The Night Agent season 2 has a hero worth rooting for – and it’s not Peter

I didn't have a visceral dislike for it, and I didn't think it was an objectively bad show, just that it was far too clichéd, by the numbers and dull.

While Gabriel Basso did his best with the material, his Peter Sutherland being the centre of the series didn't help proceedings. The character is the archetype action hero – a duty bound, utterly moral figure, with little to demarcate him from Jacks Ryan or Reacher.

A lot has been made of how season 2 puts Peter in a moral quandary – a situation where he has to do dishonest, murky deeds in order to serve his country.

The show's creator Shawn Ryan explained this in a recent interview with TVLine, saying: "We learn through the book that Peter’s a very moral guy, a very principled guy, and he’s going to do the right thing. So, we endeavoured hard in season 2 to try to make it much more difficult for him to know what the right thing to do was, to struggle with that.

"We see [in one of the episodes] that it sickens him to tell a lie, but he has to do it for the greater good. Taking a very principled character and putting him in a job that is very morally queasy was something that felt like a good evolution in season 2."

This is, hypothetically, an interesting premise. The problem is, that the show doesn't allow itself to indulge in this, or to really get its viewers to question Peter's choices.

The moment Ryan is referring to comes in the middle of the season, when Peter and Catherine follow through on their deal with Iranian informant Noor (Arienne Mandi), who has been passing them top secret information so they will get her family out of Iran and grant them American citizenship, proving them with a better life.

As the operation gets underway, things quickly go wrong when it becomes apparent that Noor's brother knows nothing of this plan, and has no intention of leaving the country, his lifestyle and his friends behind.

As they get to the plane, Noor's brother shot at the operative, Sami, as he demanded to stay. Sami shot back, killing him instantly.

Needing Noor to remain onside, Peter finds himself having to lie to her, telling her that both her mother and brother got to safety, when only her mother actually did.

It's the most tense, compelling sequence of the series thus far, and Peter's decision to withhold information from Noor promises an intriguing examination of the character on a deeper level than we've seen thus far.

In the end, we don't get this – it causes some ripples in Peter's relationship with Rose (Luciane Buchanan), but that's about it. Noor soon finds out from the Iranian ambassador to the UN that her brother has died, she confronts Peter and he apologises, professing how much it hurt him to lie to her.

It's all over far too easily and quickly, and even when Peter later breaks rank in order to save Rose and get to the buyers of Foxglove, there's no moral grey there – he remains the archetypal hero and his judgement remains unimpaired. In the end, he made the right call. It seems those are all he is capable of making.

Thankfully, the Iranian storyline throughout season 2 is not for naught, and remains the show's most compelling strand to date, predominantly for one reason – and that's Noor herself.

Mandi's character is by far and away the most interesting, complex and compelling character the show has offered us to date, and easily the hero I found myself rooting for the most.

I've already established that Peter doesn't set the world alight. Buchanan's Rose has the potential to be more of a draw, but almost everything she does comes back to Peter, or a basic sense of wanting to do the right thing.

With Noor, on the other hand, we're never entirely sure where her allegiances lie, other than to her family. As she straddles two nations, the US and Iran, she has to make herself an apparent ally to both, and fend off the advances of Iranian security head Javad without making him suspicious.

There's also something thrilling about rooting for someone who is so out of her depth. The likes of Peter and Catherine are accomplished at espionage and comfortable in the field and when taking on assailants. Rose is less so, but after a season spent with Peter, she's relatively assured of herself, and determined to continue proving her capabilities.

Noor has no interest in proving herself, and she has no background in spycraft or experience with the immediate danger she's putting herself in.

Everything she does is driven by desperation, which is an interesting place to put a central figure in this sort of show. She's in real peril as she steals her own state's secrets and knows that at any moment she could be found out, putting not only herself, but also the family she cares so much about at risk.

We see her confidence grow, but only really when she starts to believe she has less and less to lose.

It also shouldn't be underestimated how critical Mandi's performance is to making Noor the standout character this season. She has a lot of her shoulders – if we didn't root for, or at least take interest in her story and her plight, half of the season would be wasted and feel interminable, and we would consistently be hoping to get back to Peter and Rose.

In the end, it is the exact opposite. Mandi is such a compelling screen presence, and her character so easy to empathise with, that her scenes are easily the richest, most tense and most watchable of the season.

For instance, once she did find out about her brother's death from Abbas, not only was the sequence the most emotional of the season, but also the most intriguing, because we couldn't be sure what she would do next. Would she sell out Peter, Catherine and Night Action? Would she become a double agent for the Iranian Mission?

In the end, this card still felt underplayed, and the resolution too swift. But for a time, there was genuine uncertainty as to what she would do next, particularly as she came to believe her mother was also gone. There was a level of ambiguity which would just never be there with Peter or Rose.

None of this is to say that The Night Agent became my favourite show in its second run, or that I will be desperate to re-enter the world of the series in its already announced third season.

To my mind, the series is still, for the most part, generic action fodder – perfectly serviceable with some impressive action sequences and a tense third act which keeps you on your toes.

However, the presence of Noor and Mandi's performance in the role did mean that, this time around, there was a hero whose journey I was legitimately wrapped up in, in a way that had not been the case for season 2.

Following the end of season 2, it seems that Noor's story is wrapped up, and it's therefore unlikely she will be back for season 3. More's the pity, but it's better that her role isn't dragged out unnaturally.

Instead, hopefully the creative team will give us another character with her level of nuance, unpredictability and charisma to co-lead the new episodes – and maybe allow Peter to be a bit more complex.

The Night Agent seasons 1-2 are available to watch on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

If you're looking for something else to watch, visit our TV Guide or take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.