Even with the helpful “PREVIOUSLY ON …” recaps we get before the beginning of each new episode of the slick and preposterous and action-packed and mildly addictive inside-the-Beltway Netflix thriller series “The Night Agent,” there’s a moment in virtually every episode where one of our main characters has to deliver a line that’s really intended for the audience’s benefit.
You know how it goes. Someone will all but look into the camera and say something along the lines of, “This photo clearly establishes a connection between the ambassador and our main suspect!” or, “Only three people in the world know about this, and two of them are in this room. The mole has to be inside the White House!”
Those aren’t direct quotes because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but suffice to say “The Night Agent,” which is created by Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “S.W.A.T.”) and is based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk, is one of those densely packed, twist-filled, often logic-defying shows that is overflowing with so many characters and so many interconnecting subplots that we could use a handy, printable scorecard to keep track of the fast-paced and often violent proceedings. Then again, it’s not as if everyone makes it to the end of the 10-episode first season alive; there are certain characters who are introduced into the mix to provide key plot points, and within five minutes of their appearance we’re thinking, “Oh, you’re dead when you go home tonight.”
Gabriel Basso does fine work in the Jason Bourne/Ethan Hunt role as Peter Sutherland, the son of a disgraced and deceased FBI agent who has followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the bureau. After performing a heroic act on a DC Metro train, Peter is promoted to duties in the White House — but it’s a thankless job as a “night agent,” where he is stationed in the basement, manning a phone that is strictly for calls from agents or their associates whose lives are in danger.
It’s a phone that never rings, until the night it does ring, with a call from Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan in a winning performance), a failed tech entrepreneur who was staying with her aunt and uncle when they were murdered in their home. Rose eludes the killer(s) until Peter makes his way to her, and that’s your launching pad for an ever-expanding tale of assassins and terrorists, corrupt government officials and complex back stories — and of course, a steady diet of car chases, foot chases, shootings, stabbings and hand-to-hand combat, all of it taking place in and around Washington, D.C.
Peter and Rose stay one step ahead of the people who want Rose dead as they try to piece together why someone would kill Rose’s aunt and uncle, who were just a couple of ordinary folks — or were they? The only person Peter trusts: his mentor of sorts, White House Chief of Staff Diane Farr (the wonderful Hong Chau, recently nominated for best supporting actress for “The Whale”), who keeps in contact with Peter even as she’s dealing with a number of seemingly tangential crises, much of it tied to Vice President Redfield (Christopher Shyer), and we should keep an eye on that guy.
The first five episodes of “The Night Agent” have a steady build, as Peter has to go rogue (of course) and we’re introduced to a number of integral players, including D.B. Woodside and Fola Evans-Akingbola as Secret Service agents assigned to the vice president’s college student daughter (Sarah Desjardins), whose rebellious streak could spell trouble, and Phoenix Raei and Eve Harlow as Dale and Ellen, a romantically paired couple of ruthless killers-for-hire who are in a relationship crisis because Ellen thinks they should steal a baby and keep it as their own. (When Dale suggests maybe they could have a child of their own, Ellen says are you kidding? We’re crazy and terrible people, we can’t do that!)
In the second half of the series, the action is ramped up and the plot twists bend credulity close to the breaking point — but we stick with it, and we’re rewarded with some payoffs. (It’s particularly satisfying when Rose springs into action-hero mode, because that’s what cybersecurity whizzes do in stories such as this.)
This looks more like a high-end network show than an edgy streaming series in that the violence isn’t particularly gruesome, and the sex scenes are medium steamy at best. Still, the production design is top-notch, whether there’s a chase scene within the labyrinthine corridors and basement of the White House, or an extended shootout at the obligatory Shipping Container Depot. Unlike some limited series that bank everything on a second season happening, “The Night Agent” wraps up virtually every cliffhanger while leaving things open for more Peter Sutherland adventures. This young agent just might have a promising future.
