The Night Agent vs The Recruit: Similarities and differences explored

The Night Agent and The Recruit premiered on Netflix in 2023 and 2022 respectively and both the shows were taken well by the audience. Both the shows returned with their second seasons on Netflix in 2025 and viewers can’t help but wonder if these two are the same.

While it is true that The Night Agent and The Recruit do have some similarities thematically, there are also plenty of differences that set the shows apart. At their very core both these shows are spy thrillers that have high amounts of action, but their treatment of their protagonists and the main storylines are quite different.

Let us now explore in detail the key points of similarities and differences between The Night Agent and The Recruit.

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Similarities between The Night Agent and The Recruit

Both The Night Agent and The Recruit are spy thrillers

One of the key points of similarities between The Night Agent and The Recruit is that both shows fall in the genre of American spy thrillers. There is constantly something happening in both the shows and the stakes are always fairly high.

Moreover, being spy thrillers, both shows operate within tight timeframes where things can go wrong at any moment and multiple lives will be impacted. The tension and the thrill are two of the major points of similarity between the shows.

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Both The Night Agent and The Recruit take time to establish the protagonists

Another point of similarity between these two shows is that both of them feature protagonists who gradually make their place.

While The Night Agent follows Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who has been assigned to monitor a phone that is apparently used by an agency named Night Action, The Recruit shows Owen Hendricks being appointed as a CIA lawyer and then getting sucked into the world of on-field CIA operations.

Peter keeps waiting for the phone to ring and he has to wait for quite a while before it does. It is in The Night Agent Season 2 that Peter is shown to have become a full-fledged Night Agent.

Similarly, in The Recruit, Owen gradually finds his footing in the high-voltage criminal situations that he gets involved in, and the stakes start getting higher.

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Differences between The Night Agent and The Recruit

The Night Agent and The Recruit have different source materials

While being thematically similar, one key point of difference between The Night Agent and The Recruit is that the former is based on a book while the latter has been strictly developed for Netflix.

The Night Agent is based on Matthew Quirk’s book of the same name and was adapted for Netflix by Shawn Ryan. The Recruit on the other hand does not have any book as its source material and has been created by The Rookie fame Alexi Hawley.

Given the fact that one show is a book adaptation and the other has been made only for television, there are essential differences between them in terms of pacing, character building, and storytelling.

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The Recruit is more fast-paced than The Night Agent

Another major point where the two shows differ is their pace. While The Night Agent takes its own time to build up the story, The Recruit moves significantly faster.

Peter has to wait for a long time before the phone he is guarding rings. On the other hand, only on his second day as a CIA lawyer, Owen gets an idea of the things he will be dealing with, which includes fighting life-threatening situations.

Moreover, while most of The Night Agent mostly bases itself on Washington, The Recruit explores multiple locations as the storyline demands.

Both The Night Agent and The Recruit can be streamed on Netflix.

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