Working with family isn’t always easy, since spending time together in a personal capacity sometimes doesn’t translate to constantly being together in a professional setting. Doing so in an office is one thing, but for more high-risk professions, like working internationally as a spy or a hitman, tensions are typically much higher, as are the stakes. Reuniting with a loved one long thought dead under such circumstances brings with it many emotions, and stopping to feel something in the middle of a life-or-death job isn’t an ideal quality in an employee. Prime Video’s new series Butterfly shows the ups and downs of unintentionally going into the family business in an enticing, fast-paced series that packs a great deal into its six-episode first season.
Rebecca (Reina Hardesty) is on an assignment for her longtime boss, Juno (Piper Perabo), in South Korea when she notices something off about the extraction vehicle sent to take her home. What she doesn’t know is that the man waiting for her is her father David (Daniel Dae Kim), who she’s believed to be dead for years. There are more questions to be asked than can possibly be answered as both lifelong spies feel the heat and must determine the best course of action to ensure their own survival, leading to an uncomfortable partnership that has David thinking one step ahead and Rebecca reluctant to move forward until she understands how her father could have had zero contact with her for so long.
Butterfly is based on a graphic novel, though its story feels like it was made for television. The first episode sets a specific pace that it manages to keep up for the majority of its six episodes, leaving some time for brief peace and enlightening conversation but otherwise focused on how these two remarkably resilient operatives are able to outsmart those hunting them, even while struggling to get on the same page about how to relate to one another. Six episodes almost feels like too short a season, but that means that there isn’t overstuffed content, and audiences should definitely want to return for more given that things are most in no way tied up in a neat bow.
One of the reasons this show works so well is the pairing of its lead actors. Kim is best known for Lost and has kept busy in the decade and a half since that show’s end, and he’s also aboard this series as an executive producer. He brings a combination of sleekness and gentleness to the role of David, who has had to make many hard choices in his life and doesn’t take any of them lightly. Hardesty, whose past credits include It’s What’s Inside and playing Hank Azaria’s daughter in the final season of Brockmire, has her own flair and plenty of aggressive sarcastic energy that makes her scenes with Kim well worth watching. Perabo, who fifteen years ago was playing the agent role in Covert Affairs rather than the puppet master one she is now, is a compelling villain, a smooth operator with a particular distaste for those who don’t follow her every order.
Butterfly is a show about two people on the run trying to figure out who they are, and this first season makes the idea of them returning for more very enticing, even if they’re fated to a life free of relaxation much like Jack Bauer on 24, who never got to sit down and enjoy a full meal in any of that show’s many seasons. But there’s something very workable here, as creators Ken Woodruff and Steph Cha have found a way to balance an intimate story of working through pain with a nonstop action thriller, utilizing the backdrop of South Korea as a set piece. Releasing all six episodes at once means that audiences should get through the whole show in no time, which suggests that, provided it hits with viewers, a second season will need to be on the way quite soon.
Series Rating: 8/10
