“My orders are to protect you with my life,” vows earnest FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) to terrified murder witness Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan, above, with Basso) before they go on the run from assassins in this political thriller. Faster than you can count to Three Days of the Condor, she’s got his back too.
The pair are thrown together in the series’ gripping premiere. Ambitious Peter works in the White House basement answering a top-secret emergency line for spies that never rings… until panicked cyber-technologist Rose calls. She’d been given the number by her aunt and uncle during a home invasion. Peter’s guidance in Rose’s ear helps her survive. Her relatives do not — and she’s shocked to learn they were undercover operatives.
“Peter’s more an old-school rule follower, Rose is a new-tech rule breaker,” says executive producer Shawn Ryan, master of character-driven actioners such as The Shield and S.W.A.T. “They have to learn to be more like each other.shawn”
The duo begin to unwind a government conspiracy and end up fighting to stop a mass-casualty attack. In the action sequences Ryan realized he’d struck gold casting Basso.
“He almost became a Navy SEAL, until he got a torn labrum,” he shares. “I joked with him, ‘Peter’s not as badass as you are in real life.’”
The Night Agent also stars Hong Chau (fresh off of her Oscar nomination for The Whale), Robert Patrick, Sarah Desjardins, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Eve Harlow, Enrique Murciano, Phoenix Raei, and DB Woodside.
Ryan is creator and showrunner in addition to executive producing alongside Seth Gordon and Marney Hochman with MiddKid Productions; Julia Gunn with Exhibit A; Jamie Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and Nicole Tossou with Project X; and David Beaubaire with Sunset Lane Media. Gordon, Guy Ferland, Ramaa Mosley, Adam Arkin, and Millicent Shelton are directors. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television Studios.
The Night Agent is based on the novel by Matthew Quirk.
The Night Agent, Series Premiere, Thursday, March 23, Netflix
