Stream It Or Skip It?

Daniel Dae Kim is a spy back from the dead and Piper Perabo is his former colleague with a mind to kill him again in Butterfly, which premieres all six of its episodes at once on Prime Video.

Created by Ken Woodruff and Steph Cha, and based on the graphic novel of the same name by Arash Amel and Marguerite Bennett, Butterfly will also feature Reina Hardesty, Louis Landau, Kim Ji-hoon, and Kim Tae-hee as it ramps up a breakneck chase through various cities in South Korea. But while the particulars of this pursuit are a little different, we all know the broad strokes. A skilled operative who went dark, forced out of hiding and back into the gunsights of his rivals. When will these international spy/sleek assassin types ever learn that having a family is not in alignment with their dangerous death-dealing jobs?

BUTTERFLY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “It’s me. I found her.” As we hear the voice of David Jung (Kim), a visual effect transforms the sound of his phone call into the cityscape of Seoul, South Korea.  

The Gist: When we meet him, Jung is singing a soju-drenched version of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” at karaoke. But the context of his phone call becomes clear once he slips out of the parlor, instantly sober. He’s on a mission, and his target is conducting her own operation in this very same Seoul hotel. There is also another operative in a nearby room, running cameras and maintaining communications with a fleet of screen jockeys at the headquarters of something called Caddis Private Intelligence. But Jung silencing that guy during a fist fight set to ABBA is only part of his larger plan.

Far below, in the hotel lobby, Rebecca (Hardesty) shadows the entourage of a Russian diplomat. Wearing a wig and a prosthetic pregnant belly, she soon slips into the politician’s proximity and replaces his phone with a dummy version. A poisoned dummy version. Plenty of armed security around here, but no one notices a thing. Until the immediate aftermath of the op, that is. When Rebecca attempts to make her escape, it’s not the Russians who give chase. It’s Jung. 

And elsewhere, in another part of the world, Juno (Perabo) makes her presence felt. A guy is tied to a chair, she knows he betrayed her, and when he claims the CIA will stop her, Juno just laughs. “I’m in the private intelligence business. The only enemy I have is peace.” She threatens his family, he gives up what he knows, and she has her goons kill the guy anyway. 

As the leader of Caddis, Juno appears to be managing many underhanded operations all over the globe. Intimidation of contacts, the use of blackmail and misdirection to move intel from one agency to another – and targeted assassinations, like the one Rebecca, her most valued agent, is working in Seoul. But when Juno hears of the static on that job, she gets angry with Oliver (Landau), her son and chief underling. Who could possibly have the resources and cojones to cross Caddis? “I want the entire Seoul office on this,” she says. But just to emphasize it, she doubles the cliche. “I want this guy’s head on a fucking platter.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, Butterfly reminds us of a few other recent action series on Prime Video which arrived to varying degrees of success. In Countdown, the talents of Jensen Ackles, Jessica Camacho and Eric Dane can’t elevate its strained material. And like Butterfly, Citadel: Diana dwelled in a world of private intelligence and spies hunting spies, but had a spot of trouble bringing that world to life. To wit: in April, Prime canceled both Diana and Honey Bunny, its other Citadel spinoff.    

Our Take: Butterfly includes a really cool title card, lifted from the artwork for its graphic novel source material, that features insect wings built from the barrels and bodies of numerous rifles and guns and pistols. What the series doesn’t include is a sense of who or what “Butterfly” even is. Juno says Rebecca is Caddis’ most effective asset. Does that make her the Butterfly? David Jung is also highly-trained, also a skilled fighter, and equally comfortable with the typical mores of spycraft. Maybe that makes him the Butterfly. We at least know who the Butterfly isn’t. Oliver, Juno’s son, walks around the generic banks of flat screens and chattering personnel at Caddis HQ like he’s an intern in an ill-fitting business suit. 

We were pondering basic questions of title and identity while watching Butterfly because a lot of what happens in the early-going of the series just wasn’t catching our full attention. We liked Rebecca’s sly smile as she worked her pregnant lady ruse – clearly this assassin is in the game for the thrills. But we were completely taken out of the sequence moments later, once a stunt double in a bad wig took over for Reina Hardesty during a throwdown in an elevator. And while Daniel Dae Kim plays Jung with the surehanded feel of a veteran operator, his own scenes of fighting Caddis guys here and there felt perfunctory, and only in service to moving his character to the next position. In Butterfly, whether awkwardly shot or just too clean, the action in this action series struggles to establish urgency. 

Butterfly is better at establishing a sense of place. It features a lot of interesting South Korea-based location shooting – out-of-the-way food stalls and alleys in Seoul, a remote soju distillery in forested Andong – and switches easily between Korean and English as it suggests the country of his heritage is not where a ghost like Jung – or is he a Butterfly? – lives, if he lives anywhere at all. You know, spycraft. But still, with its inconsistent action sequences, and our questions about its very name, the early stages of Butterfly are still trying to cohere.

Sex and Skin: None, but for one random and mostly-clothed sex scene.

Parting Shot: As we learn more about why David Jung has suddenly resurfaced on the radar of Caddis Private Intelligence, we also learn how far Juno is willing to go to make him permanently disappear. 

Sleeper Star: Butterfly only gives her a few slim chances to do so, but Reina Hardesty makes the most of wherever she can add a little personality to Rebecca’s work as a top-ranked Caddis assassin. 

Most Pilot-y LIne: “I know you have questions – come with me and I’ll tell you everything.” OK, but our questions are mostly about why shows like Butterfly rely on stock writing such as this.

Our Call: We’re liking some of the spicy international flavor Butterfly is featuring amid its central dispute between spy world adversaries Daniel Dae Kim and Piper Perabo. But we’re also looking for the actual action in this action series to really establish itself. Butterfly is a tentative Stream It.  

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.