The biggest show on Netflix is back. Yes, “The Night Agent” season 2 just dropped in its entirety on the streaming service and in case you're wondering, it's just as good as the first season.
Granted, it's not better than the first season. Some things are an improvement, including some memorable acting performances from this season's new supporting cast members. But the far-reaching conspiracy this season is a bit more convoluted than season 1's relatively focused story.
Having watched the full season, I'm here to tell you that this spy thriller is worth binge-watching despite its flaws. It's okay that "The Night Agent" season 2 is more of a B-movie caliber action series than a prestige drama. Frankly, it makes it more bingable.
Mild spoilers for "The Night Agent" season 2 follow
What is 'The Night Agent' season 2 about?
"The Night Agent" season 2 picks up 10 months after the events of the first season. Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) is now a Night Agent in Bangkok tailing a rogue CIA agent named Warren Stocker (Teddy Sears), who is believed to have stolen documents from the CIA and is looking to sell them to a mysterious buyer.
Unfortunately, things go wrong for Peter and his partner Alice (Brittany Snow). The mission is compromised and Peter goes AWOL to try and bring in Warren but instead finds Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), who has managed to use tracking software to track him to New York. Once together, they are thrown into a conspiracy with a vast web, bringing in shadowy information brokers, war criminals and even the Iranian government and thousands of lives could be lost if Peter, Rose and Night Action boss Catherine (Amanda Warren) cannot stop things in time.
'The Night Agent' season 2 excels at being enjoyable rather than great
Much like season 1, there are some things that season 2 gets right. While the script sometimes is flawed, and frankly there are a few too many times that something magically comes to rescue our heroes, the conspiracy that the story is based around is a compelling one.
It's a bit more convoluted this season. Season 1's conspiracy about an attempt to kill a terrorist leader turned politician and later to eliminate the president who decided to work with him is tight and focused in comparison. This season, what starts as a conspiracy about a rogue CIA agent transforms into three distinct storylines that take some time to come together. One of these storylines is about a junior assistant at the Iranian embassy named Noor (Arienne Mandi), who is trying to gain asylum for her family in the U.S. and it honestly doesn't work for me. By the end of the third episode, you understand how she ties into the main story, but I felt that her storyline probably could have been trimmed or even removed and the show's narrative would have felt a bit tighter for it. The multiple storylines do cause some pacing issues, though Noor's inclusion in the show does produce an incredible dramatic sequence in episode 5, which is arguably the best of the season.
Markus is aggressive, ultrapatriotic and loyal to his uncle, and as the season goes on he becomes beautifully unhinged. There's even one scene towards the end of the season where he channels his inner Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction and starts quoting Bible verses as he executes someone. It's a performance that far exceeds anything we got from the first season, and is probably my favorite part of season 2.
While the story and pacing aren't quite as good as season 1, there are two ways that this season does improve upon the first. For starters, the more I watched the show, the more I realized its score might be bordering on iconic thanks to its dark brooding notes and the use of strings to build tension.
But more importantly, the acting in this season has improved over the first, primarily due to a few performances from the supporting cast. In particular, Michael Malarkey kills it (no pun intended) as Markus, cousin to Tomás Bala (Rob Heaps), who is the scion of the Bala family that ruled a fictional Eastern European country before its patriarch Viktor Bala was arrested for war crimes. Markus is aggressive, ultrapatriotic and loyal to his uncle, and as the season goes on he becomes beautifully unhinged. There's even one scene towards the end of the season where he channels his inner Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction and starts quoting Bible verses as he executes someone. It's a performance that far exceeds anything we got from the first season, and is probably my favorite part of season 2.
Again, this isn't prestige TV. As good as Michael Malarkey's performance is, it's not enough to elevate "The Night Agent" into the pantheon of our current golden age of spy thrillers. But it's extremely bingeable, and I definitely never felt compelled to stop watching at any point during season 2.
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