Past TV series based on older action movies have struggled to impress audiences, but the success of one Netflix title may be a sign that Donald Glover’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith will break this trend. Based on the 2005 action movie of the same name starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith is expected to bring a similar premise to a TV format. Given the sensation that was Pitt and Jolie’s action movie, Amazon likely hopes that its new series will see similar success. However, past attempts to reboot popular action movies haven’t always gone well.
Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith continues the recent trend of taking popular action movies and either rebooting or continuing the story in a TV format. The general perspective on this has been mixed. On one end of the argument, this provides a nostalgic opportunity to revisit stories of decades past through a fresh new lens. To others, however, these attempts feel more like a lazy money grab. Ultimately, the success of these series depends on the concept itself and how it holds up to modern audiences. In the case of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, there’s evidence that the story will still be appealing today.
Netflix’s Beef Proves that Glover’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith Reboot Could Work (Despite Similar Failures)
The idea of someone discovering that their spouse is secretly a secret agent or spy is nothing new. Action movies like True Lies (1994) found success in such a plot, but CBS’ 2023 TV reboot of the same name failed to impress audiences in the same way. The 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith put a slight twist on this trope, and Prime Video’s TV reboot seems to have deviated from this even further. Still, this isn’t necessarily a sign that Mr. & Mrs. Smith will do any better than True Lies or other failed series based on action movies—but the success of Netflix’s Beef could be.
Though the primary characters in Netflix’s Beef weren’t spouses or secret agents, the series saw an outrageous and violent rivalry play out between two people who desperately needed to step out of the mundane normalcy of their lives. Characters who seemed so average on the outside going to such explosive lengths to destroy one another struck a chord with audiences, and Beef was a massive success. Though Mr. & Mrs. Smith‘s story sits on a different foundation, the ironic love-hate relationship between the central pair fits within a similar mold, so Glover’s show could be just as appealing.
Why Past TV Shows Based On Classic Action Movies Have Failed
Of course, Beef was an original story, so Netflix subscribers went into the series with minimal expectations. Glover’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith has the more challenging job of delivering the kind of nostalgia expected with such reboots while remaining unique enough to justify its existence. Ultimately, this is the area in which other TV shows based on beloved action movies tend to fail. In the case of True Lies, nostalgia was used as bait to draw audiences in, but the CBS show contained none of the spark that made the 1994 film so fun.
Everything The True Lies Show Changed From The 1994 Movie
True Lies gets rebooted with changes made for a modern-day audience. Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga step into the roles of Harry and Helen Tasker.
There’s a long line of TV shows that have fallen into this same rut. Fox’s Minority Report is another prime example, as well as other CBS titles like Rush Hour and Training Day. These series seemed to have depended too much on the success of their respective movies without considering the public demand for such stories or their viability in the extended format of a TV show. If done right, Mr. & Mrs. Smith shouldn’t have this problem since shows like Beef prove that this concept is both relevant and capable of holding out for several episodes. Still, only time will tell if Prime Video can pull it off.
