The Night Agent: Little Secrets of the Popular Netflix Spy Series

Less than a week after it aired on March 23, Netflix has already renewed its subscription. Night agent for season 2. With over 168 million views in four days, it must be said that the American spy series just signed the third best start of all time on the platform, second only to Wednesday AND Dahmer.

Believe it or not, a good deal almost never ended. When seasoned showrunner Sean Ryan (Shield, Special Forces) arrives at the streaming giant in February 2021, he is sure he has his new hit. His enthusiasm is quickly quenched by a series of remarks that will push him to revise his project… for the better, given the record audience.

Main character Night agent, this is Peter Sutherland, a young FBI agent who excels at thwarting a terrorist’s plans on the Washington subway. Thanks to him, it remains only to regret one victim, and the culprit escapes. Very quickly, the national hero becomes the target of conspiratorial movements who discover that his father, who himself was a spy, was suspected of treason before his death in a car accident. True, it’s strange.

A year later, this brave Peter went to work at the White House, where Diane Farr, chief of staff, entrusted him with a job as thankless as it was necessary: ​​listening at night to a secret phone reserved for United States security emergencies. United. As expected in our sofa sounds from the first episode. And on the other end of the line is Rose Larkin, a young woman in danger who only asks to be rescued.

This exciting pitch was linked to a novel by Matthew Quirk, a journalist who specializes in organized crime. Released in 2019, it quickly became a bestseller, halfway between Tom Clancy and Harlan Coben. A year later, it ends up in the hands of Sean Ryan, who swallows it in a matter of hours. However, from the outset, he felt that the plot linking Peter, Rose, and Diane Farr would be a bit of a stretch for a television series that should run for several hours.

At the time, this series veteran was already working on a project around Maddie Redfield, the daughter of a somewhat dubious VP and the duo of agents responsible for protecting her. With the blessing of Matthew Quirk, he mixes his original idea with the plot of the novel. And he makes a major change: while Peter and Rose are initially hunted by a single Russian assassin, the latter is replaced by a pair, Dale and Maddie, who are as ruthless as they are lovers.

With these three parallel intrigues, Sean Ryan keeps the material of ten episodes blown to the limit. But for Netflix, it’s stuck. Jeannie Howe, director of the original series, felt the pilot was too confusing. While he’s still in talks with other TV hosts, the showrunner is writing a new special in which Maddie Redfield and the agents who protect her only appear in the third episode. And this time, Netflix says banco.

On screen, the result can give the impression that a whole new series has just begun before our eyes. The upside is that the pilot and episode two really develop the couple that Peter and Rose formed. And get attached to him for real thanks to the performances of actors Gabriel Basso and Lucien Buchanan, with a special mention of the brilliant Hong Chau in the controversial role of Diane Farr.

The first is undoubtedly a revelation Night agent. Former child actor Super 8 JJ Abrams and series Big CHe gained inches and muscles. But not only. Strong but not indestructible, with a touch of melancholy in his eyes and always attentive to these ladies, he renews the genre in a universe where there is a lot of macho. Let’s hope they don’t gain too much confidence by the second season.