LINDA HOLMES, HOST:
An FBI agent working in a lonely, secret office in the basem*nt of the White House gets a phone call. A woman needs help right away. That's the beginning of "The Night Agent," a Netflix spy thriller series full of action and intrigue.
AISHA HARRIS, HOST:
It's created by "The Shield's" Shawn Ryan, and the series follows Peter and Rose, the agent and the tech expert he's protecting, as they try to uncover a conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the government. I'm Aisha Harris.
HOLMES: And I'm Linda Holmes. And today we're talking about "The Night Agent" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HOLMES: It's just the two of us today. Let's get right to it. "The Night Agent" is based on a Matthew Quirk novel and was created by Shawn Ryan. As you may know, he was the showrunner not only of "The Shield" but also of "Terriers." He developed "SWAT" on CBS. So he's been making TV for a long time for broadcast and cable and streaming. In the show, Gabriel Basso plays agent Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent stationed in the basem*nt of the White House, monitoring a phone that basically never rings until one night it does. On the other end is Rose, a young woman who's a computer security expert. She's terrified, and she needs help, and she's afraid someone is after her. She'll explain it all in time.
Peter befriends Rose, and the two of them end up trying to unravel a dangerous conspiracy that may even have its origins somewhere within the White House. Peter has the help of the president's chief of staff, played by the biggest name in the cast, the very busy and recently Oscar-nominated Hong Chau. Over 10 episodes, you get chases, shootouts, secret conversations, twists and turns - everything you would ask and would expect from a show of this kind. It's streaming on Netflix now.
Aisha, I came to the team at POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR saying I really got sucked into this maybe a little bit more than I expected. What did you think of "The Night Agent"?
HARRIS: It's a show that, I think, hits many of the familiar beats. And if you like those familiar beats or are the type of person who enjoys sort of these espionage thriller, White House sort of things, you will find pleasure in it. I think it's perfectly fine. And I don't mean that necessarily as a dig. I think that the performances - people are very, very committed. There are little details I noticed, especially when it came to the action sequences. The Peter character is very much, like - you know, he's ripped. He's - he can do what he needs to do. But also, when he's getting in fights, getting in shootouts or even just being chased or running after someone, he gets hurt. And it's believable in a way. The action will sometimes kind of pause and kind of show, oh, this guy isn't just this perfect specimen who is invincible and nothing's going to happen to him. There's one scene where he falls through glass, like, from a couple stories high, and you feel it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NIGHT AGENT")
GABRIEL BASSO: (As Peter Sutherland) Take my hand. Come on.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING)
LUCIANE BUCHANAN: (As Rose Larkin) Oh, my God. Are you OK?
HARRIS: It hurts. And he's - for the rest of that episode, he is, like, limping. Like, he's not invincible. So I appreciated that there's a little bit of realism applied to especially, like, the action sequences or the parts that are little - might be more hard to believe. But overall, I feel as though this isn't necessarily a show for me, and that's totally fine, you know? And obviously this was created by the same person who did "SWAT." So it has that sort of grayscale, network TV aesthetic to it where it's kind of, like, dour and drab. And some of the acting can lean towards feeling like it's straight out of, like, "Law And Order."
HOLMES: Yeah, a lot of wet, gritty streets.
HARRIS: (Laughter) A lot of wet, gritty streets, some characters who I think are less believable in some scenes where it just kind of feels like I'm watching an episode of "SVU," a show I used to love and now have grown a little weary by. But overall, I think this is a pretty decent watch. It's 10 episodes. I think it's not necessarily elevating the genre, but I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to anyone who really is into this kind of genre.
HOLMES: Yeah. And see; I have this great fondness for what I often refer to as, like, '90s trench coat thrillers, which are very much this kind of story.
HARRIS: Yes.
HOLMES: Your "Pelican Brief," your - you know, some of those Grisham ones, but also, like, you know, some Harrison Ford movies were like this.
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: And, you know, even, like, older - you know, Gene Hackman was always in a lot of movies like this. These kind of, like, people sneaking around D.C., having secret conversations and you never know who you can trust - I love those stories, and I really enjoyed this. I think you're exactly right that if you like this kind of story, it's a really nice execution of exactly this kind of story.
And I think what caught my attention about it was, you know, there is so much going on with streaming television especially right now that is resistant to the idea that it is television, that is resistant to the idea of episodic structure. And Shawn Ryan is still a guy who, I think, believes fundamentally in television and, I think, believes fundamentally in the idea of the episode, not the 10-hour movie. So you get these kind of structured episodes where they have a rise and fall to the conflict because it's an ongoing series. It's meant to have the episode be like, oh, no; I have to watch the next one, which for me was really, really effective. I watched - I kid you not. I watched this entire thing in one day.
HARRIS: Oh, my goodness.
HOLMES: To me, it was just pleasurable in that way. And I had a conversation. I'm going to credit my friend Alan Sepinwall. He's the TV critic at Rolling Stone. And he said there is a kind of a con in the first episode that involves a baby. And at the very end of the episode, there's a shot that shows you the baby. The baby is fine. And one of the things that Alan said was Shawn Ryan has been making television long enough that he understands that you have to provide that shot because people will be wondering, whatever happened to the baby? And you have to tell people the baby is OK.
HARRIS: Yes.
HOLMES: And I - over and over and over, I felt Ryan, as a creator, giving you the information that you're supposed to have at different points in the story, which is part of being a writer of television.
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: And I found myself sinking into kind of the rhythms of this genre, feeling like it was being given to me by someone who respects this kind of thing and is not being like - like you said, it's not really, I'm going to subvert this and make this totally different. I mean, this is like, man and woman running, holding hands. Are they eventually going to make out? Oh, gee, maybe. They're both hot and gorgeous. You know, are you going to eventually find out that there are treacherous people who are bad that aren't, you know, originally seemed to be bad?
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: Of course. That's what this genre is. The other thing I will say that was so interesting - I actually followed up with Shawn Ryan to verify that they did not shoot any of this in D.C. because it really looks like D.C.
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: It did a really good job. And I did appreciate the fact that it has a sense of place that is completely faked. It's all, I think, Vancouver or something like that. It's one of those Canadian cities, but it feels like D.C., and I appreciated that. To me, this is, like - yeah. This is D.C. popcorn thriller, and I was totally into it.
HARRIS: Yeah, well, that's what I mean by, like, the sort of dour grayscale. I'm sorry, but D.C. - especially if you're there when it's overcast, it's just kind of gloomy. And it feels, for me, at least, suffocating in many ways. And I got that sense from this show. Like, you're supposed to feel...
HOLMES: Yeah. It's the gritty reality of D.C.
HARRIS: It's gritty reality D.C.
HOLMES: (Laughter).
HARRIS: I also really enjoy the '90s espionage thrillers. And I think the best of them are the ones that either are trying to subvert or say something a little bit different about our government and how it works, or are just completely bat crazy. Like, what is going on here? Like "Air Force One" - it's kind of great. Like, I enjoy that movie very much. And I feel as though this show kind of toes the line between the two and doesn't really quite get to the point where it feels out of this world, like it's being very weird, "Scandal"-like. And this show doesn't feel over-the-top and weird. I also feel as though we kind of know from the very beginning who is bad - not to what degree they are bad, but the show tries to fake you out a few times. And it's just like, no, come on, we know (laughter).
HOLMES: But I think that's part of it. Like, I think...
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...In a way, you're sort of supposed to be watching for a person - for, like, various people in these kinds of stories to turn bad.
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: You're trying to be like, ooh, I think that person's probably bad. And I will give you the whole thing about, like, these kinds of things work best when they're either very straightly dramatic, like an Alan Pakula movie or something like that, or they are, as you delicately said, bat crazy. You've got to admit, Aisha, the very end of this is pretty bat crazy.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes, it is (laughter).
HOLMES: If you describe to someone, and then he does this, and then he does this, and then he does this, they'll be like, hmm (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: That's true.
HOLMES: And I will say, you know, I mentioned before, this is sort of like man and woman running and all that stuff. And it's true that he's the FBI agent, and she's the endangered person. But I did appreciate the fact that she's the computer expert. So she's not just sort of, like, there to be protected. She does contribute to the, you know, the actual solving of all the thriller elements and stuff like that. Like, he needs her to solve this also...
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...Despite the fact that there is some pretty familiar gender stuff around some of their interactions.
HARRIS: Yeah. And I also think that she's kind of the viewer's ongoing skeptic of government and what they're doing in general because she has a reason to be. Her aunt and uncle have been murdered, and she needs to figure out what happened. And I think that it's important to have that voice in this show because at the end of the day, all of these sort of White House-based series, even though there's always some corruption, there's always some bad people - I mean, it's very similar to police procedurals. Like, at the end of the day, there's still this tint of jingoism that occurs and is bubbling beneath the surface, or sometimes it's very, very loud and open. Even though Peter has every reason to be upset with, like, most of the people in the White House, he's still committed to his country and still committed to fighting for it...
HOLMES: Right.
HARRIS: ...Which is, like, a tricky thing to balance. And I have my feelings about it. I don't love it. But at the end of the day, it's light-hearted enough of a genre to - or at least the way it's executed here, for me to at least push those feelings to the side a bit and also side with her character and be like, at least we have you. Like, you are the one who's...
HOLMES: Yeah.
HARRIS: ...Every step of the way, I don't trust this person. I don't trust this person. And Peter's like, oh, but I don't know, Rose. Like, we might be fine. She's like, no.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NIGHT AGENT")
BUCHANAN: (As Rose Larkin) I mean, why would someone in the White House stage a terror attack?
BASSO: (As Peter Sutherland) There's no excuse for it. If we find proof that Hawkins or somebody else is in on it, motive doesn't matter.
BUCHANAN: (As Rose Larkin) I disagree. The why is everything.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly. And I will say one other thing, which is I get the feeling that the end of this is meant to set up more "Night Agent."
HARRIS: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
HOLMES: And I hope that more "Night Agent" would also involve Rose and would not just involve Peter on some new spy adventure because I think I mostly like the dynamic between the two of them. And I'm not sure that I'm up for, like, Peter randomly goes and is a spy...
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...In more places doing more things.
HARRIS: Agree.
HOLMES: But they definitely want to make more. I'll be interested to see how people respond to this because I think, you know, Netflix is such a weird place right now in that they are canceling a lot of things. And I had a conversation - I did an interview with Shawn Ryan years and years and years ago. And one of the things he talked about was the difficulty of the, like, 22-, 23-episode season and how invariably it sags, like, around in the third quarter of, like, a 22- or 23-episode season, which I think is absolutely true. And the more that drama on TV kind of got a little more serious and a little more involved, it was like, yeah, OK, but if you're making 23, 24, it's going to have that, like, slow part.
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: And it's interesting to me to see him kind of lean into this 10-episode - which, obviously, you know, "The Shield" had shorter seasons also, so it's nothing new - but, like, to see him kind of doing a show that feels like it could be a network show but it has a streaming-style season and presentation in that they're dropping it all at once.
HARRIS: Yeah. I imagine, you know, "Jack Ryan," that Amazon series, is going on, like, three seasons or there have been three seasons. So...
HOLMES: Yeah. I always forget that exists.
HARRIS: So do I. But there's an audience for it, I guess.
HOLMES: Yeah.
HARRIS: So I would not be surprised if we see more "Night Agent" but hopefully "Night Agent Plus Rose."
HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. And I will say one final thing, which is if you start to watch this show, you're going to say, I've seen this kid before, and I can't remember where I've seen this kid before...
HARRIS: Oh, yeah.
HOLMES: ...Who plays Peter. Where have I seen this kid before? Where I seen this kid before? He played J.D. Vance in "Hillbilly Elegy."
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: So that is my gift to you, that if you start watching it - I did like him way better in this...
HARRIS: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...Than in that. But, you know, he's an appealing, handsome young man.
HARRIS: Yeah, that's one movie I wish I had forgotten existed.
HOLMES: Yeah. Well, we want to know what you think about "The Night Agent." Find us at facebook.com/pchh. That brings us to the end of our show. Aisha Harris, thanks so much for being here. You are my night agent always.
HARRIS: Reporting for duty. Thank you.
HOLMES: Absolutely. We want to take a moment also to thank our POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR Plus subscribers. We appreciate you so much for showing your support of NPR. If you haven't signed up yet, you want to show your support and you'd like to listen to this show without any sponsor breaks, head over to plus.npr.org/happyhour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode is produced by Candice Lim and Hafsa Fathima and edited by Jessica Reedy. And Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, your night agent, and we'll see you all tomorrow.
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