Critic’s Rating: 2.3 / 5.0
2.3
Netflix loves shows like The Night Agent, and I do too.
They are adrenaline-fueled rides with mystery and conspiracies woven into the story, begging you to sink into the couch and binge away.
I have enjoyed the past two seasons of the show, and whenever I’d receive screeners, I’d drop everything and dive in.
(Courtesy of Netflix)
The same did not happen in Season 3 because I had my concerns after learning that Rose was gone. The character was Peter’s strongest asset, always the rational adult in the room whenever Peter wanted to go apeshit.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, on Friday, I started the first episode, hoping to binge the show. After ten minutes, I was forced to start over because I thought I had started with Episode 5.
Sure enough, the episode starts with a recap of the previous season. I watch it again only to confirm that, indeed, I never missed anything.
I sit through the first episode and can’t bring myself to watch the second.
“What the hell happened to The Night Agent?” I ask myself. I don’t recognize this show.
(Christopher Saunders/Netflix)
Losing the Core
Shows like this one always have a ceiling set by the first season’s storyline. The premise was that a phone that is never supposed to ring rings, and Peter Sutherland picks it up.
He uncovers a sprawling conspiracy that puts his life and many others in danger. After the first season, the hook about a phone that never rings is gone because it rang.
In Season 2, the writers address this problem by extending the case and somehow outrunning it. They then plant some seeds for Season 3’s arc by covering the in-universe presidential election.
But in Season 3, the storyline takes a U-turn, abandoning the high-stakes story of a compromised president and effectively neutering the show.
It’s 2026, and we know how everyone is trying to appease the current administration by cancelling projects they don’t approve of or changing scripts to appease the MAGA faithful.
(Nazim Serhat Firat/Netflix)
I suspect that The Night Agent Season 3 had two scripts written, depending on the election outcome.
When Donald Trump won, they went with the cheap generic backup storyline to avoid real-world overlap and invite the administration’s ire.
Instead, the show leaves home and spends time in other countries, much to the detriment of its stakes.
A lot happens in the first eight episodes of the season. For the first five, I can’t tell you what the conspiracy is because I still haven’t fully understood it.
But I can tell you it has nothing to do with what we expected from The Night Agent Season 2.
(Courtesy of Netflix © 2024)
It’s a convoluted mess, so when you figure it out, drop a line in the comments section.
But even with that messy storyline, the true crime is what happens to Rose.
Losing the Emotional Anchor
Rose Larkin did a lot of emotional heavy lifting in the first two seasons.
I can just see Luciane Buchanan acting her heart out when they are attacked, or when she is talking Peter out of something stupid and/or dangerous.
This season, moral grey areas seem to have vanished as Peter becomes emotionally mature overnight. He knows exactly what to do and say.
(Courtesy of Netflix)
And why? Because his mother once told him something when he was a child.
This season is just Peter “doing his best,” and I’m afraid Peter’s best cannot carry a show for ten episodes.
Like many before him, Peter becomes your regular muscular white guy on a mission to save everyone. I can name at least ten shows or movies with that exact premise.
Not even Gabriel Basso’s strong line delivery can fix this predictable turn.
Some of you may think I’m lying by saying I thought The Night Agent would never survive without Rose, but that doesn’t concern me more than knowing I was right.
I always want every show to win, so I hate to be proven right whenever I think they might lose.
(Christopher Saunders/Netflix)
The Hollow 80%
The bleed continues when even the action that requires no thought or emotional connection disappears into thin air.
The first eight episodes are a slog of dialogue, sightseeing, and flashbacks as the writers attempt to make the many new characters feel as if they’ve mattered all along.
This season might have only three familiar characters, and the rest are new to viewers.
No one spends two seasons watching a show only to have to be reacquainted with a fresh batch of characters in The Night Agent Season 3.
But I won’t hold their newness against them because they didn’t choose it.
Most of them are actually quite interesting. Stephen Moyer steals the show as The Father, the other half of the father-and-son duo, who is a huge part of the season.
(Courtesy of Netflix)
This relationship is meant to mirror Peter’s with his dad. But since we don’t know Peter’s dad, it doesn’t quite land the same.
There are also some minor characters who show great promise only to disappear in the middle of the season and surface in the final episodes.
Someone like Jay Batra deserved to be featured more because he’s genuinely hilarious. The Banker is also another good character who should have had more scenes.
The Father and Son scenes are the most thrilling aspect of the entire season, even though everything about them ends anticlimactically.
In the final two episodes, everything kicks into high gear, and one can almost see the traces of the old The Night Agent.
The Mislead
(Nazim Serhat Firat/Netflix)
I was hyped for the season by a particularly epic action-scene preview on The Tonight Show, when Basso was promoting it. But I’m not kidding when I say you have to wait for it.
The sophomore season did a really good job of setting up the arc for Season 3, but the new season doesn’t even try.
It ties everything up nicely, as if the team hopes the show won’t be renewed, since it has officially run out of steam and anything they come up with will further ruin its legacy.
Shawn Ryan revealed that the writers’ room for Season 4 has already been opened, and girl, I think you guys are in trouble.
Gut Check
(CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS/NETFLIX)
This season feels like an entirely different show.
Between the cast refresh, globe-trotting, and morally perfect Peter, it becomes a generic thriller about some guy.
Is he Reacher, Jack Ryan, Colter Shaw, or Harry Bosch? Maybe he’s all of them.
It feels like the writers have given up, and they hope they don’t get renewed for another season, which is why everything is tied up in a nice little ending.
In the final five minutes, Peter goes for ice cream.
No big conspiracy on the horizon, no surprise attack. He promises to call his handler. And maybe he will or maybe he won’t.
(Christopher Saunders/Netflix)
Given Basso’s outspoken desire to leave the show, bringing him back for one more season would be a major mistake if he phones it in, and he has already begun to do so.
Overall, this season is a prime example of why limited shows are a good idea.
Remember The Bodyguard?
While I would love to see Richard Madden say “Ma’am” again, that was a perfect limited series. That’s what The Night Agent should have been.
All episodes of The Night Agent Season 3 are streaming on Netflix.
Agree? Disagree?
Let us know in the comments, or share this article with someone who will want to argue about it with you. That’s what makes it fun.
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