I finally got around to watching Agent Hamilton Season 2, and honestly, I’m glad I did. If you don’t know the series, it’s a Swedish spy thriller loosely based on the Carl Hamilton novels by Jan Guillou. The books are pretty iconic in Scandinavia, and in the show, the title role is played by Norwegian actor Jakob Oftebro, who brings a cool, low-key intensity to the character.

In Season 1, we met Carl Hamilton just as he was returning to Stockholm after years of hardcore training in the U.S. The vibe was a little Bourne with cyberattacks, bombings, and a messy web of Swedish, Russian, and American intelligence agencies all playing shadow games. I kinda liked that first season, it had some rough edges, but there was potential.

So I went into Season 2 blind – no trailers, no teasers – and expected we’d get a globe-trotting conspiracy. The season starts in France, and I thought, “Cool, we’re doing the Euro-intel tour.” But nope, turns out the show had a different structure in mind this time around.

Season 2 leans into a procedural format, but make no mistake, it’s still very much a spy thriller. Each case gets about two episodes, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There’s a thin overarching thread, mostly tied to Hamilton’s personal life, but the meat of the season is these self-contained missions. And surprisingly? It works.

Each case feels grounded, and in a way, it gives you a glimpse into what day-to-day intelligence work might actually look like – less about stopping some world-ending supervillain and more about preventing the next terror attack, one credible threat at a time. The stakes are still high, but more focused. And while the structure might sound like a “villain of the week” setup, it doesn’t play out like a typical cop show. It’s sharper than that.

Overall, Season 2 feels tighter and more confident. It might not reinvent the genre, but it gives spy drama fans something grounded and engaging to sink their teeth into, with just enough tension to keep you clicking “next episode.”

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