For all of the things Amazon does as a streaming platform that I find little meaning to, I’ve always thought the service did a great job adapting plane or beach novels. for TV, bringing works of the fast-moving genre to the intended audience. to devour them. Some (Bosch) was fine, some (approach) is completely true to the spirit of the original material, and even the lousy content is at least streamed to their target audience (please stop messaging me directly, Terminal list fan). They all sound like logical plays to a company that, in its spare time, is known to sell books next door.
Netflix doesn’t have a business model like it, but an adaptation of Shawn Ryan’s Matthew Quirk novel shadow agent still like an Amazon-style show. It’s less textured and more grounded Bosch and its protagonist isn’t immediately different like Jack Reacher, but it’s better Terminal list, while mixing many elements of patriotism and revenge alike. Generally, shadow agent well paced, reasonably entertaining (especially in the second half) and features Gabriel Basso’s effective mid-turn. It may feel a bit thin when it comes to main mystery and world building politics, but it comfortably sets itself up for an ongoing series following this 10-episode introduction.
shadow agent
Key point
Soft and fast movement, like an airplane book.
Basso, who clearly hasn’t missed a day of exercise since he performed as a teenager in things like super 8, plays Peter Sutherland, a fledgling FBI agent who thwarts a major subway bombing in the tense opening scene. Peter was supposed to be a hero, but the lack of answers surrounding the bombing tarnished his name, as well as the identity of his father, a notorious traitor.
A year later, Peter is working undercover and completely stuck in a windowless office of the White House, standing in front of a mysterious phone that never rings. Until it does. On the other end of the phone is Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), a disgraced former cybersecurity CEO who received a highly secure phone number from her aunt and uncle before they were murdered by a pair of assassins. villains (Phoenix Raei and a unique wild-eyed Eve Harlow). Rose is shocked to learn her aunt and uncle are spies and she worries about the conversation she overhears about both an upcoming terrorist attack and a mole in the White House.
Peter believes Rose and Diane Farr (Hong Chau), the president’s chief of staff, believes in Peter, but Peter’s FBI boss (Robert Patrick) is not so sure. Oh and yes, this might remind you of Netflix’s CIA-centric series Recruitmenta spy thriller (for better and for worse) gets more ridiculous and ridiculous.
We meet Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola), a Secret Service agent assigned to the only task heavier than Peter’s closet duty: to protect the vice president’s daughter, Maddie (Sarah Desjardins, who has a Have a great weekend with this and the return of yellow jacket). Chelsea have been appointed a new partner in DB Woodside’s Erik Monks, returning to the job many years after taking bullets for a previous chairman. His experience will come in handy when — trying not to be shocked here — the plot with the vice president’s daughter intersects with Peter’s.
Soon everyone is on the run, everyone is being treated as a potential suspect in some scandal, and potential traitors and other red-fishers are showing up at a speed of one or two. people per episode. The number of bodies increased as the explosive finale neared.
shadow agent The pilot, written by Ryan and directed by Seth Gordon, has an enjoyable opening and takes very little time to establish Peter’s dead end and then the danger Rose faces. But the opening episodes are inconsistent, at least in part by design.
There aren’t enough stories to fill 10 hours, and it’s interesting how much of that expansive space is devoted to conversations that on the surface are pretty meaningless small talk. That means there’s a lot of banter between Peter and Rose, a kind of near-instant flirting that I rarely buy. There are also conversations between two assassins, who never even have real names, and a lot of the basis that makes up the relationship between Chelsea and her hideout ward. This didn’t always go well with Peter and Rose’s investigation, which quickly fell into the rut of tracing — spanning locations in Vancouver never making it past a single point. persuasion for the Belt — to someone who gives them a piece of information and then tells a personal story that immediately puts them in danger. Prime, rinse, repeat.
Around the sixth or seventh episode, however, some real tension starts to build and all that banter turns out to have caused some investment in some of the characters. Imagine that, right? Without the scenes that preceded it, Maddie is just another charismatic cable teen doing really stupid things, Peter and Rose are just beautiful people constantly squeezed into tight quarters together. , and those assassins are just villains in killer movies who keep showing up to wreak havoc. There are still plenty of surprises with all too obvious and complicated plots organized with the flimsiest logic, but I’ve been through the last five episodes non-stop, just scratching my head from time to time.
Basso starts off mostly uncomfortable, but as he delves deeper into Rose’s case and his own past, a surge of emotions reminds him how good he is back. OLD WORD. Buchanan, a New Zealand actress in her first American TV lead role, also gives the first impression of rusticity – I blame the accent – but as the show goes on, she becomes became a regular source of humor and took advantage of the show’s determination to make money. – pattern in suffering. Chau and Patrick add value to nasty underwritten roles, although this isn’t really the pinnacle for either of them.
The series tackles its main mystery and answers some questions about the main character in these 45 to 50 minute installments, which will surpass broadcast content standards beyond some term swearing. regime. And there is no exact end on a cliff, it concretely lays the groundwork for much more. shadow agent It may not be consistently appealing, nor is it great literature, but it is usable, lightly entertaining.
