Joseph Oldham, Lecturer in Communication and Mass Media at British University in Egypt and author of the 2017 book Paranoid visions: spies, conspiracies, and secret statestold the BBC that there are parallels between the current spy thriller boom and other periods when the genre particularly flourished, such as the run-up to World War I, before World War II, and the early Cold War. spoke. “What I think these moments in history have in common, and indeed what we have in common now, is that war is on the horizon, or the threat of war is causing a crisis between the world’s major powers. There’s a sense in the background that great geopolitical tensions are out of control. The apocalypse is always in the background, and tensions turn into proxy wars and espionage.”
People’s suspicions about the people around them are also very high. University of Oxford research It found that 27% of respondents believed there was a conspiracy against them. And conspiracy is a recurring theme in this new show, like The Night Agent. By the way, this is not to be confused with le Carré’s The Night Manager. Almost a decade after the BBC’s Emmy Award-winning animated adaptation in 2016, a second and third series were planned.
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Netflix’s The Night Agent is a paranoid thriller focused on the White House. To borrow horror movie parlance, the call comes from inside the house. Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, Season 1 follows low-ranking FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) as he works to uncover who in the presidential palace is behind a “terrorist” bombing on the subway. , he ends up on the run in series two. when the information he gathered on his mission was compromised by a CIA leak. Meanwhile, The White Lotus’ Leo Woodall stars as mathematician Edward Brooks in “Prime Target,” in which Edward comes close to discovering the pattern of prime numbers that holds the key to all the computers in the world. A similar plot is depicted in which the characters are chased by an evil force. .
But from a psychological perspective, the reason people are drawn to shows like this is because they cut through the darkness of geopolitics to expose the true villains and ultimately decide who is “good” and “evil.” This is because it ultimately lies in the sense of security provided. “Spy dramas are appealing because they offer escapism and an adrenaline rush, along with the joy of following the protagonist’s journey, but one key element is our strong desire to resolve ambiguity and uncertainty. It’s about how we satisfy our needs, which activates the reward system in our brains.” says. “While the show also appeals to our curiosity about the unknown and the forbidden, it also safely navigates issues of national and global importance in an increasingly complex and polarized world. It also allows us to seek understanding.”
How is the genre being shaken up?
Today’s spy shows sometimes don’t show the fun side of espionage. Whereas secret agent thrillers of the 2000s and ’10s like Spooks, Homeland, and 24 took the drama very seriously, Killing Eve and Mr. Some of the modern spy series, such as “Black Doves” and “Black Doves,” are very different stylistically and tonally, and feel laced with a refreshing irreverence. Self-deprecating characters and dark humor that feels aimed at a younger audience, something you don’t usually see on this kind of television.
