The Night Agent

A little over three months ago, Netflix released The Recruit, an action-thriller series starring Noah Centineo as a young employee at the CIA who gets in ...

In the pantheon of action-thrillers on streaming, The Night Agent is definitely one of the more memorable ones. Those who fell in love with The Recruit will feel right at home with the new series, and those in need of another action title as they await the return of Reacher will also be more than satisfied. One might be quick to consider The Night Agent to be yet another conspiracy thriller series full of the same clichés and contrivances that you'd expect. You can't really fault either series or make the claim that The Night Agent is a ripoff of The Recruit, as these were both likely shot during the same timeframe. The Night Agent, which is based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk, centers on Peter Sutherland (Basso), a young FBI employee who works in the basement of The White House during a graveyard shift where his main job is to answer an emergency line that rarely rings. Hitting the streamer this week is The Night Agent, an action-thriller series starring Gabriel Basso as a young employee at the FBI who gets in over his head when he's involuntarily thrust into an international conspiracy.

Netflix's newest spy thriller “The Night Agent” reminded me of '90s and '00s projects like “In the Line of Fire” and the Bourne movies. That's a compliment.

How does Sutherland get to the bottom of something fishy at the top level of world government and keep Rose alive at the same time? On the other end of the line is a former CEO named Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), who was given the number and a code to activate Sutherland by her aunt and uncle, who Rose thought were just a pair of ordinary suburbanites. Her security detail is run by a tough agent named Chelsea Arrington (the engaging Fola Evans-Akingbola) and a new addition in Agent Erik Monks (D.B. Netflix’s newest spy thriller “The Night Agent” reminded me of ‘90s and ‘00s projects like “In the Line of Fire” and the Bourne movies. Peter is assigned the Night Action desk, which means he sits in front of a phone for hours every night and then goes home again. For his trouble, he’s basically branded a suspect in the bombing and demoted to a thankless desk job manning a phone that never rings.

Hong Chau and Gabriel Basso stand out on "The Night Agent," a Shawn Ryan thriller based on Matthew Quirk's novel.

Still, it’s a pleasure to see a show better than it might have been, when so often the opposite is true: “The Night Agent” sparks with curiosity and intrigue, a richly detailed show that propels viewers forward with a relentless pace. So it is with “The Night Agent,” created by Shawn Ryan of “The Shield,” and based on a novel by Matthew Quirk. [Hong Chau](https://variety.com/t/hong-chau/) — the Oscar-nominated actor, who’s appeared in “The Whale,” “The Menu,” and “Downsizing” — is an interesting element on [Netflix](https://variety.com/t/netflix/)’s new series “ [The Night Agent](https://variety.com/t/the-night-agent/),” and a revealing one.

In one of those odd juxtapositions that come with the streaming age, a new Netflix drama about an FBI agent in the White House, "The Night Agent," has a ...

Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”) also enters the chat in the later episodes, but by then, “Rabbit Hole” is already confusing enough that it’s barely worth the effort to try sorting things out. Netflix courts various audience niches, but this more closely approximates the meat-and-potatoes fare that has found success on more traditional platforms. That includes warnings from the President’s chief of staff, Diane Farr (Hong Chau, fresh off her Crisply told and smartly cast, the adaptation of Matthew Quirk’s novel issues a call worth answering. Perhaps inevitably, there are some clunkier aspects. [ “24”-like franchise](https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/entertainment/24-legacy-review/index.html) with “The Night Agent,” a twisty thriller with high-stakes corruption reaching deep into the corridors of Washington and a stalwart FBI agent who suffers for our sins.

"The Night Agent" is a new action thriller series on Netflix that is an adaptation of Matthew Quirk's novel. The plot follows FBI agent Peter Sutherland, ...

is given a promotion from the FBI to work directly under the White House as a night agent, and the young man is seen taking a private flight away from the country on his first mission. The FBI then had to pose his death as a car accident and keep his real identity a secret forever. Ashley had even caused the death of his younger daughter out of negligence and made young Maddie believe that it was all her fault. In case this plan failed, a second bomb had also been fitted in the POTUS’ helicopter, which would fly her away from the place in case of any emergency. Although the world knew that Colin Worley had died, the man now took on the identity of his twin brother Matteo and started to hatch a plan of his own. However, when the man’s brother was killed, Colin was out for revenge, and he had been hatching an extensive plan to get back to the Vice President. The bomb, which had been fitted with a timer, was supposed to blow off at an exact spot that was very close to a major gas line. Had the bomb gone off in time according to the whole plan, Zadar would have definitely been killed, along with a significant number of citizens. On a hard drive that Peter and Rose find belonging to the couple, which they also refuse to turn in to the FBI or the Secret Service, it is also revealed that the Campbells were actually investigating the metro bombings from one year ago. Although they had retired from their FBI jobs, the Campbells had been hired as Night Agents in the recent past directly by the President of the United States, Michelle Travers, in order to secretly investigate the metro bombings. Very soon, he spots a man leave a backpack on the train and get off in an extremely suspicious manner, and checking it out, Peter finds the bag to contain a bomb on a timer. While recovering from the frenzied events, Peter spots the same man who had left the bomb in the train now standing among bystanders and immediately gives him a chase.

TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. In the new Netflix series "The Night Agent," Gabriel Basso plays a young FBI agent stuck in a dead-end job who ...

And this "The Night Agent" does provide. And if you want to learn more about how we put the show together and learn more about our producers and what they're paying attention to, subscribe to our free newsletter. You can tell the upbeat tale of reporters exposing the truth about Watergate in "All The President's Men." GROSS: John Powers reviewed "The Night Agent," the new series streaming on Netflix. I got a kick out of the toxic relationship between the spineless Veep and the daughter who despises him. In the new Netflix series "The Night Agent," Gabriel Basso plays a young FBI agent stuck in a dead-end job who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a huge conspiracy. Alas, like most so-called political thrillers - the recent Apple TV+ series "Liaison" is another example - "The Night Agent" never rises above formula. Are you ready to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this muck, to keep Rose Larkin safe? And that was enough to keep me watching happily until the very end. It was Rose who made that late-night call to the night action desk as assassins were murdering her secret agent aunt and uncle. You can spoof it the way "The Manchurian Candidate" sent up anti-communist frenzy. Me, I'm hooked on thrillers whose heroes get caught up in treacherous political shenanigans - you know, the attempted military coup in "Seven Days In May," the assassination corporation in the "Parallax View" or the many delirious intrigues that fueled "Homeland."

Netflix's latest twisty thriller series begins with FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) preventing mass loss of life after he spots a bomb being placed ...

For her role in catching the bad guys, Chelsea is offered the top job of being one of the President's personal Secret Service agents. In their bunker, Maddie finally realises just what a sleazeball her father is, and decides to leave him there and take her chances with the bomb above ground. Meanwhile, Rose and Peter have convinced Farr to help them, after she realises her fellow conspirators have gone rogue and are planning to kill not just Zadar, but the President as well. By the end of the penultimate episode, Maddie has been rescued and she and Chelsea are reluctantly en route with Maddie's extremely suspicious-looking father to Camp David, where the President is due to meet Zadar for a friendly chat. So they're off to Camp David, too, to hopefully foil the plot, save the President and clear Peter's name. On the other end is tech expert Rose, who has just seen her aunt and uncle murdered in their home by unknown assailants, and now they are after her.

Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, D.B. Woodside and Hong Chau star in Shawn Ryan's adaptation of Matthew Quirk's novel.

But the first episode established that it’s a show with a lot of stock characters and a conspiracy that doesn’t start in a particularly interesting way. The biggest intrigue might be with Ellen (Eve Harlow) and Dale (Phoenix Raei), whom we see executing someone in Racine, WI at the end of the first episode. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere. Our Take: There’s a certain amount of lunkheadedness that envelops the first episode of The Night Agent, more than you’d expect from a show written by Ryan. Maybe that’ll inject some personality into the series, but in the run up to that, all we see are flat line readings and action scenes. He does keep her safe, but not before dealing with conspiracy theorists outside his apartment and a car chase going the wrong way down a local highway. He also seems to be in a loyalty tug-of-war between White House chief of staff Diane Farr (Hong Chau) and his FBI boss, Deputy Director Jamie Hawkins (Robert Patrick). She is staying with her aunt and uncle, who just came back from a business trip. Peter answers and talks her through hiding from the gunmen until law enforcement gets there. As he’s getting treated for his injuries, he spots the man who left the bomb, chases him into an alley, but loses him when a car slams into him. [The Shield](https://decider.com/show/the-shield/), is now adapting [Matthew Quirk’s novel The Night Agent](https://www.amazon.com/Night-Agent-Novel-Matthew-Quirk/dp/0062875469?tag=decider08-20&asc_refurl=https://decider.com/2023/03/23/the-night-agent-netflix-review/&asc_source=web) for Netflix. The Gist: On the Metro train, one of the passengers, FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) notices a man leave a backpack and get off the train.

SPOILER ALERT: The series includes details about new Netflix series The Night Agent, based on the bestselling novel by Matthew Quirk. Gabriel Basso in 'The ...

RYAN: I really don’t want to say too much because I do occupy a somewhat unique position in that I’ve been part of the previous five negotiations, and the last time I was around, I was co-chair of the negotiating committee so I do know that my words carry extra weight. I think these are all questions that we almost certainly would love to answer in a potential Season 2, and I certainly hope we get the opportunity to do that. But one of the things that happens in thriller movies when they try to forge a romance is they usually seem rushed, and it to me doesn’t seem earned. I don’t want to tell this specific story over five seasons, I want to tell this specific story in one season and give some satisfaction to the audience that they see how things turn out. What I will tell you is that the initial pitch for this show that we sold to Netflix was that each season would tell its own, mostly self-enclosed, a beginning, middle and end story, and any future seasons would include a few but not most of the characters that we saw in the previous season. But that was the story we set out to tell, and we told it. If it was confusing to you as a viewer, then I have to re-examine that, but that’s the rationale for why she did what she did. She was very young, and she was worried that maybe she, as a person, was a little young for the role, especially playing a contemporary of the President. As it relates to the President, again, I had the story in mind about the Vice President and his daughter in college. In the book, the mole in the White House is Russian, and so is the assassin, which is not the case in the series. In a book, you can put the readers into the heads of the characters and you understand what they’re thinking, why they’re behaving. I told Sony, I want this to be a project I do, and then I said, I really don’t want to pitch this.

The first season of Netflix's 'The Night Agent' comes to an explosive end. Literally. Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland in The Night Agent Image via Netflix.

Before the president boards, Peter shoots the inside man in the head and holds the president at gunpoint as he tries to explain the situation to her and her remaining security. Redfield tells Maddie the president would like to speak with her alone, though he leads her to a protected underground bunker with a Secret Service agent, where he plans to stay with Maddie until the attack is over, and he can rise from the ashes as the new president. Peter is taken into custody, while Chelsea and Maddie arrive just in time to explain everything to President Travers about the conspiracy and clear Peter’s name. Back at the White House, Peter and Rose have a private meeting with President Travers. Elsewhere, Chelsea has located a bomb in the lodge, evacuating the building, while Maddie orders her father to let her out of the bunker. With Diane on their side, at least for the time being, Peter and Rose demand that she uses her power to get them into Camp David to stop Redfield and Wick (Ben Cotton) from killing both Zadar and Travers, as Redfield’s ultimate goal has shifted to taking her place as President of the United States. As Rose attempts to fix communications, Peter sets off to find the president and stop the attack. As Diane drives them to Camp David, she finally enlightens Peter on the metro bombing. But, an unexpected trip to Camp David puts her plan on hold, as the team has figured out that Zadar will be at Camp David and another attack is in the works. The finale of The Night Agent begins with a flashback to a pivotal moment in Peter’s life. Meanwhile, Peter and Rose confront Diane about the Camp David attack, Diane is stunned to learn about this, saying she would never do anything to hurt President Michelle Travers (Kari Matchett). But, an unexpected ally in Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola), a member of the Secret Service assigned to protect the Vice President’s daughter Maddie (Sarah Desjardins), has provided them with a life vest.

With Netflix's twisty political thriller 'The Night Agent,' creator Shawn Ryan and star Gabriel Basso break down the show's first season.

Basso: I think the toughest thing for Peter is that the lies and the circumstances his father found himself in might be a reflection of his character as a man. So for me, if we were to get a second season, I think one of the interesting things we could delve into is Peter trying to figure out the why. One of the great things about being a writer is that you can write the ending you want, not the ending you have. There is something that Gabriel brings that I just can’t write on the page, and I hope he and I get to make this show for a while longer. Rose’s aunt and uncle were Sidewinder and Gazelle, so we’ll have to figure out what the perfect avatar for Peter is. We deviate a lot from the book, but this is in the book. I was so curious about what the truth was with my father, and I was devastated I would never get to ask him these questions and get the answers. You are invested narratively in the action, and I think that is unique. I loved the characters of Peter, Rose and Diane Farr, and I saw how I could use the book to meld with some original ideas I had been working on to make a TV show out of it. Jamie Vanderbilt, who is a great writer and producer that I respect a lot, and his company, had the rights to the book, and they asked if I would read it. Yes, you are going to have all the things about political thrillers that appeal to you in the movies. Instead, Redfield is outed as the engine of the power grab; and Diane Farr (Hong Chau), Travers’ chief of staff, survives only to face life behind bars for covering up the Metro bombing that kicked off the series.