Review by C.J. Bunce
With little panache, no major league stars, but tight writing, the Netflix series The Night Agent did something other series have failed to do: make a suspense-thriller TV series as exciting as reading a Tom Clancy novel. Prime Video’s Jack Ryan didn’t come close, and neither did Reacher. Even FUBAR with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself couldn’t capture the adrenaline rush as a mid-level government worker gets sucked into a dark and murky world of high stakes politics that leads directly to the White House.
As we usually find in our search for the next great TV series, it all really does come down to the writing.
A key factor for the success of the series, streaming on Netflix since 2023 with its ten first-season episodes, is likely that non-star cast. Gabriel Basso–who was the kid actor in J.J. Abrams’ breakout movie Super 8–stars as low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland. He’s the son of a disgraced agent who was later killed when Peter was much younger. In first-episode backstory we catch up with Peter as he foils a commuter train bombing in Washington, DC. Partially because of his family name, partially because he appears to be one of the good guys, the President’s Chief of Staff takes him on, allowing him to shadow her to some extent, ultimately getting him a ho-hum job answering the secret “Night Agent” phone in the White House.
We learn Night Agents are Secret Service operatives presumably out there protecting secrets of the state, and the phone guy is there to get them help if they need it. But like all covert, off-the-books government activities go, the Night Agent program has been compromised. Soon after taking the job Sutherland gets a call from a woman witnessing her aunt and uncle being hunted down. Sutherland carefully uses his knowledge and training to get her into hiding so he can get a detail on the scene to rescue her. It’s a success, but it leads to an unraveling of a covert ops network and corruption that may go all the way to the President herself.
The rescued woman is co-star Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin. Once a tech company CEO, Larkin’s trademark IT security software software was hacked, leaving her to lose all her investment and left to file for bankruptcy protection. Which brings her to living with her oh-so-ordinary aunt and uncle, who she learns to be Secret Service agents only after her escape, and their murder. As Sutherland takes on the role of protector for Larkin they grow close, but not in your typical smarmy thriller flick way. Larkin is smart and knows her way around corporations and social situations. The partnership results in the duo getting closer to solving who carried out the bombing, who was behind it, who snuffed out Larkin’s aunt and uncle, and who is the mysterious person codenamed Osprey that Larkin heard them refer to in their last moments?
Sutherland’s boss and mentor is Chief of Staff Diane Farr, played by Asteroid City and The Menu’s Hong Chau, nearly unrecognizable with white-grey wig. Farr is refreshingly atypical. She’s ready to spar with anyone, the only person in the White House barking out all kinds of profanity, but she seems to know the political structure better than anyone, and she is fiercely loyal to the President, played by Nero Wolfe and Leverage co-star Kari Matchett, who delivers the best performance as a real President that has ever graced a TV set. She is authoritative and eminently believable.
Sutherland and Larkin’s situation is interwoven with two Secret Service agents played by D.B. Woodside and Fola Evans-Akingbola. Woodside is Agent Monks, who took a bullet for the last President, and Evans-Akingbola is Agent Arrington, a seasoned pro who looks young, which makes her perfect for shadowing the daughter of the Vice President at college as her security detail. Christopher Shyer plays the VP and Sarah Desjardins plays his daughter, who is more than ready to cut ties with the father who neglected her.
When sleuths Sutherland and Larkin get too close to the truth, they become Public Enemy #1 and #2, and must hide and continue their efforts without getting spotted, their photographs published everywhere. They encounter red herrings and hit snags–like when they’re accused of kidnapping the VP’s daughter and the Secret Service come after them.
As a nod to the wacky tropes of the genre, the series includes assassin/hitmen Dale and Ellen, reminiscent of Ken and Barbie from Stay Close. Dale, played by Aussie actor Phoenix Raei, is the typical quiet thug type, but Ellen, played by Star Trek: Discovery actor Eve Harlow, has all sorts of issues that make her a dangerous player, for both the good guys and the bad guys. Also watch for Without a Trace actor Enrique Murciano as Secret Service director Ben Almora, the ubiquitous Hiro Kanagawa (iZombie, Altered Carbon, The Man in the High Castle, Arrow, The X-Files) as the head of the FBI, iZombie and Resident Alien’s Ben Cotton as a government contractor, and In Plain Sight’s Tim Kelleher as Peter’s uncle. Plus Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files) has a small role.
We haven’t seen a studio create this kind of government action series and do it so well since In Plain Sight, Without a Trace, and The Punisher. How did we overlook this series for an entire year? The previews looked bland, and swiping across Netflix the series looked just like the movie Hitman: Agent 47. Yes, the series would be even better if it had the style and pizzazz of The Gentlemen or Culprits. But with such a tight story–and none of those irrelevant tangent episodes we hate so much–this show makes itself memorable. It’s based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, with the first episodes written by The Shield’s Shawn Ryan.
Luciane Buchanan’s Rose Larkin is not that stereotyped damsel in distress. She’s a badass who participates in every fight scene instead of just watching the boys fight, a refreshing character for the genre. In the season’s best scene, Sutherland falls through a floor outside a building testing it for stability, with Rose left to jump anyway to get to safety. It’s a great slice of real life that happens in a story that is, like other entries in the genre, implausible.
It’s obvious the series is a Canada series, too–it doesn’t feel like a U.S. show and Washington, DC, locations are glaringly missing. Diehard fans of the genre may find details that Tom Clancy would have gotten exactly right to be missing entirely, but others will find here an easy to watch, fun ride.
The Night Agent is now streaming on Netflix. The second season has been cast and is expected later this year.
