J. J. Abrams' Biggest Failure Is His 'Jack Ryan Meets Mr And Mrs Smith' Spy Series

Published Oct 17, 2026, 9:02 PM EDT

Memory Ngulube joined Screen Rant in April 2024 as part of the Movies and TV team. Since then, she has written for the Perennials and Streaming team, covering a wide range of topics from new releases to old movies and TV shows. Memory is currently a Classic TV writer. 

Before joining Screen Rant, Memory was a freelance copywriter who specialized in email marketing and social media management. While she enjoyed her job, her true passion was always movies and TV.

When she isn’t writing for Screen Rant, Memory can be found reading, baking (which is one of her passions), or watching her favorite K-drama.

Over the course of his career, J.J. Abrams has created some impressive TV shows, with his biggest hit being the audience favorite, Lost. However, not every series helmed by the director, writer, and producer has become a critical and audience darling. In fact, one show in particular that debuted in 2010 on NBC was swiftly forgotten the moment it was canceled, despite showing a lot of promise.

A writer will rarely get every TV show right. Most often, they have one series that marks a stain on their careers. In Abrams’ case, Undercovers, a spy thriller starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, is famously one of his most divisive works. The show had a fairly enjoyable premise of a married couple who happen to be former CIA agents getting back into the fray. Unfortunately, despite enough action and suspense to last for more than one season, NBC was unimpressed by the spy thriller show's dwindling viewership numbers.

Undercovers had 13 episodes, but NBC only aired 11 due to the show's lack of mass appeal. However, all of the episodes were made available in the UK in 2011. Abrams himself has talked about the failure of the show, stating that the idea was to create a fun series, which ultimately ended up too simple.

What Went Wrong With J.J. Abrams' Undercovers

Image via Everett Collection

With a 39% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, Undercovers’ reception was underwhelming, especially for a series created by the brilliant J.J. Abrams. With shows like Lost, Alias, and Fringe under his belt, Abrams' new brainchild drew high expectations, but it fell flat for reasons that are easy to see. The writer and director has a particular style audiences have embraced, so Undercovers was a way for him to try out a different storytelling approach that didn’t focus on a mystery box.

Undercovers Rotten Tomatoes Score
Critics' Score	39%
Audience Score	NA

In the end, the results were split. Fans of Abrams who craved something new were happy with Undercovers, while those who already enjoyed his famous style of complicated stories were not pleased. Further, Undercovers aired at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, a time slot that was not ideal and led to declining viewership numbers, more so because there was heavy competition with the likes of CBS's Survivor, Fox's Hell's Kitchen, and ABC's The Middle.

Spy thrillers were a dime a dozen in the era Undercovers debuted, and several, like Chuck, were better than the Abrams-created series. While Undercovers' premise was gripping, it wasn’t enough to interest a large viewership, which was essential in keeping it on the air.

Undercovers' Premise & Cast Had Huge Potential

Image via Everett Collection

The fact that Undercovers can best be described as Mr & Mrs Smith meets Jack Ryan is a testament to how brilliant the show’s plot was. Samantha and Steven were an intriguing couple and exceptional spies who kept viewers entertained, especially with a plot that had huge potential for growth, action, and different types of spy stories.

Of course, one may argue that Undercovers’ plot could easily become boring because it essentially repeats the same story, just in a different setting with new people, but that isn’t the case. Spy thrillers have room to explore myriad stories, ranging from conspiracies to sinister plots, something which Undercovers would have had no trouble integrating into its future storyline.

With the likes of Ben Schwartz, Boris Kodjoe, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in its cast, Undercovers had a great ensemble. Though at the time Mbatha-Raw wasn’t as well-known as she is today, the spy thriller proved that she had huge star potential. Schwartz, too, has had a brilliant career after starring in Undercovers and continues to dazzle audiences in his projects.

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In a way, though, Undercovers’ unknown cast was a disadvantage, despite the actors being great. Some argue that if the actors were already on audiences' radar, then more people might have tuned in to watch the show. The bright side, however, is that even though Undercovers is J.J. Abrams' biggest TV flop, hardly anyone remembers it.

• 

  Samantha Bloom

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  Boris Kodjoe

  Steven Bloom

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  Bill Hoyt

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  Gerald McRaney

  Carlton Shaw