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The Night Manager

8.1/ 10

57 min

Comments

anonymous • 29 February 2016, 14:23

When you walk into a hotel as a woman, Tom Hiddleston is the concierge there. Ladies you can do worse. You could have met Mister, I'm just saying. Tom Hiddleston (Thor) plays veteran Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager. Pine infiltrates the world of arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie, House). Of course there is a tragic precursor to that, but you need a good plot device anyway. We meet Jonathan Pine in Cairo. He works there during a very explosive period. The Arab Spring is about to begin and all eyes are on Egypt. Then Jonathan meets the beautiful Sophie Alekan. Ms. Alekan is just the mistress of Freddy Hamid, one of the most notorious men in Egypt. Jonathan becomes concerned with Sophie's fate and the two eventually end up in bed together. Then fate strikes. John's world is turned upside down and by the end of the first episode he is in contact with intelligence services and suddenly finds himself in a dangerous world. Will Jonathan manage to tackle a dangerous arms dealer? The Night Manager is a collaboration between BBC One and AMC. The series premiered February 21, 2016 in Great Britain on BBC One. That means that we can also watch lucky bastards every Sunday. In April the series can be seen on AMC in the United States. The series is based on the book of the same name by John le Carré. If you like series where intrigue and espionage are central, you should definitely visit The Night Manager. Perhaps the cast is enough. Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman (Broadchurch) aren't nauseating names, of course. They are actors who have all proven that they can carry a film / series. To be honest, the first episode of this series is largely left standing by them. Hiddleston shows the charm and charisma it takes. His character shows no fear and shows that he can deal with stressful situations. Hiddleston conveys this well and that gives confidence for the further course of this series. Hugh Laurie is actually always good. It is no different here. I don't know yet whether I believe this is "the worst man in the world". As a viewer, Laurie's character does not yet bring you to that feeling. To that nod of the head when you realize you're dealing with a 'real one'. Anyway, Laurie doesn't have that much screen time in the first episode yet. So it wouldn't be fair to serve him right away. Olivia Colman is another actor who can't do much wrong. Colman is in good shape, but the character still needs a bit more body to really impress. The Night Manager dives nowhere below the line of solidity. However, the series has more potential than is currently shown. I don't know how faithfully the series follows the book, but I thought it was a bit of a 'been there, done that' given. Man goes through something tragic, decides to turn his life around and takes action against injustice / dangerous people. Intelligence agencies have started hunting for a dangerous man, and so on. It can be an interesting fact, but the implementation does not make me very enthusiastic yet. You will hear Mister say more often that a series does not have to reinvent the wheel, but a known fact does need a fresh interpretation. Otherwise it will be difficult to spend too long in familiar territory. The story itself is nice, but not (yet) remarkable. But why does Jonathan risk everything here for a lady he just met. You learn that Jonathan is a lifesaver. That it is a man who is not afraid to stick his neck out. However, the first episode does not justify why he does that for Sophie. Why does a Westerner in an Arab country do something that could seriously endanger his life? You could think of many reasons. However, The Night Manager fails to produce a convincing motivation for this. The 'relationship' between Jonathan and Sophie would also have lingered more, if the two had shared more scenes together. The direction is not really strong either. As far as I am concerned, it could have been a bit more subtle now and then. Certain shots were not necessary. The musical accompaniment should have been missing in some places, so that a particular scene would be more powerful. I also had the feeling that I was watching two separate series. The London part (with the intelligence services and Olivia Colman) and the Cairo part didn't really come together yet. It didn't feel really cohesive yet. Only when the series makes a time jump and we see John in a different role, do these two worlds come together more. Still, it's an interesting start to The Night Manager. There is plenty that points to a very interesting series. When Hiddleston and Laurie are finally on the screen together (and Hiddleston and Colman) the series is also immediately more interesting. The other episodes offer enough space for fireworks between these three giants. I'm already getting my microwave popcorn ready for Hiddleston versus Laurie. The world of this series can be an exciting one to maneuver in. One mistake can kill. The wrong look can lead to suspicion. Looking at someone's wife for too long can make ... Anyway, you understand. The ingredients for a smooth bite are there. There should be a little more gravy, salt and pepper here and there. However, I am confident that the continuation of this series will find a higher gear. www.meneervevie.com

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ThomasNL92 • 16 March 2016, 14:59

8.8

So far a very, but also very good series. British quality series, what more could you want? :)

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renzoroy • 23 September 2017, 12:21

ended? There will be a 2nd season though.

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winthoos • 23 September 2017, 12:42

Oh yeah?? When??

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anonymous • 23 September 2017, 12:44

That is still unknown, but the BBC has confirmed a second season. https://www.nu.nl/film/4521849/tweede-easons-serie-the-night-manager.html

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renzoroy • 23 September 2017, 12:51

That message is not correct, it has not yet been officially confirmed, but it looks like it will come. Here a more recent post from June this year http://www.nme.com/blogs/night-manager-season-2-release-date-cast-trailers-2096194

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DavidPrice • 17 March 2016, 03:50

Fantastic series. Also keeps getting better. The acting is also of a lonely level. Look forward to a new episode every week! Look.

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Olga2000 • 27 March 2016, 12:02

It's so good and so hard to watch at the same time! That can hardly end well.

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anonymous • 19 April 2017, 00:03

Definitely one of the best series I've ever seen. A story by LeCarré cannot fail, of course, and then also Hugh Laurie, who portrays a great cynical protagonist. Beautiful film adaptation.

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Gwe • 5 July 2022, 21:45

Good series with very good surprising actors.

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theocm • 9 October 2023, 13:40

First series.

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gumstarr • 29 March 2016, 00:00

As far as new series are concerned, 2016 is not exactly a fat pot for the manic series viewer. Thanks to American Crime Story, Vinyl, Billions and 11/22/63, we don't have to cry curled up under the covers every night, but it won't stop. So far it has mainly been a lot of mediocrity pushing aside in the hope that you accidentally stumble over something beautiful. Actually a bit of what those terror tokkies are currently doing in the V&D. The gourmets. Pull each other's extensions out of the head in search of those last Björn Borg underpants with a 40% discount. What a time to be alive. A few months ago I had healthy expectations of series like Colony, Mad Dogs, Outsiders, Animals and Baskets, but I have lost a lot of illusions now. Now that I think about it, watching serial is just an accumulation of disappointments. It is today's self-flagellation. If you had to choose between smashing yourself to death with a rose bush or watching the first season of Animals completely, that would be quite a difficult choice. Anyone an idea how long it takes for such a flesh wound to close a bit and you can wear t-shirts again? I'm asking for a friend. The Night Manager was also in the higher echelons of my “ooh-jesus-if-this-the-level-of-the-series-of-2016-is-then-it-is-such-ridiculous- good-year-to-be ”list. A collaboration between two of my favorite channels (AMC, BBC), a mouth-watering cast and a trailer, which suggests that from minute one you will be entangled in a web of trickery and deceit. Surely this couldn't be anything but great? Well, if only it were. Apparently Jonathan Pine is so incredibly busy as a night concierge at a Cairo hotel that he doesn't get around to watching movies. If he did, he would know that you should always keep your claws off the bad guy's girlfriend. Only bullshit comes from that. Also now. Things got completely out of hand and Jonathan packed up to pursue his career in the hotel industry in Switzerland. A few years later, when the shady arms dealer Richard Roper walks into his hotel with his Louis Vuitton bag set, he gets the chance to correct some things from his time in Egypt. I'd love to say something else, but I just don't really feel The Night Manager. It is a series without a soul. Hugh Laurie (Mr. House), Tom Hiddleston (Loki in Thor) and Olivia Colman (Peep Show, Broadchurch) can all act, but in The Night Manager everyone seems to do it on autopilot. There is no real enthusiasm. It's perfunctory. Dutiful, like the artist who, due to contractual obligations, has to drop one more album from his company and then just have some rubbish pressed onto a CD to get rid of it. The Night Manager is the role they accepted because they have to keep smoking the chimney at home. Not because they fell in love with it. You can feel that. At least such a very sensitive boy like me. Laurie should be an unscrupulous arms dealer with disdain for the many lives his merchandise blows into the afterlife. However, his character hardly inspires fear. Hiddleston has built such a huge wall that you actually have no idea who you are looking at and Colman is mainly screaming hysterically. With a story like this you would expect to be on the edge of your seat all the time, but nothing could be further from the truth. Even the overload of ominous strings in the background cannot make The Night Manager a nail-biter. It never transcends the level of a light-hearted spy thriller starring Liam Neeson. Unfortunately. The above may be a bit stricter than the final figure would suggest. Disappointing work by the BBC and AMC is in fact always better than the average NBC / CBS production. The Night Manager is quite watchable, but if you see the ingredients in advance, you cannot say that the fullest possible has been achieved. I don't know why, but for some reason I kept thinking about The Honorable Woman while watching. If you really want to watch a good series, watch that one.

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