The Night Manager Season 2 ☆☆☆☆

Starring:Tom Hiddleston, Olivia
Colman, Diego Calva, Camila Morrone, Indira Varma, Hayley Squires, Noah Jupe, Alistair Petrie and Douglas Hodge

Created by: David Farr

iven 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, but 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”.

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.

“Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is now living in London, under the assumed name Alex Goodwin. When he recognises a person of interest as an old colleague of Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), Pine takes matters into his own hands, with disastrous consequences. This season already has a personality distinct from the first. 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 Carre’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.”

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 Carre’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 (Major Lance “Corky” Corkoran) 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.

– Courtesy: Empireonline.com