I just saw this listed on Netflix yesterday. Anyone seen it? Any good?

Ooooffff. Shadow and Bone is done.

Darn good numbers for The Night Agent.

RIP Shadow and Bone. Very poor 2nd week numbers.

I'm enjoying The Night Agent but didn't get into Shadow and Bone despite having read the book.

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/122hdxc/has_anyone_watched_night_agent_tv_series/ or https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/123iulg/the_night_agent_is_a_thrilling_show_despite_the/

I have, and I am enjoying the ride. Am halfway through the season and was pleasantly surprised by that.

If you're into political/conspiracy action thrillers then it's a great show. Very much reminded me of watching 24 back in the day. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it to the point that I binged it all this weekend.

Overall, not great though. I'd guess that people who aren't into the genre won't like it or at least wouldnt like it if theyd already seen the kinds of shows that feel same-y. But since the genre is massively underproduced some might like it as a change of pace show and people like me who are into the genre will love it.

The Night Agent feels more intriguing. I'd probably give Shadow and Bone a chance if the synopsis wasn't so vague. I'm usually hesitant to watch lore rich fantasy shows as they're usually bad slow burners if they're not executed well since they require a significant amount of world building

I liked it, and I'm pretty burned out on letter agency shows.

Netflix is shooting itself in the foot with that synopsis. Why would they think putting the letters CW anywhere near one of their own originals is beyond me! CW-quality is basically a meme at this point.

Edit to give you a synopsis: Orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov may have a prophesied power to save a divided world. Meanwhile, Kaz Brekker and his crew of thieves are just trying to live in it.

Last week some people blame it on poor marketing.

But The Night Agent have even less advertising. Unless i missed something, i dont think this show had more that the one trailer.

the hunger for good old action guys is strong out there, as disgusting as it may sound for prestige tv lovers

I’m about 4 episodes into it, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. I just wish my dad hadn’t passed last week, because I know he would have loved it.

How is that even possible??? Literally shadow and bone has way more marketing than this.

I didn't even know night agent existed until the day after it dropped on Netflix. Definitely little to no advertisement for it.

It's good if you suspend belief a little. I've been enjoying it but I'm also a fan of the genre.

This is a thriller tv show done right, with perfect pacing, decent acting, enough action scenes. Most thriller TV shows have no thrills, people keep talking and talking, not much happens to keep the viewers engaged.

S&B season 2 had obvious story and pacing problems. The last couple episodes had characters running around with literally nothing to do. They could have figured out a way to get all the characters in the same place at the same time. There’s one whole plot/romance that not only doesn’t get resolved but it doesn’t even get set up for (a now less likely) second season. Not enough romantic tension and muddy motivations. I have a feeling they were too worried about sticking to the book but failed to tell a good story for tv. IMHO at least

A great opening week for The Night Agent. Its 168,710,000 hours work out at the equivalent of 20.7 million complete viewings. That is the second best any show has done in equivalent complete viewings in a single week in 2023 so far. Only pipped by the 22.7 million achieved by You s4 Part 1 earlier in the year. Be interesting to see how The Night Agent holds in the coming weeks but it is definitely off to a great start. These numbers put the show on par with Netflix big hitters like Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, and The Witcher and not far behind The Watcher from Ryan Murphy.

Shadow & Bone got 6.8 million (an increase of 9.7%) in its second week and is probably dead in the water. It is looking to end on around 18-19 million after 4 weeks and that is nowhere near the 30-35 million needed for big budget shows. It is a real shame as Shadow & Bone is an excellent adaptation of the books. Changes a few things while keeping the spirit of the story intact.

The Waco limited series had a decent start with 9 million.

You (7.5 million) and The Glory (6.4) million had solid third weeks. The Glory has been great in the numbers while You has still been strong despite a noticeable viewership fade between the first and second parts of s4.

Not much else to note. Sex/Life (24.5 million) and Wrong Side of the Tracks s2 (10.8 million) finished out their 4 week runs. A tad week for the Spanish language show but solid enough for Sex/Life s2. Probably not solid enough for a third season but definitely worth bringing back for a season 2 as it was solid and outperformed most of the new shows as well as Shadow & Bone!

It was pretty quiet openings for the other debut shows. Who Were We Running From (4.1 million), Invisible City s2 (3.2 million), and Murder in the Coalfield (2.6 million) all charted while only The Kingdom s2 missed with less than 1.6 million.

It is a quiet week next week in terms of new releases with just Rob Lowe comedy Unstable dropping so it will be another easy viewership win for The Night Agent again even if it drops hard (which I’m definitely not expecting to happen).

It's a fun show almost done! Haven't binged a show in a while also

Seems exactly like a Jack Reacher/Jack Ryan type of show with a similar square-jaw hero, so I'm not surprised.

I liked it. It’s shallow but has good suspense and enough interesting scenes to keep you hooked until the end.

Yeah and if anyone likes this show and is looking for another great show that’s the same style, checkout Bodyguard from BBC with Richard Madden. Hopefully Series 2 is coming soon.

Decent plot, pretty poor acting

Not necessarily, if the completion rate is high then it’ll be renewed.

I was initially very interested in Shadow and Bone, I thought it was a really interesting world that they were building. And then I quickly lost interest when the focus turned to a lame love triangle that I didn't give a single shit about.

I loved Shadow and Bone season 1, but 2 is a mess. I didn't even finish it. The plot is so random and sets nothing up. It's like an improve session gone awry.

The train scene was badass though.

I enjoyed The Night Agent.... I try to make it to where I would watch 1 episode a week but i pretty much gave up on that when they would leave you on some cliff hanger-ish at the end of the episode...I was like ..."I ain't waiting a week" lol

The Night Agent is a lot of fun so I am glad it is doing well..... but people are missing the boat on Shadow and Bone. It is a really well done fantasy show. One of my favorites.

I won’t be back for season 2 but it’s ok considering what’s available. It feels like network TV - implausible plot that takes itself seriously, weak acting and weak writing. For the genre, I found The Recruit more compelling, and I’m holding out hope that something that can replicate The Patriot.

Maybe they were aiming for a CW pickup

Just finished it. We liked it!

If I could take my viewership of the Night Agent back, I would. Hands down the stiffest acting I can recall in any series with unreasonably sophomoric dialogue.

Saw the first episode, wasn't impressed by the writing. Rabbit Hole seems sharper by a half but the action was better.

I’m really sorry to hear about your dad. I hope watching the show makes you feel his presence even though he’s gone. Virtual hugs from an Internet stranger.

Bodyguard was great! I was wondering if we’d ever get a second season. The last I heard was late 2022, they confirmed we’d get a season 2, but there have been no dates or other details. But that reminds me I wanted to check out the show Richard Madden is in on Amazon called Citadel.

The problem with shadow and bone is not that it's a slow burn but more that it burns through plot incredibly quickly. It's a pretty stereotypical YA fantasy story if you're into that.

I highly recommend browsing the “New” section often.

They have 3 rows for “Coming Soon” “Coming This Week” “Coming Next Week”

The Netflix algorithm forces you down a path instead of providing you with new / different content. Once you’re on that path your profile is ruined and there’s no way to clean up your profile.

I watch Korean and Japanese content. My profile is literally ALL Korean and Japanese content now. I had to make a new profile so I could browse English-Language titles again.

The Recruit on Netflix is a similarly great show if you enjoyed Night Agent

Shawn Ryan, as in The Shield creator?

The bots and paid writers gotta flaunt this formulaic snoozefest every day.

I agree that the dialogue is bad and the acting is subpar. But I need to find out the ending (on episode 4). Don’t give away any spoilers.

So it’ll be cancelled in about a month?

I was the same way, had to get to the end. I'm not going to hold you back. Go for it!

Shadow and Bone is best if you only pay attention when The Crows are on. It’s dreadfully boring otherwise

Action shows can be prestige. Prestige doesn't mean "slow as fuck and would bore the shit out of 99% of people nowadays", it just means exceptionally high quality, high production value, great writing, etc

The people on Reddit who think Netflix is "dying" strike out yet again. I may not watch Netflix nearly as much anymore and am on the verge of cancelling it anyway, but Redditors need to understand it is far too big to die in the streaming era

Shadow and Bone is not really a big budget show, season 2 budget is rumored to be 40 million dollars. I think ~20 million people should be enough for a renew, but if it isn't, oh welp, at least they finished the story (kinda).

It’s pretty good imo

Yes

Keep watching it, it’s good

This show got literally no marketing whatsoever and yet managed to pull that number and beat shadow and bone huh 😂

It’s pretty good imo. If you like action shows with some twists you’ll probably like it.

Great ending too!

Sorry about your dad!

Barry actually has some good action while being still really high quality.

Thank you, and it does help. My brother started watching it around the same time as I did and told my mother the same thing.

Netflix' biggest rivals own publishing companies and TV news networks, so "news" that say how "Netflix is dying" is always kept alive and most people just readily repeat what they see/hear without thinking.

Give me Nina teasing/flirting with the sexually repressed Mattias, and I can die a happy man.

GoT may not have been an action series per se but had some amazing action in it

Netflix is pretty much the only service actually making money for now.

No reason to think they will die.

Enjoyable enough show when you turn your brain off. But man, the writing and dialogue was really subpar.

Eh, I really liked The Night Agent. Disliked The Recruit a lot. Personally, The Recruit was everything I was getting tired of with spy shows. I didn't like the humor and the overly poppy soundtrack and pacing. It just felt too much like a CBS procedural, imo.

> It's good if you suspend belief a little.

I feel like this is just par for the course for all these types of shows. Outside of maybe The Bureau or something like that, these all require the audience to just kinda go with it. Which is totally fine, imo, you can't have action packed shows like these that are super realistic because, frankly, that's just now how things work.

Like the fact that Peter is at the center of this thing throughout the entire series. Granted, the show does a decent enough job of keeping it tied to him so it at least feels reasonable (without giving spoilers, this is revealed in the final episode).

It's easy, popcorn entertainment and it does it well enough.

> with a similar square-jaw hero

It made me feel super old when someone else pointed out that Gabriel Brasso was the dorky kid from Super 8.

I saw a ton of ads for The Night Agent and nothing for Shadow and Bone.

>No reason to think they will die.

They cancelled The OA though! /s

What the hell is the point in hanging out on a television subreddit if you're just going to baselessly assume everything being posted is coming from bots and shills? It was the most watched series of the last week, yeah, people are talking about it. Big deal.

Yes, but it’s not similar to The Shield in any kind of way (writing, camera work etc). Decent show, but not amazing. Some clever writing, some pretty standard espionage-thriller stuff.

(S&B) I enjoyed the first season but the second season just seemed so. Implausible? All of it. I want to support it, but it's hard to get into.

The Patriot was its own thing.

yea i felt the same the first season pulled me in and i was pretty hooked then by the end of the 2nd season felt like i was forcing myself to the end.

Murder Mistery 2 realeses on friday right? Could have big numbers

Lol. $40 million IS a big budget.

WHAT

Bodyguard showed you can have high quality political intrigue and drama without sacrificing intense action scenes. I think it benefited a lot from it's short 6 episode run, because everything felt tightly paced and the tension in several scenes was excellent.

It's a great middle ground between being being too dense and boring vs being too shallow, action-filed with no stakes or tension.

I love that Bill Hader finds a way to obscure Barry's face in most of the action so he doesn't have to do it.

I'm pretty sure all of the tagging and synopsis writing is done by a single intern who doesn't actually watch any of it.

I'd love to see an analysis of how frequently the word "irreverent" is used/tagged, and how often it's misused.

It burns through it all quickly and none of it is particularly interesting.

The books are the same way - the Six of Crows duology is infinitely better than the original Grisha trilogy.

> RIP Shadow and Bone. Very poor 2nd week numbers.

Season 2 was awful and all potential is gone. Such a waste.

Rumor is that to this day the only 2 remaining single characters are still running around aimlessly hoping to find each other to ensure that every person in their 20s - aka everyone on their planet - is in a romantic relationship. Only then can the darkness ratings be defeated.

>Shadow and Bone is done.

> Last week some people blame it on poor marketing.

Which is a shame, because blame should be on it being a piece of shit.

I used to watch 10 mins of the next episode so I wouldn't have that cliffhanger feeling.

all the praise for The Six of Crows has me interested in reading them. Was a big YA fan back in the day. But I was out of school by the time the Grishaverse started

> the dialogue is bad and the acting is subpar.

I finished ep.2 . It's not that it's bad or subpar, it's just bland. And had me rolling my eyes a couple of times...

I'm not sure I'll watch ep.3.

It’s definitely worth a read. It goes relatively quick and you don’t need to have read any other part of the Grishaverse prior.

It's extremly similar to 24. Government Agent in over his head trying to protect a witness and stop a terrorist attack. If you miss the old Jack Bauer Power Hour, then you should check it out.

Netflix doesn't really need marketing. They just release something new and put it in the banner with a cool image. The only commitment the viewer needs is hitting play. And if someone were to miss the giant screen banner on their TV they will see it again in the Top 10 list or have a friend talk about it. It's sort of brilliant.

Yeah, was definitely rolling my eyes a few times too.

My algorithm is horrible right now. I feel like it doesn’t know me at all.

r/TheNightAgent

Idk why this is so funny to me. Probably because I can’t believe I never thought of this.

Because it’s the only new thing on Netflix. It doesn’t matter they’ll still cancel it.

It’s actually terrible. I cringe so hard at certain scenes.

>with perfect pacing

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I think it was one of the best-paced shows I've watched in a long time. Never felt like there was pointless filler added in, never lulled too long, and they never did that thing where they introduce some potential side tangent and then don't revisit it for another 8 episodes. Just a consistently-moving, easy-to-watch series.

To be fair, IMO this is one of their better original series in some time—or at least of the shows geared toward a wide audience.

I had finally crossed off the last thing on my list of Netflix exclusives (the Luther movie) that I needed to watch before I would cancel my 10+ year subscription. Then I stumbled onto the RT review of Night Agent and decided to give it a shot. Loved it.

I still think all of the bad things about Netflix that I did before watching it—the things that the "Netflix is dying" crowd tend to parrot. But if I could get even just one property a month that I thought was as well-made as Night Agent, I would probably stick around.

Can confirm that's it's boring af. Even as background noise

I'm very close to having everything crossed off personally. This show doesnt seem my cup of tea so I'm prob not gonna watch it. I just have Unbelievable and Midnight Mass remaining

Shadow and Bone has some wank actors other than the crows.

I seriously don’t get how people rate Jessie Li, she can’t act for shit. Numbers don’t lie.

D.B. Woodside holds court in this show as far as acting goes.

It's a respectable budget don't get me wrong, but the big budget productions like Witcher, WoT, House of Dragon, Marvel shows are all 80+ million per season.