The Night Agent

A lot of nonsensical plot holes, disjointed and formless story lines thrown together in a blender. Clearly not based on a book like season 1 but rather a tv writer effort to leverage the original. I kept watching in spite of it. It's not terrible but there are much better other spy thriller shows. Some notable standouts for acting were Javar and Solomon and Peter. The women in this series to me were portrayed as weak, emotional and frail. Too stereotypical. Everytime an obvious solution was presented they meandered down a new weird fork in the road. Watching this required a lot of patience but I didn't have anything else to do so...

Season 1 was pretty good and the inexperience of Rose and Peter was believable. They got the problem solved but mostly got lucky. Season 2 is unbelievably stupid. Peter is a trained agent who allows Rose to meddle in a case. There's never any backup and whenever there's a decision to be made it's made based on emotion. It's Hollywood so I'm sure they are going to stumble around and get lucky but their performance in the first half of the season would indicate a serious lack of what it takes to be a "Night Agent". I hate not knowing how things end so I'll watch until the end but I won't start a season 3.

Season 1 was enjoyable enough. Season 2, however, descends into stupidity, particularly after episode 7. It's plagued by poor, often immoral decisions, inconsistent character development, illogical plans, and a distinct lack of realism and plausibility. The characters' actions often feel amateurish, even childish at times. The acting is uneven, with some particularly weak performances (notably Rose, Chelsea, and Dr. Wilfred). Furthermore, the dialogue frequently comes across as pretentious, often eliciting laughter or annoyance rather than the intended effect.

While the season does offer some well-executed action sequences and a few surprising plot twists, and a few times evokes the feel of Homeland, as the season progressed my only desire was for it to end.

Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 4/10.

This is a fast moving and fun action series that keeps you engaged. To enjoy it, you cannot be too analytical or expect any logic to how the events unfold. Suffice it to say that events happen only to suit the narrative and keep the action moving along at a rapid pace. Some events lack context, while others seem to be included solely to pad the script and stretch out the time to get it to the required number of episodes. The fight sequences seem to be very "Kung Fu" styled, complete with sound effects. From how the first season ends, it's clear that they are hoping to have continuing adventures for a second season. The lead character seems to be a hybrid version of Jack Reacher, 007 and Superman rolled into one!

Season 2: This is pure and unmitigated rubbish. It can only garner a 4/10 rating as it makes no sense at all. None of the events bear any relationship to the real world of espionage, but instead is more like a parody or comedic version of that world. Who gives a civilian so much say in a CIA operation? The type of decisions made as the plot unfolds indicate that the writers have no clue how government agencies like the CIA or the FBI operate. The fact that there is to be a season 3, change the writers if the show is to be successful!

I can't remember the last time a show surprised me by how much I liked it like The Night Agent did. I didn't know much about it but saw it was the #1 show on Netflix for a while and thought the trailer looked pretty good too. Then after reading the mostly positive reviews from both critics and audiences alike I was sold. It not only met my expectations but surpassed them in every way. It may get slow in some parts but for the most part it's very entertaining. It has a cast of mostly unknowns but Gabriel Basso is definitely the break out star here. His performance in this will definitely lead to more starring roles. I'm so glad this has already been renewed for another season.