The Night Agent

A primer on how to do a streaming thriller

The Night Agent (2023)

3 / 5

My biggest pet peeve in any show that involves an unfolding mystery (a state that applies in some way to many many shows) is when characters won’t compare notes. Superhero movies do this worst, with caped crusaders who fight when they first meet because neither waits a minute to hear the other out about why they’re here and what it is they think they’re trying to accomplish. Spy shows are next worst, as the writers of such fare tend to want to slowly parse out the secrets of the plot to the audience (which is good) but do that by making the characters really stupid about filling each other in on plot details (which is lame). 

Thankfully, The Night Agent carefully avoids this trap, to its immense benefit. It’s especially valuable here because the plot is SUPER twisty, perhaps even too twisty: so twisty I can’t even really summarize it except to say that it puts a disgraced FBI agent and an assassination-attempt survivor on the run to “find the truth” without being able to actually trust anyone (at least at first). The promo blurb calls it “24 meets The Bodyguard,” and that’s reasonably accurate. Because this show is built for ten 50-minute episodes, though, there’s a lot going on. Without different characters reviewing with one another “what we know so far” the audience could get hopelessly lost. If the plot were simpler, that would get dull. But there’s enough complexity here that the audience needs it, so it’s applause-worthy for the show to do it. 

Presenting a complex political thriller full of characters with questionable and shifting allegiances while keeping the pacing brisk AND still comprehensible is most of the battle any show like this needs to win. The remainder is keeping the details properly locked in, which The Night Agent does an “okay” job of. Some of the background details get shaky in places: the characters do some “burner phone” stuff to avoid tracking, but we don’t ever see them start paying in cash for things, which means all their purchasing is still trackable all over the place. I personally hate it when characters scoop up a handgun and then stuff it in the back of their pants like that’s a secure way to carry. But much of that is just current shorthand that people know to wink at, so I can let it slide. That said, The Night Agent does yeoman work presenting a solid story for 500 minutes without letting it get dull AND while making sure it all makes sense. That’s actually pretty high praise, when you think about it.    

3 stars of 5: I liked it, but as with most shows like this once you know what happens it’s not really rewatchable.