Published Aug 20, 2026, 8:01 PM EDT
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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While Prime Video’s biggest action thriller franchise is about to branch out in a risky way, the success of Netflix’s The Night Agent proves that the new show can match the success of its predecessor. It is a great time to be a fan of action thrillers, spy shows, and other small-screen stories of espionage and spycraft. From Apple TV’s superb Slow Horses to Prime Video’s brutal R-rated conspiracy thriller The Terminal List, there is a spy thriller for everyone on streaming.
One of the most acclaimed of these is Netflix’s The Night Agent, a blend of Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne that follows Gabriel Basso’s titular FBI agent, Peter Sutherland, as he uncovers criminal conspiracies that go all the way to the top brass of various corrupt government agencies. *The Night Agent *might lack the dry humor of 2024’s acclaimed Mr. & Mrs. Smith reboot series, but its mixture of paranoid character drama and bruising action has still made the show a massive success.
Originally based on author Matthew Quirk’s 2019 novel of the same name, The Night Agent moved beyond its source material when the show was renewed for a second season by Netflix. In contrast, one of the biggest action thriller franchises on streaming, Reacher, opted not to repeat this approach. Each season of the Alan Ritchson vehicle is based on a novel from author Lee Child’s bestselling book series, but this will change with the arrival of Reacher’s first spinoff, Neagley, in only a few weeks.
Reacher has a lot in common with The Night Agent, but also plenty that differentiates the action thriller from its closest competitor. While The Night Agent’s hero works for the FBI, Reacher’s title character is a drifter who works for no one. Each new season of Reacher sees Ritchson’s hulking military veteran find himself in a new setting, uncovering a new conspiracy, criminal enterprise, or cover-up, and tasked with looking out for the little guy in a world of corrupt cops, paid-off politicians, drug dealers, and terrorists.
This approach works a treat for Reacher, since Child’s novels are episodic, standalone adventures that each focus on one of Reacher’s adventures. However, Reacher’s upcoming spinoff Neagley won’t be able to neatly replicate this setup, since the show has no source material. There are no official Neagley novels, even though Maria Sten’s supporting character appears in many of the Reacher books and often assists Reacher’s investigations.
Reacher’s spinoff, Neagley, unlike the original show itself, isn’t based on any existing books, which means the show can’t rely on any popular source material to provide the show’s narrative drive. However, Netflix’s The Night Agent is one of the biggest and best Reacher competitors, and it hasn’t been based on a source novel for years either. Thus, The Night Agent’s success seems to bode well for Neagley, and the show isn’t alone in this regard.
Many of Reacher’s competitors, like Scarpetta and Cross, are based on similarly huge, long-running bestseller series with more than 30 books to their name. However, while *The Night Agent *stuck to the plot of Quick’s novel, the show has followed its own original story ever since the season 1 finale, and this hasn’t done anything to hurt the reception of the acclaimed spy thriller series.
Before The Night Agent, the dystopian sci-fi shows The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man In The High Castle both did the exact same thing, abandoning their source material after their respective season 1 finales. Based on slim books by the legendary authors Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick, of Total Recall and* Blade Runner* fame,* The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man In The High Tower *had to both expand the worlds of their existing stories and introduce wholly original characters, settings, and plot devices to keep their stories compelling.
Not only did both shows succeed, but some critics even argued that they improved once they moved past their literary inspirations. The same has been said of* The Night Agent *by some critics who preferred the amped-up action of seasons 2 and 3, while Apple TV’s Foundation massively expanded on its source books by dropping author Isaac Asimov’s dry, detached storytelling style in favor of a character-driven story of political intrigue and double-crossing.
All of this paints a pretty sunny picture for Neagley, proving that the series could potentially succeed despite its lack of source material and may even live up to Reacher’s formidable critical reputation. As well as being a ratings juggernaut for its streaming service Prime Video, *Reacher *also managed the impressive achievement of earning a superb Rotten Tomatoes critical rating of over 90% for all four of its seasons to date.
However, there is one problem with comparing Neagley’s potential to the established success of The Night Agent. It needs to be noted that, like the upcoming Reacher season 5, The Night Agent’s first outing did technically have a source story to adapt, while the show found its footing. Neagley, in contrast, will be relying entirely on an original plot from episode 1 onward.
As such, Neagley might have a harder time setting up its world and story. Howerver, it is worth noting that, since the show is part of the Reacher universe, Neagley could arguably boast more audience buy-in than The Night Agent in the first place. The Night Agent had a book to adapt, thus grounding its plot in an already-successful story, but the show itself was an unknown entity to viewers.
In contrast, Neagley may have no specific book to adapt, but its title character has already played a pivotal part in Reacher’s recent seasons. Like John Wick’s small-screen spinoff The Continental, Neagley can use its connection to an acclaimed action thriller franchise to convince viewers the new series is worth watching.
Only time will tell whether this ploy pays off for the show, but Neagley’s season 1 synopsis does bode well. With the debut outing of the Prime Video series promising a story of* Neagley*’s title character investigating the suspicious death of an old friend, the Reacher spinoff seems set to hit the same satisfying spy thriller story beats that saw Netflix’s*** The Night Agent*** soar to the top of the streaming charts three seasons in a row.
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