Men of Action

The new Netflix television show Man on Fire is based on the 1980 novel by A. J. Quinnell. Like many of you, I am only familiar with the character from the 2004 action film Man on Fire starring Denzel Washington… and although I own the DVD, I wasn’t a fan of the story (particularly that brutal torture scene).

Obviously, with a longer running time of a television series (about six hours over seven episodes), they can take time to tell the story of John Creasy (now played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the man on fire. In the pilot, you Creasy was on top of his game as a captain of a squad that does special missions. Then his entire team was killed and Creasy became a broken man, with PTSD. Four years later, we see our hero recovering after trying to commit suicide. He’s offered a job by an old squadmate and you see the two of them go down to Brazil, and that’s pretty much the setup of Man on Fire.

It’s been four years, so Creasy is a little rusty, and you see him fumble on disassembling of a glock and not as quick to react to being attacked. It’s only when others are in danger does Creasy kick into instinct mode and will fight for survival. When his friend’s entire family (except for the oldest daughter) was killed in an apartment tower building, Creasy is now a man on a mission: to track down and kill everyone responsible for his friend’s death.

The first episode does a good job in just setting up the backstory. There is one big fight between two Brazilian muggers that was much-needed for action and to showcase Creasy’s skills as a fighter.

The family’s only surviving daughter is a witness to the bombers, identifying the white vans and also the face of one of the terrorists.

The thing that I least liked about the 2004 film is present here in the television show: there’s a lot of torturing going around. I understand this is the story and the character, but it’s tough to stomach these scenes. I also don’t like how everyone speaks English in the show. I also found it unbelievable that Creasy is fluent in Portuguese. Maybe they could’ve have explained that he learned Portuguese in a former mission or something… but out of nowhere, he can understand and respond (in English) from the locals.

My other complaint is the daughter. She is often getting herself in these situations, and every time the story focused on her, I am checked out. I want to go back to the terrorist bombing plot… which does lead you to exactly who you think it goes to (all the way to the top obviously). By the time the grand finale started, Creasy is a one-man-army, taking down everyone involved. To me, that is a little unrealistic, and I couldn’t believe that this is the same dude who tried to kill himself due to PTSD.

My recommendation is that if you like the 2004 movie, you’ll like this show. If you didn’t like it, like me, you probably won’t enjoy this series. If there is a Season 2, I will probably not watch it.

It’s weird, but it recently came to my attention that The Night Agent Season 4 was confirmed for Netflix. I had totally forgotten this series. I saw the first season in 2023, an “okay” spy-thriller about Peter, a nobody operator for the Night Agent line. Normally the line is dead, and it’s a pretty boring job… but one night someone called in with a Night Agent code. The person who called in is a computer programmer named Rose and it sounded like her aunt and uncle were Night Agents.

Since Peter couldn’t trust anyone, he’s taken it upon himself to get to the house and save Rose from the assassin(s). Thus begins a long, drawn-out story, leading up to saving the President and preventing a terrorist attack. At the end of the series, the President offered Peter a job as a Night Agent.

I thought the series was fine, it could have just ended there. I honestly hadn’t kept up until I saw the news about Season 4, so I decided to load up Netflix to watch Season 2. In the second season, Peter is working some of his first case, and immediately his Night Agent partner is killed. He’s convinced that there is a mole in the Agency, so once again, he couldn’t trust anyone, so he goes under hiding and try and figure out what is going on.

Once again, Rose, using her computer powers, was able to track down Peter and the two goes in a wild adventure to try and piece together the threat.

Half way into Season 2, we’re introduced to this woman from Iran, who is trying to get her family out of the country so she’s trying to make a deal with the CIA. When the Night Agent thought she could be the key on preventing this upcoming terrorist attack, they had to work with her. I think this is the weakest point in the story – the whole Iran situation… which is strange how it preceded the Iran war happening now.

Now, on to Season 3, which started airing in February, 2026, so it’s fairly still recent. So far, no Rose! I guess eventually they had to leave her behind, considering that she’s not a Night Agent and just a civilian computer programmer. It’s about a terrorist attack that might be from an American source. The story starts with a banker who pieced together these SARs (suspicious activity report). Then all traces were erased, including assassins trying to kill the banker – that’s when Peter stepped in to save the banker.

The problem with Season 3 is the pacing. It takes so long to get to the plot, and when it gets there, you already pieced together all the clues to figure it all out already. This season introduces a new deadly assassin, working for the corporate bank, to tie up loose ends. What’s really interesting about this assassin is that he has a son, who doesn’t know what his father does for a living.

The other interesting thing is that we’re introduced to a new Night Agent, assigned as Peter’s partner. We don’t trust him, he doesn’t seem like a good agent – until he turned up later saving Peter’s life and then the two of them worked together to uncover who was behind the SAR transfers.

There’s a lot of good twists and turns. I especially like that some characters are killed in action, and they stay dead! You need to have stakes like that in a show, to keep things believable.

The third series actually ended nicely, with some nice epilogue. For example, that deadly assassin I mentioned earlier, he’s still active and working… so I suspect we’re going to see a round two with him for season 4!

I think what I liked about the assassin is that he’s so much smarter than Peter. Peter is a bit of a dummy, kind of brute force his way through situations, like a dumb jock. The Assassin (I had to look it up – but he has no name) plans things four steps ahead, with disguises and charm. Plus, it’s strange that he is also a loving father who will do anything for his kid.

According to Netflix, Season 4, will conclude the Night Agent series. Unlike Lost, Dexter, and so many shows that ended poorly, the showrunner and developer was already working on a thrilling conclusion since the success of the first Night Agent.

Read more Television and Crime Time.

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