Louis Landau is excellent. He has done a great job of portraying Oliver’s journey of disillusionment. Despite their limited screen time, Kim Tae-hee, Sean Dulake, Charles Parnell, Park Hae-soo, and Kim Ji-hoon have absolutely knocked it out of the park. However, the one who steals the show (and I’m sure will steal everyone’s hearts) is Reina Hardesty. I mean, this is a star-making performance. She is insanely amazing at expressing her character’s complex state of mind. She carries herself so well during the action sequences. She looks extremely stylish. And I can’t wait to see more of her in the future.
If it’s not clear already, yes, I highly recommend giving Butterfly a watch. It’s a great action drama. It’s one of the best spy shows out there. I don’t know how many think pieces it’s going to inspire, but it will surely inspire people to make fan-cams, fan-edits, or whatever those kinetic and hypnotic videos on social media are called nowadays. I hope it gets a season 2, because that cliffhanger is mindblowing. With all that out of the way, allow me to rant about my favorite topic: release schedules. Back in the day, all TV shows used to be released on a weekly basis. The quality of the show would be decided by the audience, with the viewership being the barometer for its success. Then OTT platforms introduced the binge model without understanding that some shows shouldn’t be consumed all at once. And now, they are releasing some of their shows episodically and others all at once based on what they think deserves the weekly-release treatment and what they think should be dumped in one go. They are rarely right, which is why I have been covering a boring-as-hell show called Countdown for the past 7 weeks, and I am enraged at the possibility that a great show like Butterfly will fail to create waves in this ocean of “content.” So, yeah, go and watch the Daniel Dae Kim-led show, and if you like it, recommend it to others so that it stays in conversation beyond the week of its release.
