Titles like ‘Jack Ryan’, ‘Reacher’ or ‘The Final List’ made it clear that Amazon Prime Video was also fearlessly betting on action thrillers aimed at a mainly male audience. give me that in Netflix they took note of this, since it is a niche in which they did not have so much to offer, and the enormous success that the platform has achieved with ‘The Night Agent’ suggests that we will soon have more titles in the same vein.
After all, ‘The night agent’ has needed less than three weeks to sneak into the Top 10 of the most watched series in the entire history of Netflix spoken in English and everything indicates that it will end with data similar to that of ‘The Bridgerton’, one of the platform’s biggest bombings. Its success is indisputable, but things change if we look at its merits, since it is still kind of a watered down update of the mythical ’24’.
Neither chicha nor lemon
For one thing, ‘The night agent’ never gets boring, surely because behind it is shawn ryan, a television creator who hit the ceiling very soon with ‘The Shield’ and who has never lived up to the first series he created. However, professionalism is not taken away from anyone and here he also manages to provide enough dynamism to Peter Sutherland’s investigation so that it is easy to get carried away and one goes watching almost without realizing the 10 episodes that shape its first season.
After a start that inevitably brings to mind the excellent first chapter of ‘Bodyguard’, ‘The Night Agent’ soon brings to the table a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of the United States Government. Nothing newbut there are so many ways to approach a story so the key ends up being how the script develops it and the hook that its characters have so that one is more predisposed to ignore the licenses of realism that the series takes for the sake of to make it as exciting a show as possible.
The first problem in the case of ‘The Night Agent’ we have with Gabriel Basso, since it is true that the actor does have the right physical appearance to show off in a role like Peter Sutherland’s, but he lacks something essential to convincingly lead a series like that: charisma. And by that I don’t mean a greater aggressiveness when it comes to approaching the role, but rather his ability to fill the screen with his presence and to grab the viewer and not let go until he has completed his mission. .
It is true that Sutherland finds himself here in a somewhat vague situation, not knowing who he can trust and also with the shadow over his head of what his father is supposed to have done long ago. However, the determination to fulfill his obligation is there, but at least here, Basso transmits very littleto the point that at various times it gives the feeling of being more of a mechanism in the story than the one who really drives everything forward.
This leads to Basso’s leading role also being less absolute than expected, which gives rise to the introduction of aa rather curious subplot about the virile potency of one of the assassins the one who has been commissioned to get Sutherland out of the way. It is not that this ends up being as developed as I would like, but it does add a bit of spice to a series that, in general terms, can be seen coming at all times and is too generic.
There is another of its drawbacks, and that is that a series that depends to a large extent on its ability to surprise the viewer and that this serves as one of its great attractions to move forward cannot remain a bit in no man’s land in this section. And there I think both in the way of explaining the motivations of some of the characters and in the execution of certain scenes that should have been high points of the series.
We have a good example in the final stretch of episode 8, which should have been vibrant and exciting, but when push comes to shove is little more than a way station for the protagonist. Not to mention how they later deal with the repercussions of what happened at the beginning of the ninth, because you have to be totally delivered so that some details do not border on the delusional.
That said, ‘The Night Agent’ has a great asset in its favor, and that is that it is always competent enough to make you want to disconnect and let yourself go. It is true that later you will not find anything here that has not been shown much better in other series -‘Homeland’ would be another title with common elements that far exceeds this Netflix production- or movies, but, as is often said when we settle for little, the rhythm is good, things keep happening and I just want to see something not very complicated that doesn’t offend me intellectually. Don’t ask for much more either.and the sad thing is that with that it already gives it to surpass in interest not a few Netflix series.
So is it worth watching?
For now, ‘The Night Agent’ has become such a phenomenon that it will be rare if you don’t know someone who sees it with whom to discuss it, you enjoy it more or less. I am clear that even the most discreet seasons of ’24’ work better for me than this, but also that as a light pastime to watch while you’re having dinner or even a little distracted by other topics, it’s an option to consider. And it is that, as I said before, It’s not boring, but that’s not exactly the same as being entertaining.
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1 Comment
Not only was Gabriel Basso and cast in the Night Agent deservedly proclaimed as slicker than slick, engrossing and thrilling making The Night Agent a must see but it is also a must read for espionage aficionados. It’s indisputably one of the best FBI thrillers ever and Shawn Ryan’s The Night Agent is comfortably a five star production. It’s based on Matthew Quirk’s spy novel of the same name which also has splendid reviews. The book is a suspenseful, cloak and dagger page-turner about an FBI agent on a hazardous mission to uncover a mole in the White House. It’s a chilling nail-biter to the finish, whether watching the ten episodes comprising Series 1 on screen or reading the book.
If you liked Bill Fairclough’s epic fast fact based spy thriller Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series about Pemberton’s People in MI6 you should like this no matter what the format. In real life, Fairclough was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6 and worked with the CIA, real SAS Rogue Heroes and other ungentlemanly officers as explained in a news article dated 31 October 2022 available from TheBurlingtonFiles website. Once you are irretrievably immersed in both worlds, The Night Agent and The Burlington Files, will enchant and entrap you!