Butterfly (Prime Video)

A father and daughter are reunited in the new action drama series Butterfly, which is set in South Korea and takes place in the world of  international intelligence and espionage. 

Daniel Dae Kim plays David Jung, a former operative who faked his own death to give his daughter Rebecca (Reina Hardesty) a chance at a normal life. 

However, nine years later, Rebecca is now a deadly assassin, working for the same Caddis operation that David used to work for.

Caddis is run by Juno, in who we recognize Piper Perabo, who once used to dance in and on a bar in the cult classic Coyote Ugly (2000), but is now tough-as-nails enough to routinely kill off disloyal employees. 

Like Daniel, though, she cares about her offspring, in this case slightly insecure son Oliver (Louis Landau), who doesn’t really know if he’s got what it takes to follow in his mother’s footsteps. 

Rebecca, for her part, doesn’t really know whether she wants to hug her father, or kill him. She casually wonders what it would be like to throw someone off a rooftop, when they are together… on a rooftop!

The plot, at times, feels rote and mechanical, this isn’t exactly the first series (not even this year) set in the world of international espionage, and you’re forgiven for at times thinking ‘hey, it’s Citadel: South Korea!’

But this six-part series, based on the Boom! Graphic novel by Arash Amel, created for television by Stephen Woodruff and Steph Cha, with the first two episodes directed by Kitao Sakurai, also flows by like a breeze.

It’s well-shot, good-looking and the action scenes are fun to watch, the opening fifteen minutes drawing you into the story and immediately making you care about both David and Rebecca.

Butterfly is still a fairly undemanding watch, but both the actors and the family drama give it more heart than you would expect.

I give it 3 1/2 stars!