Years after he helped foil a powerful arms dealer, Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is now living a quieter existence in the UK. He’s pulled back into his old world when a face from the past resurfaces.
Streaming on: BBC iPlayer
Episodes viewed: 2 of 6
Given it’s ten years since the first season aired, you’d be forgiven for remembering fairly little about The Night Manager, aside from the presence of Tom Hiddleston and a heavily pregnant Olivia Colman. A rewatch may be advisable — good news, it’s still excellent — if you don’t want to spend much of the first episode trying to recall exactly who everyone is and who they’re lying to. That said, even coming in unrevised, it shouldn’t be long before you’re wrapped up in a thriller that falls somewhere between 007 and Slow Horses.
Season 1 introduced Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston), a British Army veteran turned five-star-hotel manager who secretly helped the British Foreign Office — and specifically agency head Angela Burr (Colman) — bring down a powerful arms dealer, Roper (Hugh Laurie). A decade on, Pine is now living in London, under the assumed name Alex Goodwin. He’s still working in espionage, but in far less exciting circumstances, stuck behind a computer as director of an MI6 surveillance group called the ‘Night Owls’, described by one of its number as “the eyes and ears, not the show”.
The role of Pine still fits Hiddleston like a Savile Row suit. He’s suave but not overly slick.
Pine/Goodwin, though, is not made for backrooms. When he recognises a person of interest as an old colleague of Roper, Pine takes matters into his own hands, with disastrous consequences. By the end of Episode 1, he is again very much the show.
Only the first two episodes were made available for review, but this season already has a personality distinct from the first. Previous director Susanne Bier makes way for Georgi Banks-Davies (behind the brilliant I Hate Suzie and uneven but lavish Kaos), who creates a mood akin to the Martin Campbell Bond movies. It’s glamorous and action-packed but not too polished. The surface is a bit scuffed. Story-wise, it’s a tad sillier than the original, which was adapted from John le Carré’s book of the same name. This is all newly invented. But if it sometimes stretches credulity, it whips along at breakneck speed.
The role of Pine still fits Hiddleston like a Savile Row suit. He’s suave but not overly slick. What’s yet to emerge is someone to match him, to steal scenes in the way Colman (a brief presence in Episode 1) or Tom Hollander did last time. There’s certainly potential from Hayley Squires as a Night Owl up for breaking some rules, and Indira Varma as Pine’s inscrutable boss.
This is a very strong start and suggests the long wait may well have been worth it, which makes it good news that a third season is already on the way.
Fast-paced and tons of fun, this return makes you wonder why nobody thought to make a sequel years ago.
