Move over superheroes and serial killers Hollywoods latest lazy trend is spies

There was Jon Snow, Simon Bassett, and now…Peter Sutherland. It doesn’t sound as catchy, but that’s the current state of leading men, as the Netflix hit “The Night Agent” returns for Season 2 (now streaming).In the recent past, leading men were fantasy heroes, romantic leads, or superheroes.

They could even be a serial killer like Dexter, or a criminal like Jax Teller, but they were distinctive. Today, three identical sounding thrillers are streaming, each starring the current version of a leading man. There’s “The Night Agent” starring Gabriel Basso as a young FBI agent who finds himself in over his head amid the backdrop of far-reaching conspiracies. There’s “The Recruit” starring Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks, a young CIA lawyer who finds himself in over his head amid the backdrop of far-reaching conspiracies (Season 2 returns Jan.30 on Netflix). And there’s “Prime Target” (now streaming on AppleTV+), following a mathematician, Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall), who…well, you get the idea. TV critic Liam Mathews, who is the author of the Substack “Dad Shows,” told The Post, “These types of shows should be making Gabriel Basso, Noah Centineo and Leo Woodall into the movie stars of the future.

And, it just doesn’t seem to be happening.Maybe some of that is that these shows are sort of interchangeable.”Although the plots aren’t identical – Brooks doesn’t work for a spy agency  – they’re all conspiracy thrillers with similar titles and character names.But, Mathews said that the fact that these shows are interchangeable is also, “part of the appeal.

They’re easy to watch; they’re familiar.”“There’s something comforting about them.We’re seeing problems getting solved.

They have this rhythm that we are familiar with, and these worlds that we’ve seen –  the FBI, the CIA,” he explained.He added that when audiences tune into these shows, “We know what we’re getting.” As Mathews pointed out...