The Night Agent, a streaming series on Netflix, is a throwback to early 21st-century serialized action thrillers. The ones with season-long running plots, strategically placed reveals, and innocent characters always on the run. What separates shows like this are the subtle plot points and character decisions in writing. Those can range from bright to dumb, even thoughtful to lazy.
As much as this Shawn Ryan-produced series for Netflix tries to be a version of 24, the result is a bit corny and entertaining. Some decisions are so thoughtless they can be distracting.
Will there be a Season 2 of The Night Agent – renewed or canceled status
Update on March 30, 2023:
It has been confirmed by Netflix that there will be a Season 2 of The Night Agent. This comes as no surprise. The series was one of the top performers in March of 2023.
Update on March 21, 2023:
Netflix has not confirmed whether there will be a second season of The Night Agent.
The Night Agent is based on Matthew Quirk’s standalone novel. This means there are no additional sources to build additional seasons. Well, that never stopped other series from continuing. However, the show is so different from the book it may be hard to keep and retain the built-in audience.
Where Russia plays a significant role in the book, that country is all but gone from the series. Now, the target is replaced with generic, evergreen foreign agents. And not to mention everyone’s favorite film or television villain, alluding to a terrorist from the Middle East.
The golden rule for Hollywood is money. Executives will avoid major European or Asian country controversies in selling their products.
The other issue is the major subplot throughout the series, which is put to bed in the season (or series) finale. This would be a natural transition to a second season. Even a realistic running storyline that could be solved by season three.
And with streaming series, particularly on Netflix, often limited to three seasons as a cost control move, the show has little room to operate beyond more generic/evergreen storytelling to keep the viewer invested.
The Night Agent stars Gabriel Basso, who you may remember from starring in Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy. While I would say he is the most vital part of the series, besides Academy Award-nominated actress Hong Chau (The Whale), there is very little star power in The Night Agent.
However, if the show proves to be a large streaming hit on Netflix’s top ten list for weeks, they could attract more prominent names for subsequent seasons.
While many will find The Night Agent entertaining, this show lacks originality.
This may result in the series losing steam since it offers nothing outside the box than your standard genre spy thriller. My gut feeling tells me the lights will be turned off on The Night Agent unless the budget is so network friendly it could be cost-effective to continue Peter’s story.
Prediction: The Night Agent will join the heap of Netflix shows that were never given a second season.
The Night Agent Season 2 Release Date
A release date for The Night Agent Season 2 has not been set yet. However, barring no production issues and delays, we would fully expect the second season to be released in the first quarter of 2024.
I would love to see a second season. Very rarely do I binge watch a series and very rarely do I stay with crime mystery drama genres, especially political.
Excellent show, I also binged watched this series, great twists and turns that left me in suspense enough to want to watch each next episode. I’m hoping more seasons are considered this was excellent and normally I don’t like spy movies or novels, I think a broad audience would appreciate this exceptional series.
Would love to see more of Night Agent. The sow is fast paced and pure entertainment. Couldn’t stop watching the episodes.
Very fun spy show hope netflix gives it a descent ending and not just quit it.