Netflix users blame The Night Agent for ‘unfair’ cancellation of their favourite series
’I kept on confusing them,’ one viewer complained
Furious Netflix users have pointed out a glaring issue with the streaming service after their favourite show was cancelled.
On Wednesday (5 March), actor Colton Dunn informed his followers that spy drama The Recruit was no more – news that has been met with outcry from fans who believe the show was released too closey to similar seriesThe Night Agent.
“The Recruit has been cancelled y’all,” he wrote on Instagram, calling the news “such a bummer”.
He added: “I’ll share some pics and fun memories on IG but just wanted you to hear it from me. Thanks if you watched. I’m AVAILABLE NOW!”
The Recruit followed a CIA lawyer (Noah Centineo) as he grappled with international tensions in Russia and, in the show’s second season, South Korea. Dunn appeared in the series as Lester Kitchens.
It started life in December 2022, with the follow up arriving more than two years later in January 2025.
Responses to the show’s return were generally positive, but many drew comparisons to The Night Agent, a more successful spy thriller that returned for a second season just before The Recruit.
Unlike The Night Agent’s second season, The Recruit has underperformed – and fans of the cancelled show are now complaining that The Night Agent stole The Recruit’s limelight.
They’re blaming the streamers’ scheduling decision for “unfairly” putting the writing on the wall for the show.
“They released this and the night agent within the same month. What did they expect,” one viewer wrote, with another adding: “Kept on confusing this show for The Night Agent anytime I saw news about it so maybe it was destined to be axed.”
An additional fan chimed in on X/Twitter: “That happens when you premiere two espionage series in the same month!”
The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment.
Creator Alexi Hawley has shared a “love letter” about the show’s cancellation, revealing he wants to make a film to wrap up the show.
“We’d all be there in a heartbeat,” he wrote. “If not, man, we left it all on the field. For those who haven’t yet watched, dive in. I swear to God you’ll enjoy the ride. In an age of shows that feel like homework, The Recruit is a blast that has stakes and humour and hardcore action which will keep you learning forward.”
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Netflix Just Canceled Another Show, But At Least This One Made It Two Seasons
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Though network television’s May cancellation bloodbaths are still on the horizon, that doesn’t mean everything else on the small screen is guaranteed safety. Case in point: Netflix has pulled the plug on one of its higher-profile releases on the 2025 TV schedule, with Noah Centineo’s spy thriller The Recruit now going the way of the wooly mammoth. At least the axe dropped after fans got two full seasons though, which is a sentiment that creator Alexi Hawley shared in his response to the decision.
Studios, networks and streaming platforms are rarely quick and eager to go public with cancellation reports, and so it’s probably no surprise that The Recruit’s downer of an update didn’t come straight from the source, but from one of the show’s stars. Colton Dunn took to Threads to not only pass along the message, but also to amusingly cast a wide net for his next potential gig. In his words:
The Recruit has been cancelled yall. Such a bummer. I’ll share some pics and fun memories on IG but just wanted you to hear it from me. Thanks if you watched. I’m AVAILABLE NOW! Hire me for you tv story!!
Understandably, hearing the bad news from one of the actors does kind of make it all the more heartbreaking, since you just know he’s feeling worse about it than any of us who watched from home are. But fans still shared their shocked and disappointed comments in the comments.
In fact — and this wasn’t relegated to just the comments on Dunn’s post — the Recruit fanbase has made a point of pointing fingers at Gabriel Basso’s The Night Agent and saying that Netflix screwed the pooch by releasing sophomore seasons for two of its core government thrillers too close together. And it presumably didn’t help that Night Agent’s second season didn’t spark nearly the same amount of positive criticism as the first.
This was so much better than Night Agent!!! – @poisauce
That is so NOT okay!!! Why does @netflix cancel all the amazing shows? So, we just never have any closure. What happend to Hannah. If he grows up or quits! This makes me society level angry! Yet , we pay $25 a month for Netflix now to watch old shows they bought from other networks. Cool. Actually, it is BS! Put me in charge! – @leannlay09
Are you effin kidding me?!?! This show is brilliant! I’m sick and tired of them sucking us in to these amazing shows and then just cutting the cord out of nowhere Netfix – @hairbyerinmichelle
That’s a bummer. Just watched the 2nd season last week! Season 2 didn’t miss a beat and was great pacing the whole time. Good luck to all impacted. – @icemasterberry
As a creative behind Nathan Fillion’s beloved crime procedural Castle, Alexi Hawley has some experience with highly disappointing TV cancellations, and losing The Recruit will certainly stack up high on that last throughout his career. When the show premiered in 2022, it was popular enough to knock Wednesday out of the #1 spot, but its stay on the streamer’s Top 10 list was shorter for Season 2, which no doubt influenced the execs’ decision to cancel it.
Hawley jumped onto BlueSky to share a lengthy and impassioned message with both the fans who watched and the talented people who helped make the show a success for its two seasons. He shared a truncated history of the project’s journey from being pitched to USA to Centineo joining and Netflix picking it up, to the first season’s difficult filming schedule and the second season’s easier (though strike-delayed) production.
He summed it all up by saying he would love to have the chance to continue telling stories with these characters, and by continuing to promote the series as a good time for anyone who still hasn’t yet given it a shot. As he put it:
Along the way, we shot inside the CIA, the State Department, and a nuclear submarine. We laughed on multiple continents and supported each other when crying was more appropriate. Is two seasons and a movie a thing? Cause we’d all be there in a heartbeat. If not, man, we left it all on the field. For those who haven’t yet watched, dive in. I swear to God you’ll enjoy the ride. In an age of shows that feel like homework, The Recruit is a blast that has stakes and humor and hardcore action which will keep you leaning forward.
At this point, it doesn’t sound like any other streaming services or network studios have stepped up to potentially pick up The Recruit for a third season, but anything can happen.
Everyone with a Netflix subscription can still watch both seasons of The Recruit now just like Alexi Hawley asked, even if those in charge may not be paying that much attention to viewership numbers anymore. Sigh.
Entertainment News
Co-Star Colton Dunn Reveals The Recruit Cancellation News
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Fan Reactions To The Recruit’s Cancellation
‘The Recruit’ Creator Alexi Hawley Hopes For Final Chapter After Cancellation: “Is Two Seasons And A Movie A Thing?”
By Nellie Andreeva
As news of The Recruit‘s cancellation by Netflix after two seasons is starting to sink in, creator Alexi Hawley has shared his reaction in a lengthy “love letter” to the spy action thriller starring and executive produced by Noah Centineo.
In the social media post, Howley retraced the show’s path from a busted script at USA Network to an eight-episode series order at Netflix when one of the streamer’s top young stars, Centineo, came on board, through shooting Season 1 during the pandemic and dealing with the strike and cut-down order of six episodes in Season 2.
Hawley spoke of the “ballsy move” to end Season 1 on a cliffhanger, with rookie CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks’ (Centineo) life hanging in the balance. It paid off, with the series snagging a Season 2 renewal after overcoming early concern over its completion rate on the platform.
Season 2 did not end as abruptly, with Owen seen looking into the distance and pondering the future in the finale’s final moments. Still, as Hawley told Deadline in a postmortem interview, there is a lot from Season 2 to unpack. It is something he still hopes to do after a third season, which he felt “super positive about” back in January, did not pan out. (Season 2’s completion rate is believed to be very good, it’s the overall viewership drop from Season 1 that ultimately led to the cancellation, I hear.)
“Is two seasons and a movie a thing? Cause we’d all be there in a heartbeat,” Hawley wrote in his post. “If not, man, we left it all on the field. For those who haven’t yet watched, dive in. I swear to God you’ll enjoy the ride.”
Here is his letter to fans. For more details on some of the elements he mentions in it, including filming at the CIA and on a real nuclear submarine, read our Season 2 interviews with Hawley and Centineo. Hawley also has ABC’s The Rookie, which he created and executive produces, and The Envoy, a drama in the works at Hulu.
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It’s a fun show, I would have watched another season for sure.
I really liked the show. I’m sorry Netflix cancelled the show. Hopefully someone picks it up. Great show.
What a dork. No one watches this show.
It was for time travel show ‘timeless’, 2 seasons and a feature length finale
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