- Chaz Ebert Remembers Reverend Jesse Jackson: Oct 8, 1941 – February 17, 2026 (February 20, 2026)
In the early morning of Tuesday, February 17th, Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., completed his assignment on earth, and surrounded by loving family members, took his last breath. He had a lifetime to figure out his assignment, and step-by-step, he did.
Born in humble circumstances in Greenville, South Carolina, no one could have predicted that he would become this larger-than-life presence, not only on a local or national level, but internationally. I would dare say that his name was known on all seven continents. Looking back over Reverend Jackson’s life, it is quite clear that words like “Giant” or “Icon” sometimes seemed too small. He was quite simply a towering figure whether in the civil rights movement, in the war against poverty, in the fight for education, in the movement for social and economic justice, and on the world stage, in the quest for peace.
His son, U.S. Representative Jonathan Jackson, recalled at a press conference how his father went through three name changes. (Born to Helen Burns and Noah Robinson, he has been known as Jesse Burns, Jesse Robinson and Jesse Jackson, taking his stepfather Charles Henry Jackson’s last name in 1957.) During his years of advocating for causes of freedom, justice and peace, he figured out that no matter your name, no matter your race or your circumstances of birth, you are somebody. And, indeed, his rousing, ringing slogan “I AM SOMEBODY,” became a rallying cry that he had us shout back in response to him. “We all are,” he said, “God’s Child.”
When I was a high school student in Chicago in the 1960s, I was inspired to attend sessions at what was then called Operation Breadbasket on the South Side of Chicago. It may have resembled a church service, but its focus was community uplift and activism. This was truly a grassroots organization, an offshoot of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (“SCLC”). They advocated for jobs, housing, education and equal opportunity. I and other students were welcomed warmly by the unstoppable Reverend Willie Barrow, a short dynamo of a woman who had a knack for organizing and inspiring audiences. She was the mother of the organization. She encouraged us to come back even as we went away to college, and law school and we always did. We all loved her.
Over the years, the organization evolved from Operation Breadbasket (after breaking away from SCLC) to People United to Save (and later Serve) Humanity—also known as Operation Push—and finally, to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. At these gatherings, we were enthralled by a young, tall handsome speaker named Jesse Jackson. He was already becoming known on the national stage. I marched with Dr King when he came to Chicago to promote Open Housing in 1966. Jesse Jackson was there. We knew that he was a protege of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and indeed, was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,Tennessee when Dr. King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968.
His oratory was electric, fiery and passionate. And whether he wore a big Afro and daishiki, or a business suit, he commanded attention. It is my theory that he was born to his leadership position with some special annointing that was not of this earth. No matter the gathering, in Washington D.C. at the Congressional Black Caucus meetings, or at the campaign offices of soon-to-be Mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, or at a Prayer Breakfast for Black History Month, I noticed that other speakers seemed to retreat a bit when he entered the room. No one wanted to follow his speeches. I often wondered how he came up with his slogans so quickly, “you may be born in the slums, but the slums are not born in you,” “never look down on a man unless you are helping him up,” and so many more. But the enduring slogans “I AM SOMEBODY,” and “KEEP HOPE ALIVE,” promised us a better future, and encouraged us to never give up.
You can see his leadership in the amazing documentary “Nation Time” by William Greaves, which was shot in 1972 at the National Black Political Convention. Mayor Richard Hatcher invited a cross section of leaders to Gary, Indiana to discuss the future of politics for Black Americans while the Democratic National Convention was meeting in Chicago. At various times we see everyone from Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, to Amiri Baraka, Dick Gregory, Harry Belafonte and Isaac Hayes. It makes one wonder if we could gather a coalition like that today.
Even earlier, his leadership style was on display in 1960 when he organized the Greenville Eight, a group of Black students to go to the Public Library in Greenville, South Carolina to check out books. It seems impossible to believe now, but back then you could not check out a book in the Public Library if you were Black. At first, the library chose to shut down altogether rather than to serve the students. But, at some point, the library became open to all.
He led an astonishing life, surviving both the negatives and the positives of one who puts himself on the line. As he is honored in tributes around the globe, I also recalled those times when some leaders thought he flew too close to the sun, and waged campaigns to take him down a peg. We later learned that rumors may have been planted to cause us to doubt him, or to feel ambivalent about him. (Who planted the rumors, I don’t know, some said the FBI.) There were the constant questions “Why did he have to show up at every major incident? Was he just looking for publicity?” The press tried to minimize him, marginalize him and perhaps, sweep him to the side. But whatever life force he came into this world with enabled him to overcome all of that. Underestimate his intelligence, strategic brilliance and persistence at your own peril. He was not perfect, he made mistakes. But as Reverend Jackson himself said, he was not the perfect servant, he was a Public Servant. And he did not back down.
In hindsight, we needed Reverend Jackson to shine a light on inequality. He showed up because he cared and because he thought he could make a difference. We appreciated the totality of what he did, and he became a hero to us. Who among us can say we helped to get hostages released from Syria? I bet Navy Lt. Robert Goodman was happy to have Reverend Jackson advocating for him. Who among us can say we helped secure the release of 22 Americans held in Cuba under Fidel Castro or traveled with then-Congressman Rod Blagojevich to meet with Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic to secure the release of others?
Who would have listened if Reverend Jackson wasn’t there, knocking on corporate doors and demanding they open their boards and executive suits to women and African Americans and people of all races? Likewise, he helped to integrate newsrooms and broadcast booths for those who were qualified, but who had not been afforded those opportunities previously. When he advocated for the ownership of sports teams, and business franchises some accused him of being an opportunist. But his answer was resounding—economic prosperity was to be shared in the hands of the many rather than the few. What he was voicing were views that he shared with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, specifically that there are no civil rights without economic rights!
In Hollywood, he advocated for opening unions to people of color and giving more roles on screens to African-American actors. He also advocated for more executive roles in studios so that Black people would be in positions to green-light projects. He did all of this many years before the #OscarsSoWhite became popular. Some thought his advocacy hurt the cause. But later many came around to appreciating his willingness to vocalize the inequalities. And, indeed, I was a witness to the celebrations of his birthdays by the Hollywood community at the Beverly Hilton Hotel some Octobers. Eventually everyone came around to the realization that he just wanted to help.
It is difficult to believe that one man did all of that and so much more. Over the 84 years of Reverend Jackson’s life it is as if he were “Zelig,” the mythical character in the mockumentary Woody Allen movie the human chameleon who happened to be in all the significant places in history at just the right time. But Jesse Jackson was no myth. He was the real deal. When you were in his presence you just knew that his celebrity was no accident. He spoke with the moral authority of one who had the interest of others at heart. And by being so heartfelt his speeches inspired you, moved you and compelled you to do something to make the world a better place. HE WAS SOMEBODY!
In Chicago, we claimed him as our own, and some of the TV stations said that he would often pop in unannounced to talk about an initiative or to get airtime. And you know what? They gave it to him. He not only commanded it, but he earned it, and you always knew that no matter what he did, it was not going to be boring. And that what ever cause he was espousing was likely to be one that deserved the attention. He was an astute student of the times and of what was needed to help move society forward.
We were both surprised and touched by the copious tears Reverend Jackson shed in Grant Park in Chicago, the night we knew Barack Obama was becoming our nation’s first Black President. Rev. Jackson must have had doubts whether he would ever see that in his lifetime. He had spent years building coalitions to register people to vote, with some suggesting this week that he had more impact on registration than anyone in history. He and we knew that he had fought, and marched and been jailed and rebuked along the way to help make that path for President Obama.
When “Captain Fantastic” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, I was struck by how Viggo Mortensen’s character in the movie wore a t-shirt that read, “Jesse Jackson ’88.” I got a chance to talk with Mortensen about it afterward, and he told me that it was, in fact, his own shirt that he had from when he campaigned for Jackson—as I did—during his 1988 presidential bid. In fact I knocked on doors and campaigned for Reverend Jackson in both his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for President. So many young people believed in him and believed he could make a difference. What none of us knew at the time is that his assignment was not to make a difference as a polittician. Something much broader was his destiny.
Even after Reverend Jackson announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s he kept showing up to fight for justice when it mattered. (It was a misdiagnosis. He had progressive supranuclear palsy). After all of his years of service it was so rewarding to see the warm enthusiastic response that he received at the last Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago in 2024. When he was wheeled on stage, big smile, shaking hands with all who crossed his path, I and everyone around me were in tears. It felt like a moment for a superhero.
We admired him for putting his own freedom and health on the line when it mattered. But what did his family think? It was obvious that Reverend Jackson loved his family and they loved him. They were aware of his place in the world and his drive to improve things. However, I did wonder whether his wife Jackie and his children Santita, Jesse Jr, Jonathan, Yusef, Jacqueline and Ashley would have preferred that he didn’t give so much of himself all the time. At the press conference, Santita said when she called him “Reverend” he corrected her and said to call him “Daddy.” His family life was precious to him and to them. It was reassuring to hear her say it. His family was his refuge.
On a personal level, when Roger was in the hospital for eight months, Reverend Jackson and Father Michael Pfleger of Chicago’s St. Sabina Church would come and pray with him. No one knew this, it was just something that they did, and we appreciated it. Reverend Jackson’s friendship with Roger had preceded Roger’s hospitalization, and they had a respect for each other. At Roger’s funeral, Reverend Jackson couldn’t attend, but his son Jonathan read a speech that he had written to honor him. He hailed Roger as a “soldier with a pen” who championed the work of Black filmmakers. “Roger respected what we had to say about ourselves,” he said. “It was not his story, but he understood the value of an important film was authenticity and not the fact that it depicted your interests.”
The last time I saw Reverend Jackson was March 25, 2025, when I was invited to attend a celebration of him when he received the George W. Bush Award hosted by the Points of Light Foundation. His niece Brenda Robinson and so many others spoke beautifully about Reverend Jackson’s work, and about his ability to reach across the aisle to work with former President Bush. By this time, he had lost his ability to speak, but his eyes, his actions and his firm handshake conveyed all you needed to know. Sitting there with Mrs. Jackson and his family, he was the picture of contentment and of a life well-lived.
I convey my deepest, deepest sympathy to Mrs. Jackson, and to all of his family. May He Rest In Heavenly Bliss.
================SEVERAL CELEBRATIONS OF LIFE ARE SCHEDULED FOR HIM STARTING NEXT WEEK: For more information about the services, go to JesseJacksonLegacy.com
His family said that all are welcome, no matter your beliefs, just leave politics at the door.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Lying in State at Rainbow PUSH CoalitionLocation: 930 E 50th St, Chicago, IL 60615Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Friday, February 27, 2026
The People’s Celebration at House of HopeLocation: 752 E 114th St, Chicago, IL 60628Time: 10:00 AM – 2:00 PMDoors Open at 9:00 AM
Sunday, March 1 through Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Formal services in South Carolina and Washington, D.C.
Friday, March 6, 2026
The People’s Celebration at House of HopeLocation: 752 E. 114th Street, Chicago, IL 60628Doors Open at 9:00 AM
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Private Homegoing Services at Rainbow PUSHLocation: 930 E 50th St, Chicago, IL 60615No time given, but a livestream of the services will be shared for the public.
We also wanted to share some thoughts from friends of RogerEbert.com about the Reverend Jackson:
As a child growing up in the Midwest during the ‘70s, the Reverend Jesse Jackson who was inextricably tied to the city of Chicago, represented hope. He was a national leader who looked like me, talked like me and represented every element of my Blackness. Sure, we knew of and studied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in school, but Jackson was the living and breathing embodiment of King’s dream. Jackson instilled pride and a belief that yes, you can do anything if you put your mind to it including running for the presidency of the United States. Thank you Mr. Jackson for helping a young Black boy believe in himself. – Shawn Edwards
I attended Howard University with Santita Jackson, so my perspective is a little different. Although many will speak on his political legacy, I believe his biggest legacy was as Santita’s Dad. Rev. Jackson supported and encouraged her to join the political arena in a very different lane than her siblings. She is outspoken and in a class of her own…just like her Dad. Their bond was and is unbreakable. – Carla Renata
My heavens! I met the Reverend Jesse Jackon a couple times and thought about him last week because of some work I’ve done about Dr. King, and some recollection of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. He spoke at our high school during Operation PUSH’s heyday. The girls in the auditorium went nuts. He was a talented athlete, a gifted orator’s whose DNC keynote address brought me to the verge of tears, and a human bridge to the most contentious confrontations of the Civil Rights Movement, not only in The Deep South, but in hate-filled Gage Park. My condolences to his loved ones, especially Jesse, Jr., a fellow former St. Albans Bulldog. His dad is irreplaceable. – Bijan Bayne
- Hulu’s “Paradise” Splits Its Focus And Gets More Frustratingly Unhinged In Season 2 (February 20, 2026)
Last year’s “Paradise” had the benefit of carrying one of television’s more baffling, smooth-brained (complimentary) concepts: A murder mystery about a dead president (James Marsden) and the Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown) committing to solving his murder… oh, and did we mention this is all taking place in a massive underground bunker in which tens of thousands of people are sitting out a nuclear holocaust in a simulated suburban idyll? On top of that, it comes from the mind of TV creator extraordinaire Dan Fogelman, so you can expect a murderer’s row of melodramatic twists, nested flashbacks, and groan-inducingly moody covers of 1980s power ballads to end every episode.
Despite (or because) of those Fogelmanian quirks, the first season of “Paradise” carried a kind of batshit, silly charm, culminating in an exciting end to the season that teed up a bunch of interesting “what next?” questions for many of our characters. But such stakes need to be paid off satisfyingly, and “Paradise”‘s sophomore season strays from what made its initial go so appealing, lurching unfortunately into the same old, same old survivalist-porn trappings, now marred by the overwrought Fogelman melodrama. “This Is (The Last Of) Us.”
When last we left the denizens of Colorado’s most happening mountainside destination, we’d solved the mystery of President Bradford’s death, bunker mastermind Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) fell into a coma thanks to the efforts of agent-turned-assassin Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), and Brown’s Xavier Collins went off in a bid to track down his long-lost wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), whom he’s just learned is still alive—along with a surprising number of survivors—in the rapidly-improving wasteland that is the bombed-out United States.
PARADISE – “Graceland” – Annie is a tour guide in Memphis, Tennessee, when the world ends. Her survival in the ensuing years after The Day is revealed as well as her encounter with a traveling group of survivors. (Disney/Ser Baffo)
SHAILENE WOODLEY
But the season premiere, “Graceland,” as with the bulk of the second season, concerns a host of new characters who’ve been carving out their own survivalist nooks and crannies in the 3 years since the Earth was devastated. Chief among them is Annie Clay (a committed Shailene Woodley), who we see pivot from traumatized medical student to tour guide at the titular home of Elvis Presley—whose basement becomes a handy place to ride out the end of the world.
Of course, her peace is shattered twofold: First, by a group of marauders she befriends, led by the handsome, young Link (Thomas Doherty), with whom she has a brief fling; they seem like all right gents, but their giddy interest in a rumored compound in Colorado certainly builds some stakes for later in the season. Then, after they leave, who should fall on her doorstep but Xavier, injured from his plane crashing and still desperate to find his wife.
For the first half of the season, Annie herself feels like “Paradise”‘s ostensible lead, guiding Xavier through the desperation and devastation of the outside world. The ash cloud has cleared, and people are starting to congregate and form ostensible communities, but, like any post-apocalyptic show you’ve ever seen, that environment is rife with corruption, violence, and revolution. Especially as these scattered survivors, gun-toting and hungry, grow ever more envious of the well-stocked facility that houses Xavier et al.
But that’s the problem; as “Paradise”‘s world expands, its novelty shrinks. This is especially true as the bulk of the season splits Xavier off into his own storyline, far from the compound that makes the show feel novel amid an existing field of fellow end-of-the-world shows like “Fallout” and “Silo.” At least in the bunker, there’s an element of political intrigue, a feeling of trying to keep the literal lights on and maintain a veneer of normalcy as the world collapses around them. And to his credit, Brown always carries his half of the season with a kind of wearied gravitas, even as the script just bounces him from one confusing situation to the next.
But Season 2 just shows us that the outside world is, well, pretty much fine now, if a bit resource-strapped, which makes Sinatra’s desperation to keep the charade up feel ever more inconsequential. (It doesn’t help that our remaining protagonists inside the bunker, from Sarah Shahi’s Gabriela to Krys Marshall’s Nicole to Charlie Evans’ rebellious First Son, Jeremy, get increasingly little focus.)
PARADISE – Xavier searches for Teri out in the world and learns how people survived the three years since The Day. Back in Paradise, the social fabric frays as the bunker deals with the aftermath of Season 1, and new secrets are uncovered about the city’s origins. (Disney/Ser Baffo)
JULIANNE NICHOLSON, SARAH SHAHI
Plus, this time around, the Fogelisms hurt more than help, as entire episodes carve out flashbacks to how so-and-so spent years of their lives preparing for life after civilization collapses. Between Annie, a bizarre Jane-focused flashback episode, and other characters I won’t yet name, the trick gets played so frequently that it gets tiresome, especially as the overwrought twists pile on to increasingly tiresome degrees. I won’t even get too far into the show’s treatment of women, which seems to enjoy making them suffer, or even die, to further warrior-mama tropes or give the men of the show something innocent to protect.
As someone who enjoyed the heightened stupidity of “Paradise”‘s first season, it’s dismaying to say it feels like a different show now. The things that grate remain (Really, we’re going to end a climactic showdown at the bunker’s gates with a self-serious rendition of “The Final Countdown”?), but the new characters we get just aren’t compelling enough to wallpaper over the fact we’ve lost, or neutered, the old characters we loved last time around. There are a few pulpy delights here and there, but this particular apocalypse moves a bit too slowly for my taste.
Seven episodes screened for review. First three episodes premiere February 23rd on Hulu, with new episodes airing weekly.
- Netflix’s “Strip Law” Should Stay in the Animated Desert (February 20, 2026)
Netflix has a complex history with adult animation. Some of their most critically acclaimed original comedies are animated: “BoJack Horseman,” “Big Mouth,” last year’s excellent “Long Story Short.” And yet there’s the other side of the coin with duds like last year’s “Haunted Hotel,” and the truly execrable “Hoops,” a show so bad that I mistakenly remembered its title as “Balls” the other day.
Watching “Strip Law,” the newest Netflix adult animated show, I had flashbacks to 2020’s “Hoops,” and wondered why. It’s because, in our review of it, Nick Allen wrote criticism that could fit directly into an introduction to a piece about “Strip Law”: “…a show that quickly numbs the viewer to the provocative effect of an f-bomb, and simply comes off as trying too hard to be naughty. An optimist would call this episode a cry for help from the writer’s room, but it’s more believable that the show is just blissfully unaware as to how unfunny it is, while being caught up in a tired reference.”
The “unfunny” this time stars Adam Scott as Las Vegas attorney Lincoln Gumb. Scott plays him basically as if “Parks and Recreation”’s Ben Wyatt broke up with Leslie Knope and moved to the city of sin. He’s a bit uptight, but the right people and situation can allow him to let his hair down. Like every character on “Strip Law,” he’s a two-dimensional bore, an idea for a person instead of anything real. Even the broadest “raunchy” animated comedies need something interesting at the center to hold onto. BoJack, Nick & Andrew on “Big Mouth,” even Peter Griffin define the tones of their show; Lincoln is a black hole of a character, the insecure guy who gives shocked looks at the chaos around him when he’s not conducting it.
Strip Law S1. Joel McHale as Pringus and Ikechukwu Ufomadu as Bench in Strip Law S1. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Said chaos is primarily defined by two characters: A magician names Sheila Flambe (Janelle James) who joins Lincoln’s law firm to be his counter-weight when it comes to the showmanship needed to win Vegas court cases that can only be tried in the desert, and a slovenly vet named Glem Blorchman (Stephen Root), who has been disbarred so many times that he can probably only (and barely) try cases in Vegas. Other voice cast regulars include Keith David as nemesis attorney Steve Nichols, Aimee Garcia as Irene Gumb, and George Wallace as himself, the Mayor of Las Vegas. Wallace actually considered running for mayor in the 2000s, and his brief appearances are rare highlights of the series.
“Strip Law” is one of those shows that has an anchor plot every episode, but it’s used mostly as an excuse for quick, one-off, often lewd jokes a la “Family Guy.” In one of the better episodes, Glem seeks redemption after getting his license back by taking a case of a nearby town that has become perpetually drunk because its drinking water has been poisoned by the run-off from the sinks behind the bars of the Strip. If you think drunk kids are funny, this is the show for you.
Strip Law S1. Adam Scott as Lincoln Gumb, ESQ. in Strip Law S1. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Even worse are the non-stop dated references, including such timely things as the California Raisins (“Nevada Grown Dates: Open Your Mouth and Take Them”) and Austin Powers. There’s almost a meta comedy aspect to the writing on “Strip Law” in that the references are SO dated and stale that just making them becomes a joke on its own. No one thinks an Austin Powers joke is funny anymore, but Vegas isn’t normal. It’s a place caught in time, where you’re still gonna hear jokes from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and might even run into a Powers impersonator. The sixth episode is basically just a collection of standalone jokes/clips built around a hideous Dean Martin impression. People rip on MacFarlane’s shows for being unfocused, but they look downright straightforward compared to this.
All of this analysis falls away under a simple truth: “Strip Law” just isn’t funny. As with all comedies, your mileage may vary, but I couldn’t even get through the first season. Maybe you like “Hoops,” too.
Seven episodes screened for review. Now on Netflix.
- Season 2 of “The Last Thing He Told Me” Is the Last Thing You’ll Want to Watch (February 20, 2026)
We don’t need a second season of “The Last Thing He Told Me.” Adapted from a book of the same name by Laura Dave (who created the show alongside husband Josh Singer), the Apple TV series is about husband and father Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who hides his true identity from his family, before disappearing with only the most cryptic of warnings. The first season (and book) ended just fine: Having made a deal with the mob, Hannah Hall (Jennifer Garner) and stepdaughter Bailey Michaels (Angourie Rice) forged a precarious peace that didn’t need to be disturbed.
But after the first book did so well, Laura Dave released a second Hannah Hall novel in January, The First Time I Saw Him, with the Apple series coming so shortly thereafter that it serves as a companion piece. Which is to say, if you’re excited to spend more time Hannah and company (and see them go globetrotting), then these eight episodes, to be released weekly, are for you.
Certainly, season two allows Garner to shine again in her distinctive and winning mix of warm strength. She’s just as good this season, sharing more screen time with her MIA husband, who may or may not still be benefiting from the honeymoon effect of new love (are they still newlyweds if, after being happily married for one year and then having no contact for five years, they reunite?). It’s a puzzle you’ll have to watch to unwrap.
Which is a long way of saying this show is dumb. “The Last Thing He Told Me” only works if you can suspend disbelief and just go with the fact that these are both the smartest/most-talented people you’ve ever met and the stupidest.
You mean to tell me that Owen, without question, took the advice of his US Marshal handler (Augusto Aguilera) to keep his background a secret from his new wife? The guy who refused witness protection and instead made himself a new identity from scratch? Or that Hannah accepts that rationale after confirming her distrust of the same agent after one line from Owen in person? It just doesn’t add up.
The same way their love-for-the-ages story makes no sense—he trusts her so entirely that he leaves her in sole custody of his teenage daughter (who the mob maybe wants dead), but not enough to tell her the real deal?
He’s a mastermind of spycraft, strategy, and the workings of organized crime, but couldn’t foresee that he’d ever have to run and, I don’t know, record a message explaining what’s what and put it in that safe for season one?
To even approach “The Last Thing He Told Me,” you have to turn off the part of your brain that looks at the beautiful cast with their recovered memories and penchant for burner phones and says, ‘This makes no sense.’
You also have to enjoy the contrived suspense of it all—this is a show that never lets its protagonists execute a plan without staging an almost-caught moment. If someone’s breaking into an office to look at some files, it’s a safe bet that the guards will almost catch them before they find an ingenious way to escape. Ditto for breaking into a storage container, an apartment, you name it.
It’s the same thing over and over again.
And while it’s nice that Hannah and Owen are on screen more together in season two (and not just through flashbacks), I want to be clear that their pairing doesn’t result in any deep thoughts about marriage, love, or parenthood. Their relationship is as nonsensical as the rest.
Which isn’t to say there’s nothing to enjoy here. There’s a reason Jennifer Garner is famous. She’s able to make her character exude maternal care while also having a sociopath’s knack for lying and coming up with the right thing to say to get what she wants. Why can this woodworker, who grew up without her mother (as the show is so fond of reminding us), do that? Is it, as Bailey explains to Hannah’s estranged mother (Rita Wilson, also delivering a strong performance) that Hannah just keeps trying? Or is it that she used to be on “Alias” and knows some spy craft? Mysteries of life!
This season, Garner faces a known villain in the Campano family. We meet Luke Kirby’s Teddy as the not-quite-up-to-the-task heir to the family business and Judy Greer’s Quinn as the successful sister who wants nothing to do with the family’s business. Greer, in particular, crackles on screen as she embodies the hyper-competent female family member who can always be trusted to make the necessary call.
Between their performances, the show’s leaning into suspense tropes, and its refusal to get too deep into family dynamics, “The Last Thing He Told Me” can be the type of thing you enjoy while emptying the dishwasher. Look up when Greer is on screen, or Garner is wearing something fabulous to promenade through a foreign airport.
Just don’t think too hard about it. And please, don’t wish for a season three, cliffhanger notwithstanding. We certainly don’t need to spend more time or money on this silly universe, no matter how great Garner or Greer can be.
Whole season screened for review. Starts today on Apple TV.
- Netflix’s Massive Hit “The Night Agent” Returns with Confident Third Season (February 19, 2026)
People talk a lot about “Wednesday,” “Stranger Things,” even “Squid Game,” but one of the most successful shows in the history of the most successful streaming company has been Shawn Ryan’s propulsively entertaining “The Night Agent,” the most-watched show of 2023, and one of the best current shows of its kind. Yes, every season, including today’s new one, is logically bananas. The latest mission features a conspiracy that goes all the way to the White House and, if true, would make international headlines, but it’s so confidently made and so remarkably paced that one suspends disbelief just to see what happens next.
Buoyed by the best ensemble of new supporting players for the show to date, the third season of “The Night Agent” is arguably the best. After a rocky pair of opening episodes, it settles in for what is basically an 8-chapter action film, and one that argues that the true villains of this world aren’t the low-level players who commit acts of violence but the high-level ones who fund terrorism for political profit.
The nearly Hitchcockian premise of the first season of “The Night Agent,” wherein an average agent gets a fateful call in the middle of the night that thrusts him into an international conspiracy, is largely gone. Which is not a problem. You can’t cast Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) as “the good guy in over his head” for long without the repetition getting ridiculous. The first season of “The Night Agent” lingers as the inciting incident that thrusts this decent man into a web of depraved villains. Answering that phone call tied him to Rose Larkin (whose absence isn’t as notable as last season) enough that he chose to protect her by selling part of his soul to an intelligence broker named Jacob Monroe (a very good Louis Herthum). At the start of season three, a terrorist act pushes him into a situation where he thinks he can finally get Monroe in a position to turn him over to Catherine Weaver (Amanda Warren) and her team. He’s very wrong about that thinking.
The Night Agent. David Lyons as Adam in episode 310 of The Night Agent. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
His mission to take down Monroe leads Peter into the life of Isabel De Leon (Genesis Rodriguez), a financial reporter who believes she has connected the dots between acts of terrorism and those who are paying for them. Peter and Isabel are contacted by a financial analyst named Jay (Suraj Sharma), who is the first to uncover some suspicious transactions, but that knowledge places him in the crosshairs of Monroe and his people.
While all of this is going down, “The Night Agent” tracks a few other eventually intersecting plotlines, deftly moving between them as the show progresses. In one, we’re reunited with Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola, getting her best season to date), who is not only newly engaged but now the Head of Security for the First Family, including President Ward Horton (Richard Hagan) and First Lady Jenny Hagan (Jennifer Morrison). When Chelsea is involved in a shooting at the White House, she begins suspect that POTUS and FLOTUS are hiding something because of course, they are.
Two other new faces make notable impacts this season. “True Blood” star Stephen Moyer is effective as a hired gun known only as “The Father” because he happens to travel with his young son, whom he’s trying to keep unaware of his dad’s real job. (Why he’d be traveling with him and trying to keep him in the dark will become apparent in ways a plot synopsis in a review can’t convey. Don’t worry.) Moyer alternates effectively between icy assassin and warm father in an effective performance.
The Night Agent. Suraj Sharma as Jay Batra in episode 301 of The Night Agent. Cr. Nazim Serhat Firat/Netflix © 2026
Even better is “ER” vet David Lyons (also recently good in “The Beast in Me”) as Adam, a Night Agent assigned by the President to work with and protect Sutherland. This show’s 007 can sometimes be a bit of a drag, always intensely brooding his way through each case, and Lyons balances that nicely with a bit more of a world-weary sense of humor. They make an effective duo for most of the season.
Well-cast, well-paced, and well-written, the only places in which “The Night Agent” stumbles slightly are in the classic Netflix bloating. The first couple of episodes struggle so much to find a rhythm that they probably should have been one, and later chapters battle the classic Netflix issue of repetitive overexposition, though never enough to sink the show overall.
“The Night Agent” doesn’t break new ground, but not every show needs to do that. If “The Pitt” has taught us anything, it’s that there’s an appetite for old-fashioned dramatic structures that are done well. This one doesn’t rise to the levels of that HBO hit, but it does what it sets out to do remarkably well. It values escapist entertainment above all else. Could it take stronger political stances? Sure. Could it make more sense when you think back on it? Probably. But the important thing is that these questions don’t linger while you’re watching it, which is the definition of well-done escapism: programming that pushes away the world and its criticisms.
Just as “The Pitt” posits a world where decent people do their best against broken systems, this one scratches that timeless itch to see good men and women fighting against the corruption that’s tearing apart this world, often literally with their fists. Peter Sutherland exists on the same spectrum as Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer, men willing to sacrifice personal need for a greater good. It’s no wonder it’s a gigantic hit. We’re all hoping that when things really go down, there will be a Peter Sutherland there to answer the call.
Whole season screened for review. Now on Netflix.
