This article is taken from the April 2026 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Get five issues for just £5.
Those of us journalists who have written conspiracy thrillers are not jealous of Matthew Quirk. Honestly, not at all. Quirk, a former reporter for the Atlantic magazine, published Night Agent in 2019. Night agents staff the Night Action hotline, deep in the basement of the White House. If and when the telephone rings with news of a must-solve-now crisis, they are ready to roar into action. It was an original idea that has so far inspired three television series of the same name with Quirk as a co-writer, and a fourth has been greenlit.
The White House, and its power politics — like ancient Rome — are always a promising arena for drama. The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin, ran for seven seasons and just over 150 episodes. Night Agent is now at 30.
Each season is ten episodes long, some coming in at a satisfying 55 minutes. In season three, now showing on Netflix, Gabriel Basso once again plays Peter Sutherland, the key night agent. The plot and storylines are more complex than its predecessors, but are neatly weaved together and the writing more ambitious.
There is, of course, a global conspiracy reaching from the White House — right inside the presidential bedroom — to Istanbul, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and New York. It’s a high concept storyline, involving dark money, murder, blackmail and a secret cabal of financiers channelling their illicit gains for nefarious ends.
Fola Evans-Akingbola delivers a sterling performance as Chelsea Arrington, a Secret Service agent charged with protecting the president’s wife — even as she uncovers evidence of the First Lady’s serious misdeeds. Genesis Rodriguez smartly plays Isabel de Leon, a dogged young American journalist on the trail of the conspiracy. Her engaging back-story is steadily revealed as the episodes progress.
The action scenes are exciting and well choreographed. In a surprise move, the show’s creators kill off a key — and sympathetic — character. That’s always a creatively brave gambit, but one which shows confidence.
The relationship between “The Father”, an assassin, and his young son Orion is notably original and creative. His paternal love and care almost humanises a chillingly efficient killing machine. There is still room for improvement. Sutherland is brave, determined and engaging, as all action heroes should be. But three seasons in, it would be good to know more about who he is and where he came from.
Seasons one and two briefly explored the emotional legacy of his father, a traitor who turned double-agent in an attempt to redeem himself. He ended up killed anyway. Digging deeper into his father’s misdeeds could provide a promising story line, opening a window into Sutherland junior’s psyche — especially if his father’s crimes come back to haunt him.
The scene where Isabel, the dogged reporter, blithely announces that she is off to Istanbul and her editor nods agreeably will bring a smile to anyone who has worked in a newsroom and tried to get any foreign trip, let alone one across the Atlantic, approved.
Overall, season three, like its predecessors, is a solid choice for a weekend’s binge-watching — but also raises some sharp questions about the flow of money and power around the world.
The Spanish series Salvador, also showing on Netflix, unfolds in present-day Madrid. It is engrossing, unsettling viewing as it takes the viewer inside the dark and extremely violent subculture of Spanish neo-Nazis. Luis Tosar delivers a first-rate performance as Salvador Aguirre, an ambulance driver. Aguirre is drenched in beer on his way to work by one of the thugs.
At work he teams up with his partner, Marjane, deftly played by Fariba Sheikhan, and the action soon accelerates. Aguirre rescues his estranged daughter Milena from a pre-arranged fight between two groups of hard-core football fans. Aguirre was a terrible father, more interested in the bottle than his family. Which may be why Milena found a new kind of family — the White Souls, a hardcore neo-Nazi group.
Their hatred, fury and hair-trigger violence feel shockingly lifelike. When an Arab man is trapped in a bar, the helpful female owner leads him to the back room, where he believes he is safe. Instead, she ushers in the White Souls and watches, smiling, as they beat him senseless. The cinematography is sharp, vivid and unsparing.
Meanwhile the police are watching the White Souls closely, and one of them has turned informer. Trying to repair his fractured relationship with his daughter, Aguirre is soon drawn into a dark world, where sinister powerbrokers behind the scenes are playing a very dangerous game. Salvador is courageous television, portraying a fictional hidden world of race hatred and high-level corruption — but one that feels disturbingly authentic.
Finally, a brief return to Tehran, the Israeli spy series set in the Iranian capital, where Fariba Sheikhan also appears. I wrote about the programme at length in a previous column. Apple TV only releases an episode a week, but now the third season has finished.
This is, quite simply, some of the best television drama currently broadcast: topical, informed and utterly gripping. Its only flaw is its brevity. Each season is composed of eight episodes, and some are barely 40 minutes long. This is not enough of a very good thing. The finale will have you on the edge of your seat. Don’t miss it.
