5 Action Thriller Shows Better Than The Night Agent

Netflix's The Night Agent easily ranks among some of the best modern action thrillers. Created by Shawn Ryan, the show has had a strong run for three seasons so far and is set to finally conclude its story with a fourth installment. Considering how many shows of the genre barely get to last beyond two seasons, The Night Agent's four-season run alone highlights its critical and commercial success on Netflix.

In its first season, The Night Agent loosely adapted Matthew Quirk's novel of the same name. Going into season 2, however, the show adopted an original storyline and surprisingly managed to get better. While The Night Agent never earned the same level of mainstream popularity and unanimous acclaim as Prime Video's Reacher, it has quietly established itself as one of Netflix's most reliable action-thriller franchises.

After three seasons, The Night Agent has become a distinct addition to the action-thriller genre in its own right. However, it is not exactly the best offering of the genre. A handful of other compelling action-thrillers are better than Netflix's The Night Agent in more ways than one.

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

The Night Agent qualifies as pure popcorn-thriller escapism because, as engaging as its story beats may seem, the show lacks realism. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Prime Video is also far from being realistic. However, the Prime Video spy thriller does a decent job of walking viewers through global espionage. Even the sheer scale of the Jack Ryan show is far superior.

It includes everything from multi-continental locations to military logistics and tactical gear that make it seem grounded in real-world intelligence operations. Even the "mole in the White House" trope in The Night Agent eventually gets a little too redundant, but Jack Ryan, on the other hand, devotes a lot of time to fleshing out its antagonists. This, in turn, makes the Prime Video thriller far more enthralling.

4 Banshee (2013-2016)

For a show that premiered over a decade ago, it is surprising how obscure Banshee still is despite earning immense acclaim from critics. The show garnered a new wave of attention after its leading man, Antony Starr, rose to fame for his portrayal of Homelander in The Boys. However, compared to most mainstream action thrillers, Banshee is still lesser-known.

Despite not being as popular as other mainstream titles of the genre, Banshee deserves to rank among some of the best modern action thrillers because of its no-holds-barred approach towards action. In its four-season runtime, the series features some brutally memorable action sequences that perfectly raise the stakes of its drama.

Even the villains in the show are incredibly well-written and terrifying, which gives it a very distinct identity in the action thriller genre. Since Banshee and The Night Agent belong to two distinct brands of action thriller storytelling, it seems unfair to compare them. However, Banshee deserves a lot of credit and attention for maintaining an uncompromising identity of its own instead of following genre tropes.

3 The Day Of The Jackal (2024-)

Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal has received multiple on-screen takes, with the most successful one being Fredd Zinnemann's 1973 movie. Peacock's The Day of the Jackal could have borrowed the movie's formula and simply retold the same story. However, it takes the risk of modernizing the original setting and unfolding in the backdrop of real historical events.

This risk works wonders for the Peacock show as it allows it to prove that it deserves to exist even though the original book already has a worthy movie adaptation. Unlike The Night Agent, The Day of the Jackal defies many genre conventions by cleverly maintaining an air of mystery surrounding its central assassin character.

Instead of revealing his motivations and backstories, the show focuses primarily on his "when" and "how." Eddie Redmayne, too, does an incredible job of immersing viewers into the titular Jackal's calculated mindset, making every disguise, escape, and meticulously planned assassination feel gripping.

2 Bodyguard (2018)

In its opening moments alone, Bodyguard features a gripping train sequence that masterfully builds tension out of pure psychological negotiation. With what follows, the show only gets better as it packs its quick-paced narrative in just six episodes that never leaves one dull moment. Compared to The Night Agent's Peter Sutherland, Bodyguard's David Budd is also not a regular spy thriller protagonist.

As the show progresses, it becomes evident how the Richard Madden character is incredibly compromised and has a deep-seated mistrust of the politicians he's sworn to protect. It is his dual identity and struggles with PTSD that keep him intriguing and unpredictable throughout the show's runtime. Unfortunately, even though Bodyguard was rumored to return for season 2, its follow-up never saw the light of day.

1 Reacher (2022-)

The Night Agent has often been touted as a potential Reacher replacement because, like the Prime Videos series, it also features a lone-wolf protagonist who is constantly on the run. Even the established stakes of the global conspiracies in both shows are quite similar in terms of scale.

Like The Night Agent, Reacher, too, cares little about fleshing out most of its villains and focuses primarily on the titular character's crime-solving journey. However, Reacher's distinct identity comes from the eccentric nature and near-superhuman abilities of the main character.

While The Night Agent's Peter Sutherland seems reminiscent of many popular spy thriller leads, Jack Reacher stands as a distinct, larger-than-life detective. Alan Ritchson also delivers a great performance as the lead in every season, which is one of the reasons why Reacher has consistently performed well on Prime Video.