Netflix has officially found its own version of Reacher withits action-crime thriller The Night Agent​​​​​. Though both series are currently headed into their fourth seasons, Reacher was a bit quicker to success. Prime Video struck gold with this TV adaptation, as reflected in its near-perfect 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix’s The Night Agent has been no slouch either. It continues to be among the most-watched TV shows on the platform. However, it only recently solidified its format and found more stable legs.

The Night Agent performed admirably with its first season, though its critic and audience scores weren’t necessarily spectacular. It was up to season 2 to prove whether this action thriller had legs, but the Rotten Tomatoes scores for this installment were a bit disappointing. Netflix shifted its approach with Peter Sutherland and The Night Agent season 3, and this is shaping up to be the most successful batch of episodes yet. Interestingly, it managed this by structuring itself similarly to Reacher.

Both Reacher and The Night Agent feature clever, capable action heroes who work to unravel conspiracies and battle the crime world’s most elusive villains. Reacher is based on the extensive book series by Lee Child, with each season adapting an adventure from one of the 29 main novels. This allows for an anthology approach, with new characters, locations, and conflicts within each seasonal story arc. There’s no question this has worked for Reacher, and it’s officially working for The Night Agent as well.

The Night Agent Season 3 Fully Commits To The Anthology Approach

The Night Agent‘s first two seasons revolved around separate international conspiracies, but they weren’t so distinct from one another that the show could be called an anthology. A new supporting cast was brought in to replace those who vanished after season 1, but the central players, Peter and Rose, continued along the arcs they had initially started on. This naturally meant that the stories of those new season 2 characters existed largely in the background.

Things have changed with The Night Agent season 3. This time around, Peter Sutherland is the only central protagonist to have carried over from the previous episodes. This is the first season without Luciane Buchanan’s Rose Larkin, so the relationship between these two characters is no longer the central focus. This allowed the new characters in The Night Agent season 3 to stand more firmly on their own. It’s a new adventure with new characters, allowing the Netflix action thriller to feel like a new show.

With so many new faces and few narrative distractions, The Night Agent season 3 was allowed to have its most intriguing central mystery yet. The pieces are always moving, but there’s that anthology promise that answers will reliably be provided by that final episode. Given the drastic improvement in reception for The Night Agent season 3, there’s little doubt that this approach did wonders.

Why The Reacher Formula Works So Well For The Night Agent

Reacher fell easily into the anthology format, since the book series was already set up that way. There’s a good reason Child’s books have lasted 29 installments (and counting)—with minimal overarching narrative, Reacher feels fresh and exciting with every new publication. The TV show is at an even greater advantage, since it can adapt any of these 29 Reacher books in any order it pleases, ensuring that each season is the best it can be.

The Night Agent is also a book adaptation. However, the Netflix show is based on a single thriller novel by Matthew Quirk, published in 2019. Creator Shawn Ryan adapted this adventure in season 1, and when that did well, he had the choice to either extend it or start the next episodes with something brand new. The Night Agent season 2 did something in between, and it didn’t work as well as we might have hoped.

The fact that taking this anthology approach worked so well for The Night Agent season 3 is evidence that this is a prime formula for these types of action crime thrillers. Both Reacher and The Night Agent centralize complex political and criminal conspiracies. If layered with several additional overarching plotlines and character relationships, these can quickly become too difficult to follow or care about. If each season can focus wholly on that new story and its relevant characters, however, The Night Agent‘s elements don’t have to battle for attention.

Action Shows With Standalone Seasons Could Be The Future Of The Genre

Actions show come in all shapes and sizes, and there’s no one way to do them right. Still, it’s interesting to see this emergence of standalone seasons within the genre, since this is similar to the approach of more classic franchises. The Jame Bond film franchise, for example, took an episodic approach, with minimal continuity and new lovers, villains, and allies kept within every installment. While this fell out of popularity, for a time, this anthology TV concept brings us right back.

In an age of streaming, binging, and long gaps between new seasons, the anthology approach is just easier on the audience. We don’t have to keep track of these endless, sprawling plotlines. It’s easier to jump in and find our way back later. If shows like Reacher and The Night Agent continue to be so successful, we are sure to see even more similar projects down the road.