The show follows Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo), a CIA lawyer who becomes involved in massive international conflicts with dangerous parties after an asset tries to expose her relationship to the agency.

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.

[9][10][11] 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.

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.

[11][15][17] 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.

[2] 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.

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.