Roughly two decades ago, as many television aficionados tell it, the story of a beleaguered Los Angeles police station and its renegade strike team, led by Det. Vic Mackey, not only helped establish FX as a top cable network but demonstrated that basic cable could be more than a graveyard for movies and network reruns — it was capable of developing appointment-viewing prestige fare.
“The Shield” was an impressive debut for creator Shawn Ryan, who up to that point had contributed to fewer than 100 episodes of television across shows like “Nash Bridges” and “Angel.” (“That was considered extraordinarily inexperienced,” he says.)
In the time since, he’s had a slew of other shows, including “Lie to Me,” “Terriers,” “Last Resort” and, currently, CBS’ “SWAT,” which is now in its eighth season. While it may be harder to make shows that stand out nowadays, Ryan’s other current series, “The Night Agent,” is proof that he’s still making television that has viewers rapt.
Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, “The Night Agent” follows Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), a low-level FBI agent assigned to top-secret phone duty in the basement of the White House, who is thrust into action — and gets caught up in a deadly conspiracy — when the phone finally rings. In the process, Peter is on a personal mission to uncover the truth about whether his late father, also an FBI agent, actually committed the treason he was suspected of before his death. The first season of the action thriller was the most-watched Netflix original show for the first half of 2023, with more than 98 million views in the first three months of release, according to figures touted by the streamer.
The series returned for its second season last week, with Peter now officially a night agent who is again flung into action on a new mission that included trying to halt a chemical weapons threat to the U.S., which he succeeded in by stealing intelligence that ultimately helped swing a presidential election.
The drama has been renewed for a third season, which the 58-year-old writer said he was already hard at work on during a recent video call from New York, where he was gearing up for the show’s premiere event — the red-carpet portion was ultimately scrapped in the wake of the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.
Ryan, who lives in Sherman Oaks, had been in L.A. as the fires spread and has many friends who lost their homes, including an editor on “The Night Agent.” A significant amount of work on the show, from writing to postproduction, happens in L.A.
“I spoke to her, and I said, ‘I’m still planning to go out and do this press tour in New York and the screening — how do you feel about all that? Is this the right time?’” he says. “But she had an interesting perspective. She was like, ‘We work so hard on it. We’re so proud of it. We got into this business because we’re dreamers and we want to tell stories.’ She really encouraged me to come out here and talk about the show and do the screening and everything — [it’s] much less of a celebration, I would say, and more of an honoring of the work.”
Ryan spoke about Peter’s crisis of conscience this season, what he has planned for the next installment of the Netflix series and his biggest fear about “The Shield.”
Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland in “The Night Agent.”
(Netflix)
A presidential election loomed over Season 2. What interested you in exploring this idea of Peter unknowingly aiding in swinging an election?
I wanted the presidential election to be very much in the background — “Oh, why are they showing us these pamphlets? Why are we seeing a yard sign for this particular candidate here? Why are we watching Jacob Monroe [this season’s shadowy figure played by Louis Herthum] watch this interview with Savannah Guthrie? We actually started conceiving and writing this season before Season 1 even aired. So to write a storyline where a presidential candidate drops out of the race [close to the election] was something that felt very fresh to us in January 2023 when we were crafting the story.
Our political figures are all fictional; we have our own universe we live in. But what we liked a lot creatively was the idea that Peter did something and broke some rules for what he knew was the right reason, which was to save Rose, to find this mobile lab, to try to stop these chemical weapons from being deployed. He was successful, but it created these unintended consequences and ripple effects that could platform us into a Season 3. The idea that this broker who’s been his foil all season long not only isn’t brought to justice at the end of Season 2 but seems to have been empowered, and seems to [have] influence with a man who’s about to assume the presidency, was kind of catnip for us.
There’s that moment where Catherine [Amanda Warren] says it’s reductive to view the job as right or wrong, because everything is relative. Is that the great tragedy of “The Night Agent” — that Peter has to wrestle with the morality of every choice?
You have your pulse on something that we talked a lot about in our writers’ room. At the beginning of Season 1, we meet a young man in Peter Sutherland who is moral, who is principled, who is hellbent to do the right thing because his father was accused of doing the wrong thing. Peter believes he’s innocent. By the end of the season, he finds out no, he actually did it. One of the things I talked to the writers about at the beginning of Season 2 was, in Season 1, things were logistically very difficult for Peter, but they were morally clear what the right thing was — hey, they’re trying to kill the president; I have to get into Camp David and try to stop him. These people are trying to kill Rose. I’ve got to go off the grid and keep her safe. I said in Season 2, I want things to remain logistically difficult for Peter, but I want them to also become much more morally difficult. He wanted to be a night agent because, in his mind, this was a way to make up for his father’s sins. What I think he either was naive about or didn’t understand was the moral compromises that would come from a job that is centered in a world of deception, violence, lies, double-crossing. Maybe that ultimately is a tragedy. I don’t think it’s a tragedy yet, but I think it is the great question exposed in Season 2, and will get further explored in Season 3.
Do you see Peter staying on that course, of being inherently good, or could you see a moment where he does break bad?
I think it will ultimately depend on what we want the show to be. Do we want this show to be a vindication of Peter or do we want it to be the tragedy of Peter? I don’t have those answers yet. It’s always a dance because you have the creative side of it and then you have the commercial side of it, because I’m not the sole arbiter of how this show will run. Netflix will have an opinion. Sony, our studio, will have an opinion. I will have a seat at the table to discuss that, and if there’s a strong case to be made creatively for it being X number of seasons, I would hope that they would listen. I would expect that would have some sway. But thinking about the creative: What is the ultimate fate of Peter? What are we ultimately to take away from his journey and melding that with what’s the right commercial length for this show is a delicate dance.
Talk to me about Gov. Hagan (Ward Horton), the presidential candidate and eventual president-elect. There are red caps. Is it too easy to liken him to Donald Trump and what he represents? How are you thinking about him as you head into Season 3?
There’s some caps and there are some other elements, but there are some elements that would lean toward Democrats as well. We were very careful not to assign any political party to either Hagan or President Travers the year before or the other presidential opponent, Patrick Knox. Again, the season was written and crafted mostly in 2023 before the strike.
The idea isn’t to get into any specific political platforms. What I’m interested in is the specifics of a person elected who may owe allegiance to somebody that we know is bad. I think fear that we can have about any president of any party, and certainly, because Netflix is a global audience, not just an American audience, it’s something a lot of people worry about. Do the leaders who have control over aspects of my life have my best interests at heart? Or is there something else, something more nefarious? The show is about the individual versus the system. We don’t have to be specific about whether it’s a Democratic system, a Republican system, an American system or an Iranian system.
Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin and Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland in “The Night Agent.”
(Christopher Saunders / Netflix)
What are the challenges of writing a political thriller in today’s climate when the president-elect is a convicted felon who will not serve time?
Well, I would say the bar for surprising audiences has been raised in the eight years since Donald Trump appeared on the political stage. Whether you love him or hate him or are in between, there are just things that have occurred that a lot of people didn’t think could occur. One of the things that we discussed after we shot it is we have this scene where Patrick Knox steps down because he’s been outed as having a connection to these chemical weapons in the press. And it’s like, “Well, do we live in a world now where, no matter what you’re accused of, or what proof there is, you just deny it and stay in the race?” If you’re trying to do a hit piece on Donald Trump or any other politician, I think the audience smells that. And the audience feels that you’re trying to manipulate them. We’re not trying to manipulate people. I’m not trying to convince people. I tend to keep my politics rather private. I’m not interested in trying to convince people to think like me politically. I’m trying to get them to think about these specific situations that Peter’s in that he’s dealing with. What would you do if you knew that somebody in a position of power, like the president, was perhaps beholden to somebody who you knew to be inherently evil? That’s the beauty of working on a fictional show that can deviate … from what’s happening in the real world.
There’s about a 10-month gap from where Season 1 ended and Season 2 begins. Is there as much of a time jump when Season 3 picks up? What can you reveal?
I don’t want to say too much because even though we started filming, we haven’t finished writing Season 3. What I will say is it is not a direct pickup.
And you’re filming in Istanbul?
Most of the first episode takes place in Istanbul. We have completed that shooting. We shot for 13 days in Istanbul. I think we’re going to have one of the most spectacular car chases ever seen on a TV show. We’re going to return to filming in New York on Feb. 3, and the majority of the season is going to film in New York City. We’re going to take a little deviation in the season to another international city. But I don’t want to say what it is yet.
I know each season is a standalone, but Vice President Redfield survived Season 1. Gordon Wick is alive. Diane Farr is alive. Are these characters we’ll be seeing again eventually?
The answer is definitely, maybe. You know who’s obsessed with Gordon Wick? Gabriel Basso. He’s like, “I want to get that guy!” He’s pitched, “What if we open up, I’m climbing this fence and go into this bedroom and there’s Gordon Wick.” I was like, that’s not a bad idea but we’ve got to find the right place for it. I’ve talked about Diane Farr sitting in some prison cell, and is there some Hannibal Lecter-esque visit to her cell to get some information that we need.
“I’m not interested in trying to convince people to think like me politically. I’m trying to get them to think about these specific situations that Peter’s in that he’s dealing with,” says Shawn Ryan about writing a thriller in today’s political climate.
(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)
What can you tell me about the Rose situation? Can she actually stay away this time? How are you thinking about the Rose-Peter dynamic? She’s obviously a figure that we’ve come to expect on the show, but she’s a civilian helping on very sensitive national security issues.
We think a lot about it. There are conversations of whether there was even a story in Season 2 for her in that way. In my original pitch to Netflix about what this show would be in success over multiple seasons, Peter was the only character I said would be a constant. Then you work with somebody like Luciane Buchanan, who portrays Rose in such a wonderful way, and we found a storyline that felt authentic to us for Season 2. I would say that if and when there’s a storyline, whether it’s in Season 3 or beyond, that feels appropriate to have Rose be a part of, nothing would make me happier. But I don’t want to become a show that, like every year, is about a more and more ridiculous way that Rose is in danger and Peter has to save her. I think sometimes you have to be true to the story you tell. And the reality is that by the end of Season 2, they’re living very different lives in very different places.
So much of the show is about choices and leadership, particularly during crises. With “The Night Agent,” you had to navigate the pandemic the first season; with the second season, you had the dual Hollywood strikes. How did your experience with the 2007 writers’ strike inform how you managed the emotions of your room and the crew this time around?
I was on the negotiating committee for the Writers Guild in 2007 when we struck and was on the inside of all that. I don’t know if any of the other writers of my show were members of the guild when we struck [then], and so I did have a historical background and knowledge to share with them. I was able to give them what I felt were reality assessments because there’s a lot of games that get played during those things and the companies like to give false hope along the way. These two [recent] strikes have brought writers together, they haven’t driven them apart. When you’re in a writer’s room, there’s a bit of a natural hierarchy. But there is no hierarchy on the picket line. You’re all walking the steps. You’re all carrying a sign, you’re all fighting for a cause. And there’s something beautiful in that. I wouldn’t recommend going through a six-month strike to achieve that beauty, but in the same way I’m seeing in these fires [in L.A.], you find yourself talking more to your neighbors. You see yourself engaging with your community. You say, “What do you need from me? I’m here to help you,” which is a beautiful thing.
What concerns you about the landscape today? You’ve been outspoken about media consolidation. Is it that? Or is it whether the next generation of writers is getting the skill set they need to be the mega showrunners of tomorrow?
I don’t want to create a whole film vs. TV thing, but in my mind, there’s too much filmification of the TV universe. I was raised under the belief that TV makes stars, and I’m very extraordinarily fortunate that Netflix allowed us to discover our Peter and our Rose and turn them into stars rather than make some huge offers to [a known star] that you don’t even know if they’re right for the role, which happens all the time. I believe as fewer films have been getting made, producers and actors and directors from the feature world are trying to get in the TV world and bring a film focus to it so it’s more producer- and director-oriented than writer-oriented. As long as these budgets are huge, they’ll let some filmmaker take two years to make seven episodes of something. But is that sustainable in the long run? I believe not just in making great episodes, but I believe in making them quickly and affordably.
I worry about the exploitation of support staff in Los Angeles; the pay is so little, the hours are so long, that basically you’re creating a situation in which only people who have parents who can afford to subsidize their adult children in the pursuit of this can take those jobs, which is leading to a winnowing out of potentially great talent. The city is more expensive now. These fires are going to make rents only more expensive.
Michael Chiklis in FX’s “The Shield.”
(FX Network)
I know this is a question that has followed you for years: Would you ever revisit “The Shield”?
There was a time where I flirted with an interested executive at Fox who loved “The Shield” with making a movie. Now my caveat for making that movie was that in the first 30 to 40 minutes of the movie, there’s not a single character from the show “The Shield” in the movie. And then at about minute 40, Vic Mackey shows up because somebody’s looking into something in the underworld. The guy who was interested in it got fired and that [idea] disappeared.
I’ve had a really awful thought creep into my head the last couple of years that someday I’m going to wake up and see that “The Shield” is being resurrected without me. Now that’s the reality of Hollywood, right? I was part of the team that resurrected “SWAT,” not the original creators of the show. So I’ve been on that end of my question. Disney owns the rights to “The Shield” and I’ve had to start contemplating, “Well, what will my reaction be if I wake up to that headline one day?” First of all, I would hope that I would never wake up to the headline. I would hope that somebody would actually give me courtesy. But again, I don’t know that anyone ever made the call to the “SWAT” team. I think there’s a place for a “Shield”-type show. Am I the guy to come up with it in the 2020s? Is it up to someone else? Does somebody do it, but it’s just not called “The Shield”? Does AI write something? I hope none of that stuff happens. Nothing would make me happier than to be like, “Oh my God, I’ve got this lightning-strike idea for how we can resurrect ‘The Shield,’” but the bar is incredibly high.
