Three seasons in, the Netflix version of The Night Agent has firmly established itself as one of TV’s best thriller series. Now well removed from the source material, the show has found ways to keep pushing Peter Sutherland forward and keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Season 3 hits the target more often than not—though some fans will have a bone to pick.

The ten-episode season picks up about a year after Season 2 (don’t worry, Netflix has provided a recap) and is directly connected to those events. At the same time, there’s a brand-new conspiracy for Peter Sutherland to look into and it’s no spoiler to say that what starts small becomes massive. The season premiere, “Call Waiting,” spends a little too much time laying out exposition. Viewers will share Peter’s impatience simply because they know there’s a whole other plot just waiting to take off. But once it does, The Night Agent once again moves with its trademark efficiency.

Shawn Ryan and company are working with the same number of episodes as the previous two seasons, so it’s clear that they know how to pace out a story in that time. There’s also another good mix between action set pieces and character moments, and one thing the writers do not get enough credit for is how the players ask questions that need to be asked and talk like actual people. There are very few moments of dramatic license in Season 3, despite all the conspiracy threads that are being woven together.

The greatest strength of The Night Agent, though, remains its cast. As Peter Sutherland has grown into the title of night agent, viewers have also gotten to see Gabriel Basso build his performance every season. On the heels of his great work in Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, Basso plays Peter on the edge this time around. His sense of purpose has been twisted into almost an obsession, and so viewers get to watch a new version of the character whom they can both empathize with and question more than they have before. Ryan and company smartly use the new character of Adam, played by ER and The Beast in Me actor David Lyons, as a contrast to where Peter is now.

But in talking about Peter’s character arc, one must address the elephant in the room. The absence of Luciane Buchanan is absolutely felt, because of how talented an actor she is and how well she meshed with Basso. Her character Rose Larkin does get a mention, and it does make sense why Rose is not part of Season 3’s story. It’s better to not have her for a moment than to do a disservice to Rose, and the way it’s explained, the door is open for her to return in the future.

However, new character Isabel De Leon (portrayed by Lioness star Genesis Rodriguez) will undoubtedly be compared to Rose—and there’s reason to do so. Isabel is positioned very much like Rose, as a civilian who becomes Peter’s primary ally in this latest conspiracy. That makes it hard not to look at Isabel as a Rose substitute. Rodriguez gets more to play with here than she did in Lioness Season 2, but she can’t quite reach the intensity level that Buchanan had either.

The person who makes the most impact outside of Basso is a returning Louis Herthum as Jacob Monroe, also known as “The Broker.” The whole season is about finally getting a shot at Monroe, who is as ruthless as ever. Herthum has mastered the art of the cryptically menacing phone call. But there’s a personal subplot for Monroe that adds another layer to the character, and to the whole season because of how it can also connect to Peter. It’s always great to have a villain who feels like a fully developed character, and between Herthum’s performance and the writing from the Night Agent team, Monroe is actually better in Season 3 than he was in Season 2.

But there’s another wealth of talent here, including Stephen Moyer (The Gifted), Michaela Watkins (Casual), David Zayas (Dexter) and Jennifer Morrison (This Is Us), just to name a few. Amanda Warren and Fola Evans-Akingbola reprise their roles as well. The Night Agent has consistently filled out its world with memorable actors, no matter the size of the part. So as fun as the explosions and fights and shootouts are, there’s also excitement in watching this show from an acting standpoint, which is a rarity when it comes to action thrillers.

The Night Agent Season 3 has every ounce of action that Netflix subscribers will be looking for. And there’s some wonderfully watchable acting throughout, particularly from Herthum and Basso, despite the void created in Buchanan’s absence. The biggest nitpick of the season is the few times when the scripts hew close to the thriller playbook. But even those are forgiveable, because The Night Agent has built up so much credibility that viewers know that there will be a rewarding payoff. Peter Sutherland is rapidly developing into one of TV’s great action heroes, and Season 3 continues to do him justice.

The Night Agent is now streaming on Netflix. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Netflix.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.