''Agent X'' is an American action drama television series which aired from November 8 to December 27, 2015 on

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

. It stars

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...

Jeff Hephner Jeffrey Lane Hephner (born June 22, 1975) is an American actor, best known for the role of Jeff Clarke, first on the NBC television series '' Chicago Fire'' and then on its sister show, ''Chicago Med''. More recently, he co-starred with Jennifer ...

Jamey Sheridan James Patrick Sheridan (born July 12, 1951) is an American actor known for playing a wide range of roles in theater, film, and television. He's best known for Randall Flagg in '' The Stand'' (1994), Captain James Deakins on '' Law & Order: Crimin ...

John Shea John Victor Shea III ( ; born April 14, 1949) is an American actor, film producer and stage director. His career began on Broadway theatre, Broadway where he starred in ''Yentl (play), Yentl,'' subsequently winning his first major award, the 1975 ...

and

Mike Colter Mike Randal Colter (born August 26, 1976) is an American actor best known for his role as Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the streaming television series ''Luke Cage'' (2016–2018), '' The Defenders'' (2017), and ''Jess ...

. On December 15, 2015, TNT canceled the series after one season. The show was also broadcast on

Bravo (Canada) CTV Drama Channel (formerly known as Bravo) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel was founded as the Canadian version of the U.S. channel Bravo (which is now owned by NBCUniversal) on January 1, 1995 b ...

days after.

Plot

After becoming

United States Vice President The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice pr ...

, Natalie Maccabee (

) is informed that there is a secret paragraph in the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

creating a special agent to help protect the country in times of crisis, under instruction of the Vice President. John Case (

), former

Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

operator, is the current operative "Agent X", who handles sensitive cases that the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

cannot.

Cast

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Natalie Maccabee *

as John Case *

as Edwin Stanton *

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Thomas Eckhart *

as Miles Lathem *

Gerald McRaney Gerald Lee McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and film actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows ''Simon & Simon'', '' Major Dad'', ''Promised Land'' and ''House of Cards''. He currently stars ...

as Malcolm Millar *

Olga Fonda Olga Tchakova (russian: Ольга Чакова; known professionally as Olga Fonda) is a Russian- American film and television actress and model. She is also known for her role as Nadia Petrova in ''The Vampire Diaries'' (2013–2014). Early li ...

as Olga Petrovka *

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

as Chief Justice of the United States Caleb Thorne *

Andrew Howard Andrew Howard (born June 12, 1969, in Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh theatre, television and film actor. Training Howard trained at Cygnet Training Theatre in Exeter in the late 1980s, touring in productions of ''A Christmas Carol'', ''Twelfth Night ...

as Nicolas Volker / Raymond Marks

Episodes

Production

''Agent X'' was produced by TNT Originals in association with Beacon Pictures.

Armyan Bernstein Barry "Armyan" Bernstein (born August 12, 1947) is an American film producer, director and screenwriter. He is the co-founder and chairman of film company Beacon Pictures. Career Bernstein has produced, executive produced, written or direc ...

and

are executive producers.

William Blake Herron William Blake Herron is an American screenwriter, director and actor, best known for contributing to the screenplay for '' The Bourne Identity''. Early life Born in Texas, Herron grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and later Faribault, Minnesota. His ...

, who also executive-produced, wrote the pilot, which was directed by

Peter O'Fallon Peter O’Fallon is an American television director. He was born and raised in Colorado, and earned a degree in film studies from the University of Colorado. He began his career in commercials winning several Clio awards. After directing the ...

Critical reception

On Metacritic, the show holds a rating of 43/100, based on 15 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 28% approval rating based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Unintentionally hilarious, poorly paced, and overall redundant, ''Agent X'' is a secret agent drama that should have remained secret." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said in a review of the series "Without the jokey bravado (or high production values) of '' Strike Back'' or the charming wonkiness of ''

Warehouse 13 ''Warehouse 13'' is an American science fiction television series that originally ran from July 7, 2009, to May 19, 2014, on the Syfy network, and was executive produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins for Universal Cable Productions. Described ...

'', the only claim ''Agent X'' has on our attention is Ms. Stone. Even that is tenuous — while her performance loosens up a bit across the first four episodes, her screen time appears to shrink." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote in their review "Possessing some of the flavor of ''

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the fundame ...

'', ''Agent X'' takes the amusing step of investing the Vice President's office with secret constitutional powers, all for the purpose of concocting a

Yankee The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...

version of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

. And wonder of wonders, it mostly works, at least initially, combining a sense of playfulness with bountiful action and, less successfully, a sweeping conspiracy. ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' called ''Agent X'' an "improbable but high-action thriller." Also saying "This light and fast-moving version of an America-in-peril

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

thriller doesn't really deal in moral ambiguity and shades of gray."

References

External links

* * {{TNTShows 2010s American drama television series 2015 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings American action television series English-language television shows TNT (American TV network) original programming Espionage television series Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios