The Night Agent became a huge hit for Netflix two years ago because it was a show that people could sit back and watch without thinking too much about what was going on. Was it a bit, well, dopey? Yep. But the chemistry between stars Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan was unmistakable. Now the series, created by Shawn Ryan (The Shield) is back for a second season.
THE NIGHT AGENT SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a nice restaurant in Bangkok, a young couple laughs and talks and holds hands.
The Gist: They look like a couple, but they’re actually Night Agents, part of the Secret Service. Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who recently was added to the Night Agent roster, is being trained by Alice (Brittany Snow), and the two of them are on a mission. They’re following Warren (Teddy Sears), who may be the source of a leak of confidential CIA case files.
When the two of them get made, though, a chase ensues; they can’t even get to the extraction point they’re given by the Night Action desk because the thugs chasing them have cut off the route. Peter manages to escape, but barely.
One month later, we see Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) still in therapy, almost a year after she last saw Peter; her therapist is so frustrated by her lack of opening up, she wants Rose to change therapies. She now works as the lead programmer for a company that uses facial recognition on public footage to tailor ad sales, and while she and the company’s CEO try to pitch a potential client, she gets a mysterious phone call about Peter.
After reporting the call to her contacts at the White House, Rose is met by Catherine Weaver (Amanda Warren), the Secret Service agent in charge of the Bangkok operation; she’s there under orders from President Michelle Travers (Kari Matchett). Peter has gone AWOL since the Bangkok mess, and any information on where he may be will help them locate him. When Catherine briefs Travers, she tells the president that they know that Peter is somewhere in the New York area.
Indeed, Peter is in New York, biding his time while coaching a 12-year-old in basketball. That 12-year-old happens to be Warren’s son, and after a lesson, he swaps out his cell phone, hoping to trick Warren into coming out in the open. In the meantime, Rose takes time off her job, saying her mother is sick, to go to New York to find Peter, after using her software to find his face on social media.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Night Agent and The Recruit are still pretty similar shows, which is ironic because the latter show is coming back one week after The Night Agent returns.
Our Take: Shawn Ryan has set up a much more intriguing situation in Season 2 of The Night Agent. Peter is now a full-fledged Night Agent, and he’ll eventually reteam with Rose in order to chase down Warren, who we know is leaking CIA files to a mysterious bearded man we saw in Bangkok. The fact that he’s currently AWOL, tracking Warren on his own after what happened to him and Alice in Bangkok, makes things even more intruiguing.
What we want to see is Peter, who is generally a straight-arrow guy, stay off the grid for awhile, with Tavers doubting her trust in him and Warren, who didn’t want him assinged to her to begin with, trying to figure out what his intentions are.
Of course, as we saw in the first season, a big part of The Night Agent is a two-part chemistry between Peter and Rose. There’s the romantic chemistry between Basso and Buchanan, of course, but these two also now implicity trust that each of them will get the other out of jams. As the first episode reminds us, there is going to be a ton of action in each episode, and the more we trust that Rose and Peter will be able to pull each other out of danger, the better the show will be.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: As Peter chases Warren down some alleyways, he somehow encounters Rose, who’s been tracking him.
Sleeper Star: Amanda Warren is intriguing as Catherine Weaver, mainly because she hasn’t bought into Peter’s abilities as a Night Agent.
Most Pilot-y Line: Was Basso directed to run the way he runs, with his arms up, elbows bent? Doesn’t seem like a particularly safe way to run with a gun in your hand, and it reminds us of the episode of Friends where Phoebe runs strangely.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While we still feel that there’s a bit of a lunkheaded feel to The Night Agent, Basso’s and Buchanan’s characters are established enough in the second season that the improved mission they’re on is something we’re looking forward to watching.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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