Netflix has a surprise hit on their hands with The Night Agent, an action thriller created by Shawn Ryan (The Shield). Gabriel Basso stars as FBI Agent Peter Sutherland, who becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving a mole at the highest levels of the United States government.
The show’s popularity has already led Netflix to order The Night Agent season 2, less than a week after the debut. Yet, Ryan and crew will need some time to write, film and edit another installment. If you’re craving more conspiracies, political machinations, power struggles and dynamic action scenes, you’ll have to find them elsewhere for now.
Here’s a list of shows like The Night Agent that you can watch while you wait for season 2.
24
Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) was the post-9/11 anti-terror cop that had a tight-lock on remotes around America. We first met Bauer as an agent at the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles, where we watched him all 24 (get it) hours of the roughest day of his career in quasi-real-time. Not only was Bauer tasked with bringing down an especially chaotic plot to assassinate U.S. presidential candidate David Palmer, but his family was kidnapped and held as hostage. And in order to save the day for both, Bauer bent everyone's rules.
This was only the beginning for Bauer, though, as audiences followed 24 for nine seasons. While later seasons got deservedly mixed reviews — the law may not always apply to Jack Bauer, but the laws of diminishing returns did — the first season is a practically-perfect run of espionage TV. – Henry T. Casey
Watch on Hulu
The Recruit
Part spy thriller, part workplace dramedy, The Recruit stars Noah Centineo as young CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks whose first week on the job turns into a nightmare. Not only are his co-workers hazing him, he’s put on the hot seat when he finds a threatening letter from a former asset (Laura Haddock). She plans to expose the agency unless they exonerate her of a serious crime, and Owen is tasked with getting her out of prison.
But as he goes about his job, Owen becomes enmeshed in a dangerous game of international power politics that sends him across the globe. Worse, his roommates Hannah (Fivel Stewart) and Terence (Daniel Quincy Annoh) are pulled into the fray. Law school didn’t prepare him for this. - KW
Watch on Netflix
Homeland
CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is doing her best to protect our national security, but her bipolar disorder is constantly undercutting her attempts. When we first meet Carrie, she's struggling with a case in which nobody wants to believe her. Her sources give her reason to believe that a supposed national hero — Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), who was rescued from an al-Qaeda compound — became an enemy agent during captivity.
Homeland stands out not just for Danes' portrayal of Carrie's complex situation, but for how it gives time to the Brody family as they grapple with their own questions following Nicholas' return. Both Danes and Lewis were deservedly credited for strong performances, but it's Mandy Patinkin — who plays Carrie's mentor Saul — that truly helps make Homeland fantastic. - HTC
Watch on Showtime
Bodyguard
Politics, terrorism and PTSD collide in this taut, tense thriller. David Budd (Richard Madden) is an army veteran now serving as a police sergeant in London. After foiling a suicide bomber, he’s promoted as the protection officer for Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes).
Budd hates her viewpoints, which include favoring government monitoring of private data and continued intervention in Afghanistan. Yet, they share a physical chemistry that he can’t ignore. When Montague is targeted by another terrorist attack, Budd uncovers a deeper conspiracy within the government and law enforcement is at play.
Watch on Netflix
Slow Horses
With Gary Oldman as the lead, call this Tinker Tailor Soldier Failed Spy. His Jackson Lamb is an intelligence officer who’s “gone to seed” — washed up, broken down, past his prime. He oversees Slough House, an administrative MI5 purgatory filled with other disgraced agents trying to ignore their lack of prospects and Lamb’s acidic insults.
When the series begins, the newest “slow horse” is River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who has been exiled for botching an operation. A hostage crisis pulls all of them back into active duty, much to the chagrin of the MI5 higher-ups. In season 2, Lamb and company investigate the mystery surrounding the death of a Cold War-era spy, which hints at a conspiracy within the agency itself. - KW
Watch on Apple TV Plus
Jack Ryan
Tom Clancy’s cold warrior has been reinvented for the post-Soviet era in this Amazon Prime series, with John Krasinki (The Office) as the titular analyst-turned-action-hero. Each eight-episode season (there are three seasons total, with a fourth scheduled) follows Ryan as he jets around the globe, working to uncover some grand conspiracy. Think of him as a less-extreme version of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.
Assisting Jack Ryan is Wendell Pierce as James Greer, who brings the same no-b.s. attitude as his character on The Wire. The first season of Jack Ryan is probably the strongest, but the third season recovers a bit from the weaker sophomore outing. - HTC
Watch on Prime Video
Designated Survivor
Kiefer Sutherland has made action thrillers his calling card. After 24 ended, he jumped into Designated Survivor, the term used for the high-ranking official chosen to stay at a secure location during events like the State of the Union. As the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Thomas Kirkman (Sutherland) is far down the line of presidential succession. But when an explosion kills everybody at the Capitol, he’s unexpectedly sworn in as president.
That attack — and finding whoever was responsible — is just the first of many challenges that lay ahead. Kirkman is soon engulfed in dealing with other attacks, elections, international aggressions and troubling allegations of a widespread conspiracy. And like Jack Bauer, he doesn’t have much time to come up with solutions.
Watch on Netflix
Reacher
Based on a series of popular novels (and originally turned into a pair of movies starring Tom Cruise), this series follows Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army military policeman, as he stumbles upon and unravels a web of corruption in Margrave, Georgia. Reacher is the strong, silent type, but underneath that brawn is an intelligence on a part with some of the best detectives around. But when things go south, he puts those muscles to good use, too.
The first season of Reacher was popular enough that Amazon ordered a second season of Reacher, though we don't know when it will air.
Watch on Prime Video
The Night Manager
Night Agent, meet Night Manager. Like Reacher, The Night Manager is based on a novel by the acclaimed writer John le Carré — no disrespect to Lee Child. This six-part miniseries stars Tom Hiddleston (he of Loki fame) as Jonathan Pine, a military officer who now oversees a hotel in Cairo. Because checking people in and out of their rooms doesn't make for good drama, he soon finds himself embroiled in an international conspiracy.
Hiddleston isn't the only famous face in this series; he's accompanied by Hugh Laurie (House), Olivia Colman (The Crown), and Elizabeth Debicki (also of The Crown and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 & 3). It’s no surprise that The Night Manager won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes and two Emmys.
Watch on Prime Video
More from Tom's Guide
