El agente nocturno

I have to say that I came away impressed with The Night Agent. I actually liked the first season so much that I couldn't stop watching and binged the entire season over the course of a weekend. Then the second season came out and I was hoping for more of the same. While I thought the second season was worth watching it wasn't nearly as good the first. The series is about a rookie FBI agent (Gabriel Basso) who gets assigned to the basement of the White House to guard a phone that never rings. Until one night it does. What follows is an action packed conspiracy thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the series. I know this series has been killing it on Netflix as both seasons did very well and among their most watched shows ever. I saw they plan on doing a third season and I can't wait to see where this show goes.

Season 1 was pretty good and the inexperience of Rose and Peter was believable. They got the problem solved but mostly got lucky. Season 2 is unbelievably stupid. Peter is a trained agent who allows Rose to meddle in a case. There's never any backup and whenever there's a decision to be made it's made based on emotion. It's Hollywood so I'm sure they are going to stumble around and get lucky but their performance in the first half of the season would indicate a serious lack of what it takes to be a "Night Agent". I hate not knowing how things end so I'll watch until the end but I won't start a season 3.

A lot of nonsensical plot holes, disjointed and formless story lines thrown together in a blender. Clearly not based on a book like season 1 but rather a tv writer effort to leverage the original. I kept watching in spite of it. It's not terrible but there are much better other spy thriller shows. Some notable standouts for acting were Javar and Solomon and Peter. The women in this series to me were portrayed as weak, emotional and frail. Too stereotypical. Everytime an obvious solution was presented they meandered down a new weird fork in the road. Watching this required a lot of patience but I didn't have anything else to do so...

The thing that made season 1 good was that the story and the action kept the story moving along. It was intriguing, interesting and compelling. I watched the first season in 2 or 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Season 2 is the exact opposite. Lots of pointless dialogue that doesn't move the story along. Lots of repeated conversations. Too many characters that have no purpose. Lots of talking. Little action. I am 4 episodes in and feel like I am now trying to get through this. Forcing myself to stick with it. Pretty much everything that made the first season good is missing in the second season.

Season 1 was enjoyable enough. Season 2, however, descends into stupidity, particularly after episode 7. It's plagued by poor, often immoral decisions, inconsistent character development, illogical plans, and a distinct lack of realism and plausibility. The characters' actions often feel amateurish, even childish at times. The acting is uneven, with some particularly weak performances (notably Rose, Chelsea, and Dr. Wilfred). Furthermore, the dialogue frequently comes across as pretentious, often eliciting laughter or annoyance rather than the intended effect.

While the season does offer some well-executed action sequences and a few surprising plot twists, and a few times evokes the feel of Homeland, as the season progressed my only desire was for it to end.

Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 4/10.