‘The Recruit’ Review: Confusion, Captivation, and Centineo

BY HAILEY E. KRASNIKOV CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Noah Centineo takes on a new fast-paced, nail-biting role in the new Netflix series, “The Recruit.” Centineo stars as Owen, an adrenaline junky and newly-hired CIA lawyer who gets thrown into the world of classified missions, in which people are constantly trying to kidnap or murder him. For Centineo, who has previously starred primarily in teen romance films, this change of genre is refreshing. In “The Recruit,” viewers can see the true versatility of Centineo’s acting skills as Owen navigates several stressful situations, which differs from his usual humorous and lighthearted roles. Owen’s character forms a complicated friendship with Max (Laura Haddock), a CIA asset trying to extort the CIA in return for keeping their secrets. Owen is charged with making her see reason — an assignment that turns his life upside down. Their relationship conveys both a sense of distrust and romantic tension: Owen cannot decide if he can truly trust Max, but he cannot deny his natural attraction and attachment to her.

Haddock’s acting is so extraordinary, viewers would forget she’s just playing a role. Her character’s simultaneous assertiveness and mysteriousness makes it hard for the audience to fully understand her motives. This route of character development is quite unique because it is difficult to predict a plot if the character in question is so unpredictable.

The series sets itself apart from other spy thrillers, as it definitely paints the CIA in a new light. Unlike the typical protagonists of espionage stories, Owen maintains a certain sense of chaos and unpreparedness throughout the season — it seems like he never understands what’s going on with his mission or with the agency. Owen’s lack of smoothness and stealth make him a surprisingly compelling lead. However, he does not always follow his exact orders, yet seemingly faces no real consequences — a detail that facilitates the storytelling, but is ultimately much more unrealistic than the usual portrayal of secret agents.

In addition to Owen’s continuously risky and impulsive decision-making,, it does not even seem like he can trust the agency or the other agents around him. Ironically, Owen comes to trust Max and lets her guide him through the chaos, despite the fact that she was a criminal and a murderer.

Max and Owen’s ambiguous and unclear relationship is a consistent, key factor of the twisty main plot, which follows Owen trying to do his job. Admittedly, this relationship draws attention away from the extremely complicated narrative, possibly hindering the overall effectiveness of the story itself for the viewers.

While the series succeeded in establishing a strong emotional attachment for the viewers in relation to Max and Owen, other characters were unfortunately far less developed. The lack of backstory or context for the series’ supporting characters often made it difficult to understand their actions and their true motives. However, in some ways this lack of context makes the series’ unexpected plot twists all the more surprising.

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pense is sure to enjoy “The Recruit”’s whirlwind, adrenaline-filled story. Tune in to watch the development of Owen and missions highlighted by the series’ plot and twists.

hailey.krasnikov@thecrimson.com

“ COURTESY OF NETFLIX THC

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

JANUARY 27, 2023

AGlenda R. Carpio is Chair of the Department of English, a Professor of African and African American Studies, and lecturer for the flagship freshman literature course Humanities 10, otherwise known as Hum 10. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Fifteen Minutes: Why did you want to teach [Hum 10] when you came to Harvard?

Glenda R. Carpio: I think one of the major reasons why Hum 10 is so important is that it allows us to rethink the Great Books course. That template is so problematic. I think about what it would be like to convey to first-year students coming in the importance of literary history, the importance of deep thinking across time, in different genres, that we still really believe in that. I think Hum 10 at Harvard has tried — especially in the last few years — to really revise that structure to provide for students the benefits of Great Books courses without its Euro centric biases. Of course, you can never quite get away from it. We repeatedly get criticisms from students that it doesn’t include this and doesn’t include that, but I don’t think you could ever have a perfect Hum 10.

We need to think about things like undocumented migration. We need to think about how climate is already impacting migration.

FM: I’ve heard that there is a really good conversation that happens around the idea of the immigrant success story and how immigrants are treated in the United States general ly. I’m wondering what you think about that. What are the questions that you ask your students in the conversation you start?

GC: When you think of immi grant literature, you’re likely to think of a story about how one comes to America and makes a life in America.

And, for me, I think that’s been a really important story and needs to be told again and again. But I do think that that accultur ation plot papers over other major concerns that people are writing about when they write about immigration. We need to think about things like un documented migra tion. We need to think about how climate is already impacting mi gration, and I think keeping with stories that are about a singu lar person or commu nity doesn’t give us the broad perspective that we also need to understand migration. Some of my research in this area has informed our discussions in seminar. I hope it’s an invitation for students to be curious about a whole set of artists who are not writing the acculturation plot and are employing different formal means to get us to think about migration in connection to climate, to politics, to economics, and not just the Bildungsroman of someone’s individual life or a community trying to acculturate.

FM: Where do you think Harvard fits into this spectrum of immigrant narratives from acculturation to really being a social and political examination of how the country works?

GC: There’s a spectrum, and one part of the spectrum is if you’re an immigrant and you’re at Harvard then you are the poster child of the so-called American Dream. So I think in that way Harvard is a kind of marker of a very well-rehearsed mythical story. And I think there’s a lot under that that’s more complicated. If you’re an immigrant at Harvard you also have a kind of