In “The Night Agent,” a young, square-jawed FBI agent runs afoul of his bosses and is relegated to a desk job on the overnight shift in the basement of the White House. His purpose: To monitor an emergency phone line that never rings. And then one night it does. Propulsive and smart, the 10-episode Netflix action-thriller is based on the 2019 novel by Matthew Quirk.
The series is less “Jack Ryan,” both in tone and interests, than “Three Days of the Condor,” the 1975 political thriller starring Robert Redford as a guy who comes to the stomach-churning realization that he doesn’t know who he can trust — especially within the government agency where he works.
Traitors are potentially everywhere. But instead of a pensive and Redfordian leading man — the ‘70s really were a zenith for that sort of thing — “The Night Agent” chucks all that for something more indicative of the 2020s.
Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), the night agent of the show’s title, has the look of a former athlete who’s now found himself in a job that requires a suit and tie. He’s tall and stolid, with a military haircut. Not particularly interesting at first glance. Even his daddy issues feel like a pro forma personality trait. But he’s serious about the job, no matter how much he chafes at his banishment to the basement. He’s observant and thoughtful and when that phone does ring one night, it’s not an undercover FBI agent on the other line but a frantic civilian — an out-of-work cybersecurity expert named Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), whose life is in danger — and he springs into action.
He’s your quintessential stand-up guy. She’s wary but clear-eyed and not just someone who needs saving. She’s actively involved in uncovering what’s happening and strategizing her and Peter’s next steps as they find themselves on the run from treasonous forces in the nation’s top political office.
Also, the vice president’s daughter (a college student at Georgetown) and her Secret Service agents somehow get pulled into this, complicating things further.
Created for television by Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”), the show is remarkably apolitical considering the setting. That’s quite the tightrope walk, but one that fits with the direction streamers are heading.
Netflix actually does this sort of thing really well and I would count “The Recruit” and “The Lincoln Lawyer” among them: shows built around smart men who have a conscience, but aren’t especially dazzling. Each show includes the obligatory excuse to get said man to take off his shirt. But importantly, these shows are designed to be television rather than a bloated 10-hour movie.
By the way, these are precisely the types of projects that Warner Bros. Discovery — which is aiming to become the one-stop shop of streamers — would be smart to emulate, because they appeal to HBO viewers (sleek visuals and quality storytelling told in episodic chunks) as well as a Discovery+ audience (action-focused and full of intrigue, but nothing too highbrow). It’s all in the execution.
“The Night Agent” features no major stars, and that too is likely intentional (it keeps the budget within reason) but there’s a small handful of recognizable names: Robert Patrick and D. B. Woodside and recent Oscar-nominee Hong Chau (so good in “The Menu”). Chau is the kind of actor who does not let opportunities go to waste and hers is a career to watch. She’s been aged up here, in a terrible gray wig, playing the president’s chief of staff, and it’s a performance that’s at once wily and deadpan. She’s a formidable scene partner and just terrific at every turn. Shame about that wig.
Shot on location in and around Vancouver, a number of Canadian actors pop up here as well, including Gabrielle Rose as a retiree who lives out on a farm by herself, minding her own self-sufficient, not-a-spy business. In fact, she’s done all kinds of spy-like work and knows a thing or two about uncovering saboteurs. Because of the kind of show this is — and the fact that Rose isn’t a household name in the U.S. — she likely won’t get much attention for her performance. She absolutely should be in the running for an Emmy, though, she’s that good.
In terms of how the series is structured, Ryan has made some canny choices. “The Night Agent” is not self-serious. The story starts relatively small and gradually expands out into a larger over-the-top conspiracy, but the show actually earns it, because it understands the value of building stakes: Bit by bit. That’s how you get audiences to actually care, rather than going straight for “the fate of our country hangs in the balance!” at the outset.
Conspiracies abound. Paranoia is justified. But the show remains human-scaled. There’s no one big ticking clock hanging over their heads, so much as a time crunch here, a time crunch there. Everything is incremental, giving a richness to the storytelling.
———
'THE NIGHT AGENT'
3 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17 with advisories for violence and coarse language)
How to watch: Netflix
———
