Review of The Night Agent

This Netflix original—very reminiscent of "24"—won't be nominated for any Emmys, but packs in plenty of suspense as the company waits to see if they can provide any reason for subscribers to stay after Stranger Things 5.

Acting, direction, dialogue are aweful. Stilted, halting line reads. Filled with cliche. Hong Chau, as White House Chief-of-Staff Diane Farr, comes off by far the worst. Is she a decent actress? Perhaps, but if she is, then the performances rendered in this series' 10 episodes speak very poorly of the direction. The main character of Peter Sutherland (of course a reference to "24") is ably played by Gabriel Basso: though he is given little to work with, he achieves a screen presence and charisma crucial to the series.

A diverse cast of five directors tackle two episodes each; a few with lengthy, but not very promising resumés (Adam Arkin being the arguable exception). Standard dramatic scenes often use two or three visual approaches in the same scene. Examples being a very composed, formalist shot punched into a back-and-forth dialog scene with kinetic camera work; or two different over-the-shoulder shots from the same perspective but with slightly different angles, etc.

Still, many of the crucial action or stunt sequences (mainly shoot outs) are handled pretty well. While the plot aspects dealing with national security details are a tough sell,"Night Agent" manages to be compelling as the conspiracy plot (inherited from a novel by Matthew Quirk) unravels. The is the one saving grace for the series—actually, one of two: the faces of the franchise, Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan, are likeable leads and are suitable for much better material.