Loosely based on the Boom! Studios’ graphic novel series of the same name, Prime Video’s new series Butterfly, aims to follow in the footsteps of Jack Ryan and Reacher as its next big action thriller. Strong performances and the international on-location shooting add to the cinematic feel of the series, but ultimately, this character-driven spy series doesn’t do enough to make itself truly stand out.
David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim) is a skilled, yet hard-to-control, U.S. intelligence operative living in South Korea. A tragic mission from his past has current day implications as he finds himself chased by the spy organization Caddis and their deadly, unhinged agent, Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), who also happens to be David’s estranged daughter.
Kim and Hardesty have a great reluctant father/daughter dynamic, and the show’s premise is solid. The series has an excellent action sequence to start things off in the first episode, but the overall six episodes needed more of that kind of electricity. For such a short run of episodes, the story should move quicker and should never feel as long as Butterfly does in multiple spots. On the brighter side, Hardesty’s Rebecca is a sociopathic blast when she gets to relish in the violence that seeks them out.
Piper Perabo provides a complex antagonist as Juno, the CEO of Caddis, with links to David’s past. It’s a different type of role for the actress, and she does a nice job of making Juno both empathetic and fearsome. Much of the show is segmented into David and Rebecca’s story on one end and Juno’s work with Caddis on the other. Juno also has familial issues on the job with her son Oliver (Louis Landau), all of which is very akin to the soapy CTU drama from multiple seasons of the hit action thriller 24. Additionally, Charles Parnell brings more gravitas as Senator George Dawson, a growing thorn in Juno’s side with eyes firmly planted on Caddis’ activities.
While I mentioned earlier that the series needed more action and plot movement, the action provided is terrific. Daniel Dae Kim is absolutely deserving of being a leading action man and proves it here. There are some extremely well-done chase scenes and fight choreography, all accented by the scenic locations.
Butterfly Season 1 certainly ends with the aspiration of continuing its story in future installments, and there’s enough potential shown in these episodes to think a Season 2 might be able to find the show’s voice – the talent involved deserves it. Unfortunately, these six episodes feel like a drawn-out pilot episode, and we’re still waiting for the really good stuff to kick in.
Score: 2.5 out of 5