10 Shows Like The Night Agent To Watch While Waiting For Season 2

Season 2 of The Night Agent arrived in January 2025, and fans awaiting the follow-up to the successful first season can finally binge-watch the second outing of the show on Netflix. The Night Agent is based on the Matthew Quirk novel of the same name and follows Peter Sutherland, a telephone operator at the White House. Peter gets a phone call that places him in the middle of a big government conspiracy, where he is forced to help unveil a mole at the highest levels of the United States government.

Upon its release on Netflix, The Night Agent was an instant hit with audiences. It was among the most popular series of 2023 on the streaming service despite less than extraordinary reviews from critics. The Night Agent's storyline is engaging and quickly paced, inviting a wide range of audiences to enjoy the show. Season 1 is full of action, mystery, and drama, and a few similar series are worth checking out for fans who fell in love with the show and have just finished watching The Night Agent's second season.

10 Scandal (2012-2018)

A Professional Fixer For The White House

Scandal is another political series that deals with corruption in the White House and its highest offices. However, there is a different slant here. In The Night Agent, Peter is asked to help uncover the mole in the White House and the corruption that results from it. However, in Scandal,Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is part of a crisis management firm that works to help cover up scandals and send the public's attention away from them and onto other things.

Both show there are high levels of corruption in politics, and they deal with it in different ways. Both Olivia and Peter are sent into dark and dangerous situations, with different missions. If they existed in the same world. they would be working against each other, with Richard trying to uncover the scandals and expose them while Olivia fights to keep them covered up. Both have the moral obligation to end them, but how they deal with it makes them polar opposites. However, fans of political scandals in TV shows will find a lot to love in both shows.

9 Reacher (2022-Present)

A Military Veteran Helps Save The Innocent

Reacher is based on the book series by Lee Child. It follows Jack Reacher, who investigates local murders while living a nomadic existence. Like The Night Agent, Reacher finds its lead character caught up in a government conspiracy and digging to uncover the notable figures involved. Due to Reacher's former experience as a military police officer, he is primarily equipped with combat skills, which he uses against others when necessary.

This resulted in well-executed action sequences so popular that Prime Video renewed the show for more seasons, each based on a different book in Lee Child's novel series. Unlike Peter Sutherland in The Night Agent, Jack Reacher is a hulking and extremely powerful man who can defeat a room of bad guys with brute strength. This differs from Peter's more caustic approach since he is a regular (yet trained) man who has to find a way to survive dangerous situations with skillful planning.

8 The Night Manager (2016)

A Former British Soldier Infiltrates An Arms Dealer's Organization

The Night Manager aired its first season on Prime Video and is developing a second and third season. It has received much praise from audiences and critics. The series follows Jonathan, a former British soldier, working as the night manager of a hotel. Like The Night Agent, Jonathan is thrust into action and crime after years of uneventful work. In The Night Agent, Peter sits by the phone awaiting an important call, and in The Night Manager, Jonathan is persuaded to help bring down an arms dealer after having left risky jobs in his past.

The cast is a little more prominent in The Night Manager, with Tom Hiddleston (Loki in the MCU) as Jonathan Pine and Hugh Laurie (House) as the arms dealer he is sent in to help bring down. The Night Manager was also extremely successful, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, including wins for Hiddleston, Laurie, and Olivia Colman (The Favourite).

7 Lupin (2021-Present)

A Gentleman Thief Seeks Revenge For His Father's Death

Lupin is a mystery thriller that follows Assane Diop in his conning of the wealthy Pellegrini family after his father's death. The series has received acclaim over the years and was the most-watched, non-English series on Netflix at the time of its release. Omar Sy's portrayal of Assane Diop is particularly praised by critics. While some mystery shows fail to engage audiences with an unexpected plot, there's no shortage of mystery in Lupin.

Both shows have a central character who has a personal vendetta and has to use their intelligence and cunning to work their way through the conspiracies to achieve justice.

The twists and additional puzzle pieces only continue to grow with each part of the series, including the final episode of Lupin's season 3. While Lupin focuses on a criminal seeking revenge and The Night Agent is about a former soldier sent in to stop a villain, they still share some similarities. Both shows have a central character who has a personal vendetta and has to use their intelligence and cunning to work their way through the conspiracies to achieve justice.

6 Slow Horses (2022-Present)

British Intelligence Agents Working At The Lowest Level Of MI5

Slow Horses follows M15 agents who've been downgraded due to their lack of excellent work in the agency. Similar to the work experience of Peter in The Night Agent, the M15 agents' tasks are often lackluster and mundane. That is until they are tasked with protecting England from danger. Differing from other thriller shows, Slow Horses doesn't rely heavily on its action sequences, using them at realistic times, and instead, focuses on its characters.

The ensemble cast is full of performances that neatly balance the drama and comedy needed for a series about unconventional agents. The biggest difference between Slow Horses and The Night Agent is that Show Horses follows a team and their leader (Gary Oldman), while The Night Agent puts much of the focus solely on the one man fighting to uncover the truth, but both shows are perfect for fans of espionage tales and the idea that the government is not always innocent of crimes against its people.

5 Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018-2023)

The Story Of Jack Ryan Advancing Up The Ranks

There have been many portrayals over the years, but John Krasinski's version of Jack Ryan is often noted as the best. This version of the character has more depth than previous ones due to the television series format, as it gives room for proper development. Krasinski stars in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, a series about a CIA analyst who gets an upgrade as a field agent after discovering suspicious bank activity.

The series is thrilling and includes compelling action sequences, with each season giving Jack a new government conspiracy or crime operation to untangle. Of course, the biggest difference is that Jack Ryan has his own team that is helping him along the way, whereas The Night Agent sees the hero as a lone hero fighting against a seemingly unbeatable obstacle. However, both shows have men who have mostly peaceful jobs being thrust into dangerous situations and having to figure out how to come out of it alive.

4 Citadel (2023-Present)

Two Global Spies Fight To Keep The World Safe

Citadel follows two former spies, Mason and Nadia, as they piece their past back together to stop a rival agency, Manticore, from taking over the world. The season finale left audiences with a shocking ending and many questions for Citadel's impending second season. Many thriller series tend to find themselves spending too much time on explanations or backstories, but Citadel, with only six episodes out so far, is paced quickly.

In addition, the series includes many thrilling action sequences, helped out by its large budget, which makes Citadel one of the most expensive shows of all time. Despite that, it picked up a second season renewal with Joe Russo tapped to develop every episode. The biggest difference here is that this series is a globetrotting adventure with the spies traveling all over the planet, whereas The Night Agent sticks to a more limited area. However, both are about corruption in government agencies.

3 Alias (2001-2006)

Jennifer Garner As A CIA Double Agent

Alias is about Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) who is a CIA double agent attempting to conceal her work from loved ones. Sydney's work is often dangerous as much of it includes secretive operations, such as the recovery of missing artifacts created by a famous Renaissance figure. Although some reviews of the series say it started to run out of steam by the end, Alias' five seasons provided an engaging plot, impressive action sequences, and a performance by Garner that was continuously praised by critics.

Garner earned a Golden Globe and SAG award for her performance in a television drama series. While The Night Agent is about a man pushed into action from a relatively safe job as a phone operator, Alias has the viewers follow a woman specially trained as a CIA agent and superspy. However, both shows share the same traits as having the heroes have to cover up what they are doing to keep the people around them safe, while never knowing themselves who they can and can't trust.

2 The Americans (2013-2018)

Russian Sleeper Agents In The United States

The Americans is a spy drama set in the '80s and follows two KGB intelligence officers disguising themselves as an American couple. The performances and writing earned the acclaimed series numerous nominations and wins during its run, including two Peabody Awards. The Americanswonderfully balances the focus of the lead couples' relationship and the action sequences expected of a spy series.

Matthew Rhys won a Primetime Emmy for his role as Philip Jennings in The Americans' sixth and final season (2018).

The stakes set in each season never feel unrealistic or cheap, and it all pays off in a series finale that is noted as being one of the best series finales of the 2010s. Of course, the biggest change here is that The Americans have the viewers following the Russian sleeper agents, who are technically the villains of the series, but they are painted as the protagonists. WIth that in mind, both The Americans and The Night Agent are about undercover agents and political conspiracies, and both have great writing and storytelling.

1 Bodyguard (2018)

A Former War Veteran Works As A Bodyguard To A Controversial Political Figure

Another Netflix series to watch while waiting for season 2 of The Night Agent is Bodyguard, which follows David Budd, a police sergeant and veteran with PTSD. The series begins to set itself apart from others by not only dealing with outside threats such as government surveillance and terrorism, but also having its lead character struggling with PTSD. However, Bodyguard's first season is only six episodes long, therefore the series successfully balances heavier themes with an engaging pace and believable tension.

These were both tales of men fighting against their own beliefs to do what is best for the nation they have dedicated themselves to serve.

The series was nominated for various awards and earned Richard Madden his first Golden Globe. The situation that brought David into his role as a bodyguard for a politician whose politics he despises is similar to how Peter was sucked into looking into the politics behind many people working in the White House, knowing that there was something wrong there as well. These were both tales of men fighting against their own beliefs to do what is best for the nation they have dedicated themselves to serve.

trendglee