QS ~ The Night Agent

QS stands for “Quickshot”, a series of short form review/preview/opinion articles.

I’ve been on a bit of a show-watching spree lately, which isn’t always the most expected thing for me. In particular, I’ve been really into action/spy/thriller types of shows. One that I recently wrapped up watching was The Night Agent, a Netflix show. It just got a season two, so you might’ve seen it around in the past few weeks or so. Well, I’ve finished watching it, and I was pleasantly surprise! It’s quite good!

As a quick summation of the series, we follow a USA government employee named Peter Sutherland who is tasked with manning the Night Action phone, which is essentially the help line for super spies. It’s a boring job, until one night it happens to ring. On the other end of the line is a young woman named Rose Larkin, who is under attack by armed assailants, and was given the Night Action number to call because her aunt and uncle were former Night Action agents. Peter helps Rose survive the attack, and then ends up becoming even more embroiled once it appears obvious that there is a traitor in the White House.

It’s pretty standard affair for thrillers, really. An agent uncovers a conspiracy, eventually becomes a suspect themselves, and has to run from both their own government and the real villains pulling the strings behind the curtain. A tale as old as time, though it isn’t often that our hero is paired with someone by their side through it all. Just the sheer fact that Peter and Rose face down everything together really elevates this series, and the chemistry between the two of them is irresistible. They make for extremely strong leads.

The show is two seasons of ten episodes, with episode lengths averaging 45 minutes (pretty standard stuff for shows like this). It can be streamed on Netflix. Because of its nature as a thriller, the pace moves pretty quickly, making the series great for binging. Now, that being said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of slower moments, or chances for the characters to talk, bond, and what have you. There’s plenty of that, but there is also plenty of action.

A lot of action, actually, which I love. I feel that it’s rare for a televisions series to really lean this hard into action, but The Night Agent sure does, and I appreciate it all the more for that. Actually, on the note of cinematography, the entire show is shot like its a movie, rather than a television show. This could maybe throw some people off, but I really enjoyed that aspect of things. I felt like I was watching a long but entertaining and engaging action-spy movie each time I settled in my seat for a two-to-three episode binge.

But to return to the point of action, there’s a good deal of it, and I found most of it fairly impressive for a show. There’s a car chase, a bunch of different on-foot chases, some tense hide-and-seek in a house, a brutal fight on the shore of a lake, a standoff in the woods, and an exceptionally enjoyable shootout in a junkyard (pictured below) that worked as a really good culmination of multiple story threads all coming together in an explosive way. It’s rare to be on the edge-of-your-seat during a show, but thrilling too!

But putting all of that aside, a show like this wouldn’t work with the characters and the actors. Something only focused on the action could coast by on flashy fight scenes, but a tense thriller needs characters you can actually get invested in, and actors that put in engaging performances to keep your eyes glued to the screen. Thankfully, The Night Agent excels in this regard.

One thing the show does well is not treat the audience like they are inept. I really can’t remember a single moment where I thought ‘yes, yes, stop spelling it all out for me‘ or ‘you just told me this, why are you saying it again‘, which can come up in shows written with less respect for their viewers. The show even makes the bold decision of introducing a seemingly unrelated subplot in episode three, and not tying it in with the main story until about two episodes later. It trusts you to stick with it, let them have their time to tell their story, and then it hits you like a truck as you realize ‘oh, it’s all connected‘. It’s bold, and it pays off.

It’s just a really well-written show, at the end of the day, and equaled as well acted. Characters are complex, and quite a lot of time is devoted to fleshing-out and adding layers to even the antagonists. There’s a lot of gray morality at play, a lot of questionable but understandable decisions being made, and a lot of hard calls. There’s a lot of, as I mentioned above, subtle moments of characterization too that are really touching, and plenty of amazing scenes showing off the cast’s acting chops.

To not talk your ear off, I’ll just give a specific shout-out to the White House Chief of Staff, Diane Farr, played by Hong Chau. Probably the best written character in the show, and easily the best acted (which is not at all to imply the other actors aren’t good, because seriously this whole cast is amazing). Chau puts in the performance of a lifetime playing the role of Diane Farr, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her whenever she was in a scene, as she just had such an arresting presence. At this point I’m thinking I just need to watch more of what Chau has been in, as it’s hopefully at least half as good as this stunning performance.

I do need to make one less-positive note before we end this article, unfortunately, as I feel if I neglected to do so I’d be selling a false narrative.

The first season of The Night Agent is fantastic. Seriously amazing. The second season? Nowhere near as good, to the point where I actually just thought it was ‘eh‘. Like, it still had fun action, tense scenes, and really good acting between all our leads, but the story was a convoluted, confusing, unsatisfying mess that seemed more concerned with setting up a third season than telling a compelling narrative in its own season. It was a huge letdown after how good the first season was, and kinda left a bad taste in my mouth.

The bright side to this? Season one is a completely self-contained narrative with a satisfying and cathartic conclusion that leaves no dangling threads. So, I’d seriously still recommend watching the first season of this show, because it’s super good. If you love it, maybe give the second season a shot too, but at least you’ll have seen the greatness of the first season, and you’ll be left satisfied at how everything concludes.