A High-Octane Spy Thriller
Summary
Butterfly has an almost scene stealing turn from Piper Perabo as the “villain”, Juno however, it’s also great to see Daniel Dae Kim in a lead role in a high quality action series like this. There are several fight scenes, shoot-outs and explosions to keep things moving as well as family drama which goes in unexpected directions.
Plot: When the consequences of a decision from his past come back to haunt him, a former intelligence operative finds himself pursued by a sociopathic agent assigned to kill him.
Review: *mild spoilers ensue* I finally finished the Prime series Butterfly which I started watching a few weeks ago but had so much going on I didn’t have peace to enjoy it. This weekend I did, and I was excited when I first saw the trailers as I’ve been wanting to as Daniel Dae Kim in a lead role like this. I’ve aways felt he was very charismatic so I knew he would shine in Butterfly.
He didn’t disappoint and managed to make the character of David Jung sympathetic; he was forced to leave his daughter Rebecca (Reina Hardesty) 9 years ago after an op went wrong. David was burned by his organization and faked his own death to protect his family. Rebecca is now 23 years old and works for Juno (Piper Perabo) who was David’s former partner. Juno is always looking for more power and has essentially become the villain.
What I like though is that Juno is far from a one note antagonist and is one of the most interesting characters in the show. Piper Perabo brings humanity to the role where she could have easily played Juno as cold, however, she will not allow any harm to come to her son, Oliver and will do anything to protect him.
David wants to rescue Rebecca from Juno but she holds a grudge against him for abandoning her for 9 years… which is understandable. From the trailers I thought Rebecca was going to be insufferable and annoying, but she’s actually quite different and wasn’t what I expected – a complete psychopath. She laughs while killing people or when she is in a shoot-out which is not the behavior of someone sane. She isn’t likeable but she isn’t meant to be; you can tell early on that this show isn’t going to have a happy ending and it certainly doesn’t.
In terms of action, we get several awesome fights with highlights being when David has to face off against the henchman, Gun (Kim Ji-hoon). Their showdown at the end is worth the wait and the pacing for the most part is spot-on. There are also multiple shoot-outs, some chases and real explosions too. This show looks like it has high production values and is one of Prime’s better recent action shows.
I didn’t have much of an emotional connection to any of the characters, but I think we’re not really meant to as they are victims of the choices they make and the lives they lead. It makes them hard to have relationships and families.
It’s very open for a second season however, if we just have this then I’m happy as it ends on a real downer with several loose ends which I almost don’t need explained.
Overall, Daniel Dae Kim and Piper Perabo shine in Butterfly and there’s enough action to keep things moving for its brisk 6 episodes. Reina Hardesty is quite unhinged as Rebecca making her a far more interesting character than I thought she would be. I’ll be interested to see if we get a second season but if we don’t, I’m happy with what we got.