Night Agent (2023) and The Recruit (2022) – two modern spy series

 

At times I get asked – very politely, of course – whether I have something against “new stuff”, as most of my blogs are about “old” movies or serials. I have nothing for or against new stuff except that, at times, they seem to recycle “old stuff”. I also have a “problem” with TV Series. If it doesn’t excite me by the second or third episode, I usually give up or binge-watch the series, hoping that ‘all will be well”. I binge-watched both of these serials with entirely different results.

 

It is with some great excitement that I started The Night Agent (2023).

The blurb and the trailer were exciting. A young FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), is on night duty in the White House (yes – THAT White House in Washington DC). He is in a room with just a telephone and some files with codes. He knows that the phone will never ring. It is evident that this is some kind of punishment. And soon the phone rings. The woman at the other end of the phone, Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), gives a series of codes provided by her uncle and aunt, who she thought were in some other business but now discovers were actually FBI agents. The duo are murdered, and Rose is instructed by Peter over the phone on how to save herself and wait for the arrival of the Police. The assassins vanish, Rose is rescued by the Police, and Peter wanders in. Peter shares her information with his superiors in the White House, and sure enough – Deputy Director Hawkins (Robert Patrick), who dislikes Peter intensely – is found dead. Rose is in a hotel where the Secret Service is supposedly protecting her. When he walks in, he sees no protection, and they barely escape the assassins. That’s it – Peter and Rose are now on the run, not knowing whom to trust while being hunted by both the good and bad guys.

 

But then, WHO are the good guys or the bad guys? That will take up the entire ten episodes to find out.

 

If you have watched enough Spy – crime – dramas where the central characters are hunted by both sides, you will soon know which way the plot will twist and who are the bad guys. You know precisely when the hero’s best friend will die, strictly by which episode the hero and the heroine will – ahem – get together ( I had bet 4, but it happened in 6).

The red herrings galore and who will be the fly – or flies – in the ointment. Naturally, before you can say “those nasty ex-military types”, they reveal themselves in Episode 2. Their grand purpose will come through only in the last episode.

 

There is nothing cerebral about this “action-packed thriller”. Car chases. Moles in every corner of every building. Gunfights. Explosions. And among all these, the innocent hero tries his best to prove his innocence while preventing a dastardly plot.

Yawn. You have seen that before, right?

 

If I have not excited you enough, blame it on my poor writing on the topic 😊 . As a confirmed “spy fiction buff”, I watched first with excitement and then for the sake of finishing the series. But that’s just me. Suppose you want a TV series filled with all the predictable tropes and a hero who looks like Jean Claude van Damme with a similar granite expression, or you don’t have anything else to do on a hot summer day. In that case, you can open your favourite drink, sit in front of the TV, and watch it. I did it over three days (my idea of binge-watching!!) and could still predict what would happen.

 

Here’s a pic of lead actor Russo and Jean Clayde van Damme . Maybe they were separated at birth in some fair! Now that would surely make a great plot and series. Russo is also as expressive as van Damme !

By the way, this book-to-TV transformation made the book a bestseller. The way the serial ended, Peter will return with a Season 2. As for me, this is what I think about this predictable series.

 

Its on Netflix

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 3 out of 5

Direction – 3 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

 

Overall: 3.5 out of 5

 

So, with some trepidation, I started The Recruit as it had a similar premise to the night agent – the lead character caught up in happenings way above his pay grade. And I was pleasantly surprised how my predictions turned out to be wrong. Point to ponder: predictability leads to boredom? Especially in a movie or a TV serial?

Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) is a newly hired lawyer who is as far away from the action as anyone can be. The most dangerous thing that can happen to him for making various mistakes in the weekly meeting is a black mark on his file. His superior, the head of all things Legal in the CIA, soon puts him right and punishes him with the worst drudgery – the “lunatic” file. Sifting through every document or threat the CIA has received, from aliens taking over the USA to active operations being exposed. The last is made by a woman Max Meladze (Laura Haddock), who threatens to reveal a series of agents in Russia if she is not released from jail in Arizona.

At first, Owen treats it as a crank call, but on meeting her, he soon finds out that Max is for real. Soon he is caught up in one legal trouble after the other. His on-off relationship with his roommate cum ex-girlfriend Hannah (Fivel Stewart) is not as innocent as it sounds, as she is being manipulated by her mother. He also has to contend with the husband-wife duo who had refused to take the Max Meladze threat seriously and now want back in, promising to bury Owen’s achievements and claiming them as their own. Noah gets Max released and sends her back to Russia, as she has indicated her willingness to continue working for the CIA. In the process, he gets increasingly drawn into the immorality of the CIA’s work and wonders whether he is the good guy or the bad guy.

CIA counterintelligence chief of the 1960s, James Angleton, once called his work in the CIA a wilderness of mirrors. This expression comes to mind while watching the series, which gets absorbing with each succeeding episode as a deal is cut to get Max back to Russia. Again everyone is out to get the duo – one set wants him to succeed, while the others want both dead.

 

Without giving too much away, I can say that I found The Recruit thoroughly absorbing, and it kept me guessing till its shocking end, which promises a Season Two.

This too is on Netflix

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

 

Overall: 4.3 out of 5