Family meets action in South Korea-set ‘Butterfly’

Daniel Dae Kim-led thriller centers on an ex-CIA agent and his estranged daughter.

- ROBERT LLOYD TELEVISION CRITIC

DAVID (Daniel Dae Kim) is determined to reconnect with and save his daughter Rebecca (Reina Hardesty).

Thrillers, thrillers, thrillers, so many thrillers. Every third show I review seems to be one, and evenif that math is not perfectly correct, the seeming is real enough. Sometimes they are full of interesting characters and ideas, sometimes full of posturing stereotypes with nothing to say, sometimes mostly smoke and noise, and often just take you where you've been before — it’s only how they’re dressed that sets them apart.

What most obviously sets “Butterfly,” premiering Wednesday on Prime Video, is that it takes place in South Korea, with Korean and Korean American heroes and villains. Adapted by Ken Woodruff and Steph Cha from a graphic novel by Arash Amel and Marguerite Bennett (in which the characters are not Korean, and the setting not Korea), it stars Daniel Dae Kim as former CIA agent David Jung— believed dead, but not dead.

Information is developed and doled out across its six episodes, but notwithstanding the twists and turns, it’sa straightforward scenario. David, who co-founded a private sector security business after leaving the agency, disappeared from view nine years earlier; thought to have been killed in the course of an operation, he’s been hiding in South Korea in plain sight with a second wife (Kim Tae-hee). David's late first wife was the mother of his daughter, Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), 23; in his absence she was raised by and is now working as a topflight assassin for Juno (Piper Perabo), David's former partner in Caddis Private Intelligence — which for the convenience of the production has opened a sparkly new headquarters in Seoul.