The Night Agent is a political thriller, based on Matthew Quirk’s 2012 political thriller of the same name, about a night agent who gets caught up in some political thrills. What’s a night agent, I hear you ask? Well, in this case, he is an FBI agent called Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who saves a bunch of ordinary joes from a bomb on a subway train. For some reason, he is put on desk duties in the basement of the White House, doing admin while he waits by a helpline phone that undercover operatives can call to let the powers-that-be know they are in trouble.
But that darn phone never rings. Peter does his admin conscientiously, but you know that in his heart of hearts he would like some thrills – maybe even of a political nature.
As luck would have it, across town, a (professional and romantic) couple of undercover operatives are in trouble. Just before they have to fight for their lives – but just after we hear them whispering about a possible Russian mole in the White House – they dispatch their niece Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) to a phone down the street to call … yes. The phone! The phone!
While our undercover lovers are being killed, the president’s chief-of-staff, Diane Farr (Hong Chau), puts Peter in charge of keeping Rose safe. “If she called your number, this is more important than you can imagine,” she says. “I trust you completely.”
I have many questions about this (and more about why they chose to put a 43-year-old actor in such a cheap grey wig, like the Witch of Endor in a business suit), but there is no time to ask, because more plot is happening! The script is finding its feet as we go!
This includes two car chases, much shooting, some running out of bullets, a safe house, a gun safe in a coffee table, a villain with a ring bearing the crest of the Royal House of Yugoslavia that Peter suspects may be a clue, villains without any rings, and a particularly ruthless Bonnie and Clyde couple, possibly of Russian extraction. This is all before Rose tells Peter that Aunt and Uncle Spy were worried there was a mole in the White House. Now, they can trust no one and have to go rogue.
It is propulsive, slicker-than-slick fun, with every hairpin turn perfectly negotiated. There are fine performances – especially from Basso, who is getting two or three notes out of what could easily have been a one-note part. It gives you that warm feeling you get when you come across something a little bit better than it needs to be. You could not ask for more out of your adaptation of a bestselling political thriller about a night agent. I feel as if I am about one and a half measures of plot away from losing the thread entirely, but I feel like that a lot.
The showrunner is Shawn Ryan, most recently responsible for the show S.W.A.T., but who was also behind one of the cleverest, most underrated police series of recent decades. The Shield was an extraordinary creation – brilliant long and short narrative arcs examining the corruption of the system and the soul, excellent performances – not just from the mainstays such as Michael Chiklis, Jay Karnes and Walton Goggins, but also from guest stars such as Forest Whitaker, who was unforgettable – and characters of a complexity to rival anything in The Wire.
I wonder how much Ryan longs to get his teeth into something like that again? You couldn’t blame him if he was still, 15 years on, recovering from seven seasons of interrogating all the ways men can brutalise each other. And their cats. (If you know, you know. Goddamn, Dutch …)
Anyway, The Night Agent is set fair to deliver a lot of bang for your 10-episode buck. I think the mole is hiding under Diane’s wig. Also, now that I have realised whom Basso reminds me of (a finer-featured Richard Madden in Bodyguard), I can hopefully concentrate a bit better and not lose the thread of things until maybe three or even four episodes in. I look forward to finding out.
• This article was amended on 23 March 2023 to correct the first name of actor Walton Goggins.
The Night Agent is on Netflix
