This Netflix Spy Thriller Series From SWAT's Co-Creator Just Keeps Getting Better

Over the last few years, the number of lone heroes taking down terrorist threats, drug kingpins, or just flat-out bad guys has increased exponentially. Gone are the days of Kiefer Sutherland crying in a car as the seconds tick away in "24." Instead, television has found heroes in the likes of Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) in "Reacher," John Krasinski's impressive run at "Jack Ryan" that concluded in 2023, and even Charlie Cox reprising his role as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen in "Daredevil: Born Again." In the battle of streaming services, one guy keeping up the fight for Netflix is Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, aka "The Night Agent," and he's only getting better with every mission he dares to take on.

Initially landing on the big red N in 2023, "The Night Agent" was adapted from the book of the same name by Matthew Quirk and by "The Shield" and "S.W.A.T." showrunner, Shawn Ryan. Basso plays Peter Sutherland, a desk-riding FBI agent appointed as the Night Agent, who mans a phone that is only called in a last resort. Would you believe it? The phone starts ringing. From here, our plucky agent is thrown into a dangerous conspiracy involving the niece of two spies who have been assassinated following a recent discovery. So begins a good old-fashioned cat-and-mouse thriller pulled right out of the '90s, where Basso is constantly on edge, hiding in alleys and standing between whoever is after the caller he's now sworn to protect.

With now two seasons under its belt and a third one fresh on the Netflix watchlist, "The Night Agent" has kept a consistent trend of being just sharp enough to keep you on your toes, but remaining as blunt as some of the spy thrillers of yesteryear to have you hooked. Sutherland's trust list shrinks with every season, danger comes with every step, and most importantly, Basso does an exceptional job of making sure this simple, by-the-book hero is a solid one that you consistently root for. Wielding a similar physicality to Ritchson's muscle-bound henchman crusher, "Reacher," but with the developing smarts of Jason Bourne, in another timeline, Basso might well have been the best Bucky Barnes, or indeed the Captain America we never had.

But how does the third shift of "The Night Agent" fare? Well, with season 1 earning impressive reviews and season 2 getting a near-perfect score, it comes as no surprise that season 3 continues to raise the bar, and critics have been quick to notice. JoBlo assured that "third time's a charm" for the show, with Collider praising the latest chapter for "delivering its best storytelling yet." Don't take their word for it, though. With the entire third season now available on Netflix, you can call a night action right now and see just what kind of skills Sutherland has.