The Recruit

Synopsis

Fledgling lawyer Owen Hendricks, who has just started working for the CIA after graduating from Georgetown Law, has his life turned upside down when he encounters an Eastern European asset who threatens extortion if she is not freed from prison. As her long-term relationship with the CIA is revealed, he becomes entangled in convoluted international politics. Hendricks negotiates with the asset and finds himself at odds with menacing individuals and groups, risking his life as he tries to fulfill his duties.

Cast and characters

Main

Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks, a newly hired CIA lawyer

Laura Haddock as Max Meladze (season 1), a former CIA asset who is in prison for beating a shady trucker to death

Aarti Mann as Violet Ebner, Owen's co-worker who messes with him

Colton Dunn as Lester Kitchens, another co-worker of Owen's, and Violet's partner in crime

Fivel Stewart as Hannah Copeland, Owen's roommate, ex-girlfriend, and former law school classmate

Daniel Quincy Annoh as Terence Hoffman (season 1; guest season 2), Owen's other roommate and friend

Kristian Bruun as Janus Ferber, Owen's overstressed colleague who reluctantly helps him out

Vondie Curtis-Hall as Walter Nyland, Owen's boss and the CIA's general counsel

Kaylah Zander as Amelia Salazar (season 2; recurring season 1), another colleague of Owen's, who also dates him

Maddie Hasson as Nichka Lashin (season 2; guest season 1), a criminal and Max Meladze's grown daughter

Angel Parker as Dawn Gilbane (season 2; recurring season 1), CIA operative doing a black op in Yemen

Teo Yoo as Jang Kyu (season 2), a South Korean NIS agent

Recurring

Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon as Talco

Byron Mann as Xander Goi, a senior case officer

Nathan Fillion as Alton West, CIA director

James Purefoy as Oliver Bonner-Jones (season 2)

Brooke Smith as Marcy Potter (season 2)

Devika Bhise as Juno Marsh (season 2)

Felix Solis as Tom Wallace (season 2)

Young-Ah Kim as Grace Cho (season 2), NIS deputy director

Shin Do-hyun as Yoo Jin Lee (season 2), Owen's childhood ex-girlfriend

Sanghee Lee as Nan Hee (season 2)

Omar Maskati as Jae King (season 2)

Alana Hawley Purvis as Amanda Fern (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2022)

Each episode of The Recruit bears CIA-like initials in its title. The codes, which are not unlike the multitude of initials for different divisions and projects that Owen Hendricks must understand in his role within the agency (codes Owen acknowledges at one point he has trouble keeping up with), represent a line of dialogue from their respective episodes.

Season 2 (2025)

Each episode title for The Recruit is a reference to an especially catchy line of dialogue in the corresponding installment, written out as an abbreviation.

Production

Development

It was announced that Netflix acquired an unnamed espionage drama on April 28, 2021, with Entertainment One backing the production. Dubbed Graymail, the project was created by Alexi Hawley, executive producer of several popular procedural drama series, such as Castle, The Rookie, and its spin-off. Hawley again served as executive producer as well as showrunner. Alongside Hawley, Noah Centineo; Doug Liman, Gene Klein, and Dave Bartis of Hypnotic; and Adam Ciralsky and Charlie Ebersol of P3 Media also joined the project as executive producers. The project was set as an eight-part one-hour television series. It was unveiled on September 28, 2022, that Hawley, George Ghanem, Amelia Roper, Hadi Deeb, Niceole Levy, and Maya Goldsmith served as the series writers. Meanwhile, Doug Liman, Alex Kalymnios, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr., and Julian Holmes directed the episodes. On January 26, 2023, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. On March 5, 2025, Netflix canceled the series after two seasons.

Casting

When the production was announced on April 28, 2021, Centineo was unveiled as the lead character of the series. More castings were revealed on November 12, 2021, with Aarti Mann, Daniel Quincy Annoh, Vondie Curtis Hall, Kristian Bruun, Laura Haddock, Colton Dunn, and Fivel Stewart joining the main cast. In addition, Byron Mann, Angel Parker, and Kaylah Zander were also announced in recurring capacities.

On December 19, 2023, Teo Yoo was cast as a new series regular for the second season. On January 25, 2024, James Purefoy, Brooke Smith, Devika Bhise, Felix Solis, Young-Ah Kim, Do Hyun Shin, Sanghee Lee, Omar Maskati, and Alana Hawley Purvis joined the cast in recurring capacities for the second season.

Filming

Principal photography for the first season took place in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, and Los Angeles, California, on October 25, 2021, and concluded on March 28, 2022. Filming for the second season began on January 4, 2024, and took place in Vancouver, Canada, and Seoul, South Korea.

Release

The Recruit premiered globally on Netflix on December 16, 2022. The second season was released on January 30, 2025.

Marketing

The series was promoted during Netflix's TUDUM Global event on September 24, 2022, on YouTube.

Reception

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 68% approval rating, with an average rating of 7/10, based on 31 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Recruit may not be the freshest chip off the old block, but it employs Noah Centineo's considerable charms to highly watchable effect." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the show a score of 59 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times gave the series 3 out of 4 stars and said, "Noah Centineo makes a likable lead on the flashy, funny series."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 87%, based on 15 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. Metacritic assigned the second season a score of 73 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.