E136 | The recruit (series) // Far From Home (series) // Hell Dogs (movie)

<p><strong>1 . THE RECRUIT (series)</strong><br>A fledgling CIA lawyer gets caught up in a dangerous game of international politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her relationship with the agency unless they clear her name.<br><strong>CAST</strong></p><ul> <li>Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks</li> <li>Aarti Mann as Violet</li> <li>Daniel Quincy Annoh as Terence</li> <li>Vondie Curtis-Hall as Walter Nyland</li> <li>Kristian Bruun as Janus Ferber</li> <li>Laura Haddock as Max Meladze</li> <li>Colton Dunn as Lester</li> <li>Fivel Stewart as Hannah</li> <li>Byron Mann as Xander</li> <li>Angel Parker as Dawn</li> <li>Linus Roache as Senator Smoot</li> <li>Kaylah Zander as Amelia</li> </ul><p><br>But whatever cutting satire or righteous anger <em>The Recruit</em> might have to offer is badly diluted over eight bloated hours — lost amid paper-thin characters, flimsy twists and a wishy-washy tone. What it turns out instead is a piece of content so forgettable, the CIA wouldn’t have to lift a finger to disappear it from public memory.</p><p><br>Initially, <em>The Recruit</em> appears to be a fish-out-of-water comedy. The first time we meet Owen, he’s singing Taylor Swift to himself during a pee break while on a life-or-death mission in Russia; the second time we see him, after the show rewinds two weeks, he’s slapping his knees to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” while waiting to meet his big-shot boss (Vondie Curtis-Hall) during his second day on the job. In no time at all, the rookie’s gotten himself tangled up in a case involving a volatile off-the-books asset, Max Meladze (Laura Haddock), who’s threatened to reveal damning agency secrets — and all before he’s even figured out the office policies around booking plane tickets.</p><p><br>But <em>The Recruit</em> is not really a comedy at all, despite a smattering of halfhearted jokes. (“The eagle has landed,” a CIA suit says of Owen, to which his colleague scoffs: “The eagle? More like the idiot.” Zing!) Nor does it seem quite thrilling enough to qua