Is the Night Action Agency depicted in Netflix's 'The Night Agent' a real organization?

'The Night Agent' has the feel of a classical covert operations drama, and has piqued viewers' interest if there is a real Night Action agency
PUBLISHED APR 1, 2023
Gabriel Basso in 'The Night Agent' (Netflix)
Gabriel Basso in 'The Night Agent' (Netflix)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Netflix's recent release 'The Night Agent' has indeed created a lot of buzz among the audience as it ranked in the Top 10 chart with 168.71 million hours of viewership within a week of its debut.

The action-thriller story centers around a special operation called Night Action, which runs from a room in the basement of the White House. Since the show's debut on Netflix, fans have indeed been curious about the truthfulness of the Night Action depicted in the series, in which Peter Sutherland answers incoming calls and directs callers to the competent authorities.

So, let's delve into the world of 'The Night Agent,' and see if it's just a fictional world created by Shawn Ryan based on a book of the same name written by Matthew Quirk, or if there's some truth to it.

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Night Action Agency 'could be' an unofficial channel

The show depicts Night Action as a complete undercover agency that acts as a last resort for agencies such as the CIA, FBI, NSA, and DEA, whenever something goes wrong and there's no solution. Agents like Peter Sutherland, who was put in charge of Rose Larkin on the show, could be real but strictly off-the-record for safety reasons. Shawn Ryan has succeeded in providing 'The Night Agent' the feel of classical covert operations drama, which has piqued viewers' interest in whether or not there is a real Night Action agency. 

Netflix's show is based on the book 'The Night Agent,' with author Matthew Quirk disclosing during an interview with The Real Book Spy that he spoke with his friends and discovered that his job was more intriguing than he expected, and that's how he came to place the novel's action in the White House Situation Room.

The author also demonstrated that while researching for the novel, he spoke with FBI and CIA agents about what occurs on these night watches and in the Situation Room during a crisis, as well as how a counterintelligence scenario like the one in the book would play out.

Is there a real Peter Sutherland out there?

No. There is no such position as 'The Night Agent,' as depicted on the show, but Matthew Quirk told The Real Book Spy that the plot was inspired by a friend in DC who worked an overnight shift at the FBI and the author was able to pick up that he was part of a night watch charged with staying on top of any breaking crises and waking up the director if necessary.

Matthew stated that the mysterious yet intriguing job of his friend stayed with him, which is how he came up with the character of Peter Sutherland for his book, and now we have Gabriel Basso playing him on-screen.

To summarize, the Night Action agency may exist off-the-record which is used by the Night Agents in the worst-case scenario but the general public can not know about it, right? But, for Netflix's 'The Night Agent,' we have the brilliant Gabriel Basso reprising the role as Peter Sutherland, and we can expect season two to be more interesting and thrilling than the first. Luciane Buchanan, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Sarah Desjardins, Eve Harlow, Phoenix Raei, Enrique Murciano, DB Woodside, and Hong Chau also appear in the series.

'The Night Agent' is streaming on Netflix. 

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