The Night Manager
A miniseries with an outstanding cast and layered characters
I know it’s a three year-old series, and I’m risking appearing as someone catching up with old series. But this is my very first post for No Spoilers Ahead!, and I couldn’t think of a better way to start than talking The Night Manager. I finished watching all six episodes in one day. All of them are an hour long, and a lot happens in each of those episodes.
Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is the titular night manager in a luxury hotel in Cairo, in the middle of the Arab Spring. The first shot of the series is a fearless Jonathan walking past the protestors and entering the hotel, calming his guests that everything is going to be alright. Very early on, you get to know that he was a soldier in his past life, although very little is said about how and why he made the transition to Hospitality service. The only thing that is given away is his disdain for war and hatred for war mongers.
The main plot kicks off when a mysterious woman, Sophie, approaches Jonathan to make a copy of certain documents. While making the copies, he discovers that the documents are about sale of weapons including nerve gas and napalms by a company called Iron Last Ltd. Iron Last is owned by Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Jonathan gives these documents to his friend in British Intelligence. This kicks off a series of events which hurt Jonathan, and makes him absolutely vengeful for Roper. That is all I am going to talk about the plot, because, I want you to watch the show!
The Night Manager is about transformation of a man and also not about that. Jonathan Pine, was a soldier. During his service, he was disillusioned by the horrors of the war. It’s also how much he wants to sacrifice to do what he knows to be right. You have Roper on one side, who believes that the world is a rotten place, and being a wise man is to know how to make most of the rotten parts. Jonathan isn’t an optimist. And his reasons are not grand. He wants his revenge from a single man and he doesn’t want Roper to get away with doing bad things.
Roper, played brilliantly by Laurie, has his motivation squarely fixed on the profits. He was not born with a silver spoon, and now, he lives a lavish life. He doesn’t care how his fortunes are made, as long as they keep on growing. Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of a rich and powerful man is spot on, and you can feel the clout he exudes. He’s untouchable and he knows it.
Olivia Colman has a gripping role of her own. I will not say much on that, because her character turns out awfully important and I want you to see how good she was even before winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 2019.
The show is much more than a spy series and bringing down an illegal weapons’ sale. It has deep characters, with motivations well defined. There is no evil plan, and there is no over the top wickedness. It’s about characters who want to do what they think is the right thing to do.
The Night Manager is available on Amazon Prime Videos in India. It says that it’s the Season 1, but to me it seems highly unlikely that BBC can get all these A-list actors together again for a Season 2.
