The Night Agent

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.

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.

Unfortunately the momentum of the original show was lost on season 2. Poorly written female roles really made this tough to watch. Actors had little to no depth.

The logic and trade craft for supposed operators is highly questionable in the second season. Always going into situations that can be avoided or dealt with more professionally.

The cast is very talented but they were limited here by the script. Wish it wasn't so but I definitely found myself doing secondary tasks while watching. Didn't keep me glued to it like season one. I say watch them both and you be the judge as I would any show.

The thing that made season 1 good was that the story and the action kept the story moving along. It was intriguing, interesting and compelling. I watched the first season in 2 or 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Season 2 is the exact opposite. Lots of pointless dialogue that doesn't move the story along. Lots of repeated conversations. Too many characters that have no purpose. Lots of talking. Little action. I am 4 episodes in and feel like I am now trying to get through this. Forcing myself to stick with it. Pretty much everything that made the first season good is missing in the second season.