Streaming services pump out shows fast and cancel them even faster — so that’s why I’m here! With my new column, Show Down, I will check out a new show released every week and let you know if we will get a second season, or if it is forever destined to live as a niche Tumblr fandom.
I’m excited to start writing for this column, as reviewing shows for the Life section has become one of my favorite activities. This year, I’m hoping for more incredible shows and fewer cancellations — Netflix, please know that if you ever decide to bring back “The Society,” my life will be yours (for all legal intents and purposes, this is a joke).
Today, we are reviewing the one-and-only Noah Centineo’s new show, “The Recruit.” And by new, I’m referring to the second season — Season one came out in 2022 and wowed viewers as yet another spy thriller. It was an incredible seaso, and Centineo proved himself to be a strong actor with a knack for both comedic and dramatic scenes.
Spoilers for Season 2 of “The Recruit” are below.
In “The Recruit,” Centineo plays Owen Hendricks, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed lawyer who got his first real gig after law school and now works for the CIA. Of course, Hendricks gets the busy work — going through letters from someone threatening to expose classified information if the CIA does not help them. Long story short, Hendricks finds a letter with a credible threat from Max Meladze.
I know what you’re thinking— Who is Max? Why does this matter? Well, Meladze is a former asset to the CIA and has since turned on the organization. She is also on trial for murder.
Hendricks realizes that she used code that only someone genuinely familiar with the CIA would know and deems her threat to expose information as legitimate. Then, things get crazy! Hendricks goes international and gets kidnapped (more than once), helps Meladze and then watches as her daughter murders her.
To make the plot twist crazier, the daughter is a woman we have seen before named Nichka Lashin. She gets all flirty and tries to, well, compromise Hendricks, if you catch my drift.
Although I enjoyed Season one, I was not expecting a second season due to the frankly absurd lack of promotion for this season. Scrolling through Centineo’s and Netflix’s respective Instagram accounts, I couldn’t see many posts related to the show and I’m curious as to why. However, there was a bunch posted this week, which I’m assuming relates to the fact that this is when the second season was dropping.
Unlike the lucky “Night Agent” fans, those of “The Recruit” will have to wait before knowing about a third season. We still have no news of the renewal, which worries me — although I sincerely hope “The Recruit” pulls through.
But, hey. It’s time for a Season two review-over!
The first episode of the second season is called “Y.N.A.H.Y.A.L.,” which is code for “You’re Not a Hero, You’re a Lawyer.” And when I say “code,” I mean that very lightly. None of the episode titles are actual code words; instead, they’re quotes said by one of the characters in the episode. This one, for example, was said by Walter Nyland. While I wish I figured this out by myself, I must give credit to Show Snob, which helped me greatly on my search to figure this out.
“A.L.G.T.I.,” (“Anyway, Let’s Get to It”) the episode, begins right where we left off, with Hendricks taking a massive L. Honestly, I can relate to the L-taking part, but not the going-on-a-secret-op-and-then-getting-kidnapped part.
Lashin decides if she should kill him or not, right outside the dingy basement he was kidnapped to — and we’re in Ostrava, Czech Republic, by the way. Heartwarming, right? Well, Hendricks doesn’t think so, since he wants to live. And he gets to do so when he’s saved by Dawn, who chooses to let him live and not bleed out in the snow. Thanks, Dawn! Here’s to some good old mutually assured destruction.
As the kids these days say, Hendricks is cooked. Honestly, everyone is, but mostly Hendricks. The international disaster that occurred in Season one is more than enough to get him fired, but it doesn’t (at least not yet). Back in D.C., Nyland drops more than the title of the first episode; Hendricks is benched until further notice.
And dude, further notice in a spy show comes pretty damn fast, this time, in the form of an envelope that contains graymail. A yay for Owen, but real bad news for the United States and everyone else in the world.
Hendricks goes to Korea, and from there, we are kicking off on a fast-paced adventure that is both super absurd and also incredibly awesome. We figure out who the graymailer is, and in the spirit of avoiding too many spoilers, I will not be telling you that. But he has a reason to reveal the information, and it takes us back to a scene we saw earlier on in the episode.
Centineo’s acting is phenomenal, and we see him both in tough fight scenes, comedic moments and heart-wrenching conversations that make you believe the story even more.
Hendricks is a convincing character, and his humanity is important in moments you’d think it wouldn’t exist. He flips the script on some people in ways that we didn’t get to see in Season one and is joined by a phenomenal cast that adds to why this show is so good.
In terms of cancelability, if you can call it that, I have hopes that we will see a third season. All of the reasons I listed above are one part, but the second is that this show is already established and has a good plot line going, so picking it up for a third reason should be a no-brainer, right? Let’s hope so because I’m ready to see Hendricks on his next adventure.
Rating: 4.5/5 — I.S.G.W.N.
(Incredible show, go watch now!)