When “The night manager“First airing in 2016, the series felt singular. Spy thrillers weren’t yet often seen on the small screen to the extent they are today, which helped the series establish itself as one of the first of its kind. Now, ten years later, shows like it are a dime a dozen, with each new one feeling more like an imitation of the others. It’s hard to find a series like this that stands up a unique place among its peers Unlike most shows that are delayed for many years, season two continues to do just that.
Four years after the events of the first season, where Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), a former military officer and hotel manager, was recruited by task force agent Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) to infiltrate and eliminate arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), what initially seemed like a standalone story turned out to be quite the opposite. Haunted by what happened in the first season, Jonathan assumed the identity of Alex Goodwin and was given a new job as the head of a unit tasked with monitoring suspicious activity in hotels. Although it may seem boring, the job quickly turns out to be just as dangerous as the last.
Yet the danger at the heart of this season is not simply external. Instead, the series quickly shows that Jonathan’s mental health could be at stake. During a mandatory check-in with the MI6 therapist, he is asked if anything is keeping him up at night. Of course, Jonathan says no, but it quickly becomes clear that during his time with Roper, Jonathan lost a part of himself. His memories sometimes force him to unravel, sometimes to his detriment, but other times we see it unfold in front of unexpected, albeit sympathetic, enemies.
When Jonathan’s boss, Rex Mayhew (Douglas Hodge), dies under suspicious circumstances, the death appears to be linked to a Colombian trafficking group. At the head of these traffickers is Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), a lively and suave antagonist who is quickly attracted to Jonathan, now posing as millionaire Matthew Ellis. During his travels, he meets Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), a businesswoman who offers to help him get closer to Teddy. It’s here that the second season of “The Night Manager” once again proves to be a diamond in the rough, sometimes letting the espionage take a back seat in favor of a thrilling relationship and alarming tenderness between three very different people.
Hiddleston and Calva are a match made in heaven. Their chemistry is electric, with each of them employing sharp looks and intoxicating gasps to fully convey that even though these two are at odds with each other, they can’t help but be drawn further into each other’s orbit. Morrone injects a much-needed ferocity into the relationship, with Roxana’s desperation to stay alive causing cracks in her already thin partnership with Jonathan. Throughout the 6-episode season, these three characters each find themselves cat and mouse in this round-the-world chase, which unfolds in a thrilling and undeniably sexy examination of personality and survival.
While the first season sparked a TV genre that’s going nowhere — for better or worse — season two allows the eroticism that was missing from spy TV to take center stage. In cinema, the spy genre has never lacked sex or romance, but in series like “The Night Agent” and “The Agency,” that has always seemed secondary to the politics and narratives at the center of those shows. Jonathan is a protagonist who can’t help but become attached to the people he tries to infiltrate, and this blossoms into one of the series’ most compelling narrative threads. Instead of adopting the same function as more recent spy thrillers, “The Night Manager” is masterfully directed by Georgi Banks-Davies and William Oldroyd, who strip away the genre’s garish reputation and revel in the inherent eroticism of deception.
The series forces its protagonist to take center stage on the ins and outs of his espionage, allowing Hiddleston to deliver a magnetic performance as a man whose desperation to do good threatens to upend the lives of everyone around him. Even when things seem to be going his way, Jonathan never seems to be in control. Instead, he comes across as someone incredibly tense, whose resolve threatens to break not only under the weight of this new mission, but also under the weight of his attachment to his friends, to MI6, and to his adversaries. This fantastic character work makes “The Night Manager” feel even fresher than it did a decade ago.
All six episodes were screened for review.
