Netflix's 3-Part Action Thriller Series Is Coming For Reacher's Title Of #1 Dad Show

While The Night Agent might not have outdone Reacher quite yet, Netflix’s best action thriller is gunning for the Lee Childs adaptation’s current title as the best crime thriller of the 2020s. The phenomenon of so-called “Dad TV” is enjoying a pretty impressive hot streak in 2026. Most recently, Prime Video’s James Patterson adaptation, Cross, was renewed for a third season.

That Aldis Hodge vehicle could last for decades as there are dozens of further Alex Cross novels for the series to adapt, but the show might not even have received the greenlight if it weren’t for the breakout success of 2022’s Lee Child adaptation Reacher. Now in its fourth season, Reacher has proven itself to be peak Dad TV.

The Night Agent Is Now Netflix’s Best Reacher Competitor

Like Prime Video’s earlier hit Bosch, Reacher is a franchise-ready procedural with an eponymous troubled genius antihero who bends the rules to save the day every season. However, unlike Bosch, Reacher is also more action-forward than the average police procedural, and its plentiful, surprisingly gory fistfights and shootouts have seen the series become a massive streaming success.

Unfortunately for Prime Video, the streaming service hasn’t entirely cornered the market when it comes to Dad TV. The Night Agent season 3 proves that Netflix’s best Reacher replacement is swiftly catching up to the series with its action-packed story of Gabriel Basso’s FBI agent Peter Sutherland. Based on author Matthew Quirk’s 2019 novel, The Night Agent is a major critical and commercial hit.

The Night Agent Is A Better Reacher Replacement Than Prime Video’s Latest Attempt

Although season 1 of the series earned an already-impressive 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Night Agent seasons 2 and 3 upped their game and were rewarded with an even more impressive score of 86% each. Unlike Prime Video’s attempted Reacher replacement, Scarpetta, this procedural started out strong and only got better, edging closer to Reacher’s success with each outing.

That said, although Scarpetta season 1 wasn’t able to match the acclaim of The Night Agent, Netflix’s Reacher replacement does have one tricky problem. Reacher, Scarpetta, and Cross are all based on bestselling novel series that have over 25 books each to their name, meaning these Prime Video shows will likely never run out of stories to adapt.

In contrast, The Night Agent is based on a standalone novel, so the show is already out of source material by the end of its third season. Only time will tell whether this hurts Netflix’s Reacher replacement, or if The Night Agent can make this a secret strength, as viewers have no way of knowing where each season’s twisty mystery story is going.