S01.E06: Episode Six

[ApathyMonger]

Quote

Series finale. Roper and his team return to Cairo for the deal, reuniting Pine with an old enemy. Pine risks it all to put his plan in motion. A discredited Burr makes one last stand.

[ApathyMonger]

I mostly liked the series, but that resolution was a bit too neat. Maybe it would have been better if Roper was defeated but still got away, or if he was captured but Pine died bringing him in.

[LaJefaza]

Pine and Jed were so ridiculous. Blatantly making googly-eyes at each other at the bar and in the casino? And Jed was shocked... SHOCKED I say...to see that Roper had noticed them undressing each other with their eyes, as well as the subtlety of their 'brilliant' blackjack plot, and changed the safe's passcode on her. These two were a little too stupid this episode. 

 

Still a visually stunning series.

Edited March 28, 2016 by LaJefaza

[lorbeer]

WOW. For the serie.

 

I do agree Jed and Pine behaved reckless. And some other stuff jarred but I'm not going to deep into that. Hiddleston and Laurie - great duet!

[atomationage]

The Night Manager might fit into many trope categories.  I liked the ending, with Roper getting his just deserts and Menzies' character's silence.   I wish they had done more with Olivia's Coleman's character, but I guess that's Le Carre.   I liked her a lot better here than in Broadchurch. 

 

I scanned a couple of episodes of Wallander (UK), since Hiddleston is supposed to be in them.  I saw him with longer curly hair in one episode for less than a minute, and not all all in another episode.   He seemed pretty friendly with Kenneth Branagh when they were on Graham Norton. 

[ApathyMonger]

The Night Manager might fit into many trope categories.  I liked the ending, with Roper getting his just deserts and Menzies' character's silence.   I wish they had done more with Olivia's Coleman's character, but I guess that's Le Carre.

In the book, her character is a guy. IIRC, Jed is the only notable female character.

 

I scanned a couple of episodes of Wallander (UK), since Hiddleston is supposed to be in them.  I saw him with longer curly hair in one episode for less than a minute, and not all all in another episode.   He seemed pretty friendly with Kenneth Branagh when they were on Graham Norton.

He left the show after Thor, which he got the chance to do because of Wallander. No one besides Branagh ever got all that much to do on that show.

[halopub]

I mostly liked the series, but that resolution was a bit too neat. Maybe it would have been better if Roper was defeated but still got away, or if he was captured but Pine died bringing him in.

 

After six episodes, I needed that triumphant ending. If the rumors about a second season are true, I might just be persuaded to see what the powers that be do with an original story.

 

So yep. The show was no Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It may not have been possible, but I still wonder what that film's screenwriters and director would have done with this adaptation. Rather than follow the lead of the TTSS miniseries, they were able to whittle down the story's essentials to a single theater time and made it work. And while the opening sequence in Cairo was just stunning, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had the show imitated the opening of TTSS. Fifteen minutes of Tom Hiddleston or Olivia Colman being silent as they get shuffled through a massive amount of setup could have been a great way to establish one of the characters and set the ambiance/tone of the show. Both of them, as well as Hugh Laurie, are as capable as Gary Oldman of showing everything on their face without overacting or saying a word.

 

Instead I found the first season to very often be listless, rather than deliberate - punched with just enough good moments to string me along with hopes it'd get better. I have the patience to watch things unfold glacially (e.g. The Americans) when a show is primarily about character interaction and the intrigue/action is secondary. I expected much of the same here but I think the show could have done with some editing down. Maybe cut an hour or two of longing looks and repetitive speeches to make it sharper.

 

What was good:

• Again, I really, really dug the choice to go with a triumphant ending.
• Whenever Pine ramped up the sales charm. I'm not sure if the show did a great job of explaining why Roper would initially think Pine had great potential for his business and it always helped to see Jonathan corralling problem associates or reassuring buyers.
• Whenever Pine allowed himself to be genuine....catching up with his chef friend and way he lit up when he saw Angela was really terrific.
• That chat between Pine & Roper about committing and Roper acknowledging he didn't know why he was telling his acolyte that.
• All that tension in anticipation of Hamid/anyone possibly recognizing Pine.
• "That's not a cover, you are a pregnant woman." Joel is so sweet on Angela.
• With the call back to the first episode and tourli recipes, the show demonstrates it is capable of remembering little details.
• The deceptively kind eyes of the arms buyer.
• The deliciously stunned look on Drumgoole's face.
• Hugh Laurie's choice to give Jonathan almost a proud wink during his apprehension and then later, his fun freakout in the truck.

 

Logic issues / questions

• How long did it take for this whole story to unfold after Zermatt? Angela Burr seemed just as pregnant at the beginning as the end. We know there were six months between the train ride at Zermatt and Mallorca. Then there was the recovery time before Jonathan got to know all the players and spend the summer with Danny.
• With all the quippy lines, I'm surprised no one ever went for a Limpet pun. Not disappointed, just surprised.
• Jed's real name is Jemima? le Carré, I realize the name is not uncommon in the UK but the character's American and naming a character "Jemima" is at the very least distracting; a cultural hornet's nest at its worst.
• Where did Jonathan transfer the $300 million?

 

Edited to correct spelling.

Edited March 29, 2016 by halopub

[atomationage]

I'm guessing that the 300 million will be the starting point of the next series, if there is one.

[halopub]

I scanned a couple of episodes of Wallander (UK), since Hiddleston is supposed to be in them.  I saw him with longer curly hair in one episode for less than a minute, and not all all in another episode.   He seemed pretty friendly with Kenneth Branagh when they were on Graham Norton. 

 

Floppy-haired, always put-upon Magnus. I haven't watched those Wallander episodes in ages. And now I'm wondering what Branagh would have been like as Roper. It would have been radically different.

 

In the book, her character is a guy. IIRC, Jed is the only notable female character.

 

 

Apathymonger, does this mean you've read the novel? Do you prefer one over the other?

 

 

I'm guessing that the 300 million will be the starting point of the next series, if there is one.

 

Could be. I didn't know if I had missed something during the first watch.

[ApathyMonger]

Apathymonger, does this mean you've read the novel? Do you prefer one over the other?

 

I read it, but it was a while back, so I don't remember a lot of the details. Overall I think I prefered the TV series.

 

The main difference in the book is that

rather than Roper figuring out Pine's identity, the corrupt MI-6 and CIA agents who were profiting from Roper's sales give over his identity, and Roper ends up gets away with everything while Burr and the American agent are completely discredited.

[NorthstarATL]

I liked the "just desserts" ending, and was almost certain that Jed would wind up just like the woman from the first episode, so I was happy that her foolishness only resulted in minor injuries. Also, points for Angela rescuing her, just because. There were plot points that didn't work that well, but I watch a show called "Quantico", so I can't really complain. The series was beautiful (I must add that I had just installed a widescreen tv prior to the second episode, and was blown away!) and the acting was far above par. I only really know Hidddleston from the Marvel movies, and Laurie from Brit shows, Coleman from Broadchurch, and Jed's actress from Man from UNCLE, so they were all working above what I'd previously seen them in here. (Ditto the American who is a regular on Supergirl, and has been on several other shows I can't recall right now.) I think I might rewatch this on a Sunday afternoon and see how it holds together at one sitting.

[staveDarsky]

Logic issues / questions

• How long did it take for this whole story to unfold after Zermatt? Angela Burr seemed just as pregnant at the beginning as the end. We know there were six months between the train ride at Zermatt and Mallorca. Then there was the recovery time before Jonathan got to know all the players and spend the summer with Danny.

Olivia Colman said they were trying to hide her real-life pregnancy in the earlier timeline using props, costuming and framing. Angela was not supposed to be pregnant in the earlier scenes. But Olivia was in her 2nd and 3rd trimesters as they filmed so it was hard to make it look like Burr wasn't pregnant.

[halopub]

I figured it was something like that. I wonder, though, if the director had been better off not including those two scenes of Angela actually discussing the visible "first & last" pregnancy with Jonathan and Joel. But she did, and the show presumably takes place in a hyperrealistic universe that works a lot like ours. If we're generous and say Angela's just two months along during those Zermatt and London scenes, then she'd already be at eight months before Jonathan ever gets beaten up. That leaves around six weeks for Pine's full recovery from broken ribs, all that fun in Mallorca, and then the trips to Turkey and Egypt.

[numbnut]

Well, they certainly tied up everything with a big clumsy bow. The ending was cartoonish, with Roper's constant smug remarks leading to "NO! NO! NO!" The romance stuff was awkward; Pike had no chemistry with Jed or with the strange woman in episode 1, so the revenge motivation felt hollow. The issue with Jed's son was so underwritten; they should have left it out. Overall, this was meh. The storytelling felt more contrived than authentic, much like Suzanne Bier's films.

[halopub]

Overall, this was meh. The storytelling felt more contrived than authentic, much like Suzanne Bier's films.

 

I'm not familiar with her other work but had been wondering what this could have been under different direction. And a different writer, to boot. If not Tomas Alfredson and the Tinker Tailor film team, maybe a seasoned TV director like Michael Rymer, David Slade or Jennifer Getzinger? All do well with cerebral, more deliberate material when they can collaborate with strong writers and challenging showrunners.

 

With the kind of acting pedigree it has, this miniseries feels ripe for a re-edit. I'm willing to bet that, just like the original Star Wars, there's a more compelling show in there. It might be a lot shorter, but I bet it's there.

 

[Sonja]

(Ditto the American who is a regular on Supergirl, and has been on several other shows I can't recall right now.) I think I might rewatch this on a Sunday afternoon and see how it holds together at one sitting.

You mean Brit David Harewood? ;-)

[NorthstarATL]

You mean Brit David Harewood? ;-)

Yup! Didn't know he was British, having seen him more regularly in American roles.

[Kelda Feegle]

Binge watched this series over 2 days and I enjoyed it very much, some flaws but overall pretty good.

I do have one question... I may have missed it somewhere but was there a reason that the Spanish banker's daughter hanged herself (other than plot necessity to give him a motive)? I was laying money at that point that Sandy had been touching her, got a weird vibe, but that didn't seem to be the case.

[halopub]

I got the impression that she knew how Apostol made his money. Elena (?) seemed even more down when gifted the expensive jewelry. After her death, the lawyer confessed to a priest and then made multiple calls to the authorities before hanging up. During their meeting in the church, Burr explicitly told Apostol that she believed Elena would be alive if not for his business involvement with Roper.

 

"Ol' boy" Sandy was a creep but I don't think the character was meant to be a child predator.

[Athena]

I concur that the plot and writing left much to be desired for at times. However, the show managed to be tense, atmospheric, and well shot. Best of all, like many British shows, the acting was top notch. While the character motivations were inconsistent and sometimes unrealistic, they sold it. I preferred a good ending to a bad one.

 

I am definitely in for a second series, but that seems to be a pipe dream.

[halopub]

I do have one question... I may have missed it somewhere but was there a reason that the Spanish banker's daughter hanged herself (other than plot necessity to give him a motive)? I was laying money at that point that Sandy had been touching her, got a weird vibe, but that didn't seem to be the case.

 

Kelda Feegle, I rewatched the Zermatt scenes from episode one. I'd forgotten that Apostol's daughter was in Switzerland. She looked like a happy and naturally awkward teen, without any particular worries. I'm not sure, though, if that scene is meant to imply that something specific in the ensuing 6-7 months triggered her.

 

I am definitely in for a second series, but that seems to be a pipe dream.

 

I posted this in the Media thread a while back but Hiddleston, Laurie and le Carre's producer son have ruled out a second season.

 

I was browsing another discussion board and someone wondered if Jed was supposed to be a mermaid with all the ridiculous amount of swimming. Heh.

[ribboninthesky1]

I binge-watched this series in two days.  It was beautifully shot, and I appreciated the sumptuous locations.  The actors did what they could with the material.  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop with a few characters - Angela, Jed, and especially Jonathan.  The book ending mentioned upthread made a lot more sense than what I saw. 

I'm certain that I was meant to be impressed with Hiddleston, and I wasn't.  His best overall scene was opposite Angela in the Cairo hotel room.  There were so many close-ups wasted beyond seeing his handsome face, and I have to agree with someone in one of the earlier threads about Hiddleston as a cipher. Hiddleston's performance as Pine wasn't at all subtle yet managed to be bland, IMO.  I also think it was poor direction, as Hiddleston never seemed comfortable in the role. With regard to Pine the character, there seemed to be more telling than showing.      

Also, it's a good thing that Hiddleston's fight scenes were against considerably smaller men - he was too posh-like for me to believe he could take a full-bodied man down. If this was his "I could be Bond" performance, he's got some work to do.  Daniel Craig is a tough act to follow, especially with the physicality.   

Laurie was menacing enough, but I also thought that his chemistry with Hiddleston was off.  I kept thinking he was on to him the whole time, and that's how Laurie seemed to play it. Yet, Roper went from being grateful for his son's life to making Pine his number two in a matter of weeks or months with absolutely zero effort from Pine, and I was baffled. Incongruity between the writing and performance was the strongest in their scenes. I often felt that Laurie and Hiddleston were given different scripts.  

Debicki was good, but I also thought she was miscast.  I never bought that Jed was so naive and blind about Roper because Debicki has a keen, intelligent air about her.  She was supposed to be vulnerable, yet came across willfully obtuse. In truth, I think she and Natasha Little should have switched roles. 

Ultimately, Olivia Colman saved this series for me (with a very honorable mention to Tom Holland).  Most of the time, I was invested in her.  Beyond the visual feast this series provided, I wasn't particularly interested in what Jonathan was doing.        

[formerlyfreedom]

Originally aired in the UK on 27 March 2016. Airing in the US on Tuesday, May 24, 2016. Entering the thread before airing WILL spoil you!

[Primetimer]

Three cheers for ass-kicking tradecraft!

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[Amethyst]

The series was definitely flawed, but I really enjoyed it.  Some major plot holes and it dragged at times, but I would watch it again.  One caveat in this ep was that Pine and Jed were way too obvious in the lovey-dovey stares.  They needed to pump the brakes.  Jed's reaction to Pine leaving the casino was a dead giveaway.  Roper would have looked like a moron if he hadn't caught that.

That said, I didn't see the final twist coming, but I can't say I felt for Roper.  He would have gotten out of jail in a day or so and went right back to what he was doing.  I do feel bad for Danny and Caro, who are unfortunately linked to these awful men.  

Assuming Pine has the $300 mil?  I wonder if he'll wire some of it to Caro, Danny, and Jed, to make sure they're taken care of.  

Honestly thought Angela was going into labor when Roper's guard was searching the room.  When she started panting, I was like "Oh, shit, did her water break?"

I liked the ambiguity of the ending, particularly with Pine and Jed.  They're OK as lovers, but not remotely convincing as soulmates.  They might get together occasionally, but they don't seem to be in each other's orbit.  I could easily see Jed going back to NY and happily raising her son, and she and Pine looking back on their time with fondness.  That's about it.

Graham Norton was right; the ending definitely left the door open for a sequel, no matter what they said.

On 3/28/2016 at 1:06 PM, halopub said:

• Whenever Pine allowed himself to be genuine....catching up with his chef friend and way he lit up when he saw Angela was really terrific.

I loved that part too, and I was also glad that Youssef made it in the end.  I think one of the problems is that Pine was always actively in "spy" mode, so when he actually got to lighten up and enjoy himself, it changed his character immensely, and for the better.  It humanized him.  That's why his scenes with Danny worked.  He couldn't act all stern frowny-faced with a kid.

[VCRTracking]

Thank god nothing bad happened to Angela or Jed. Was scared to death for both of them in the finale. Great to see Roper get his comeuppance.

Edited May 25, 2016 by VCRTracking

[Marianne]

I liked the series for the visuals, for Olivia Colman and some of the supporting cast, and also for Tom Hiddleston, who is very pretty and who, I thought, did a pretty decent job of acting.  I agree that some of the plotting was weak and contrived, but I generally love a foreign intrigue--international spy--MI5 or MI6 tale, so that was pretty much o.k. with me.  My big problem was Hugh Laurie.  I have only ever watched a couple of episodes of House, and I haven't seen him in anything else that I can remember.  I don't find him to be an appealing actor (o.k., multitudinous Laurie fans here, so sue me!) and I found him completely unbelievable as this Richard Roper character.  I found all of his piercing stares at Pine and others to be almost comically lugubrious.  Unfortunately, he often took me out of the story because I thought he was such a bad fit.  And I get that the character was supposed to be the scum of the earth, but that last racist rant to his Arab customers was so over the top as to be cartoonish.  I guess much  of the fault for that lies with the writer and the director, but I don't think that his performance helped.

[Captanne]

Hugh Laurie got his start as a very, very clever comedian.  He and Stephen Fry (English raconteur) had a show called "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" which will go down in history as one of the funniest skit comedy series ever not really seen by anyone outside of the UK.  (If you can see bits, do.  You won't regret it.)  I think he's a strong actor and quite surprisingly capable.  (As is Stephen Fry.)  Laurie rose from the Footlights (Cambridge acting troupe) with Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Black Adder), Fry, etc.  More recent alum includes John Oliver (The Daily Show and now his HBO show).  Laurie, I think, was most famous overseas for his role as Bertie Wooster to Stephen Fry's Jeeves in "Jeeves and Wooster".  (Roles for which they both were perfectly cast, imo.)

Laurie was a struggling dramatic actor when he got the Sherlock Holmes gig as "House".  That made his career and I think he was amazing as the character.  He really made it his own.  (I'm a Sherlockian, so naturally I watched it.)

Roper was the first turn I've seen of his since he did House.  He was fine.  He held his own.  I'm not sure he was "miscast" but I'm also not sure it's his kettle of fish.  He certainly comes from that sort of ilk (Upper middle class English, Cambridge student, father an Olympic gold medal rower mainly a medical doctor) -- but he's not really a two dimensional villain like Roper was.

Speaking of which -- if I have a problem with this series it's that there wasn't nearly enough depth to the characters.  I felt they were all flat.  And, honestly, Hiddleston is boring.  

To make my point, even the reviewer here revels in Roper's end.  There is no ambiguity or remorse when Roper is defeated.  Her/his quote over a picture of Angela Burr's reaction to the news is, "He deserved it."  Yep -- he sure did.  There was absolutely no question -- no debate.  No grey areas.  Not even a whisper of, "But he runs a refugee camp of grateful, desperate people..." Because, that was just a front.  A fake for "I love napalm at night".  Well, LeCarre, that line has been used before and better. Just a different time of day.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Captanne

[jrlr]

Agree Hiddleston is boring, at least in this part.  I think he's waaaay too pretty to be a convincing Bond (or anything other than a convincing male model), but I've never seen him in anything else that I remember; the Pine-Jed exchange of longing glances in front of Roper was idiotic, and Roper would have to be an idiot to miss them.  Hugh Laurie was fine up until he strayed into the comic-book villain faces.  On the other hand, Olivia Colman didn't make a single mis-step in her expressions, especially when Roper saw her waiting for him in his suite and she finally got to let him know what had happened.  For me, Colman made this entire series and without her it would have been unbearably heavyhanded and overwrought, even though it was very suspenseful in parts.   

Am I the only one who immediately, after loving Roper being stuck in the paddy wagon with his enemies,  thought that Roper would just pay off his captors and be free again to wreak multinational - possibly cosmic - damage?

[Captanne]

Olivia Coleman is incredible in everything she does.  Imo.

[attica]

"Oh, in the grand scheme of things? I'm from Bermondsey..." I love Colman so much.  The way she got all squishy and maternal when 'her boy' showed up in her hotel room got me all squishy and maternal. No wonder Grace wanted to stay on board! And her look of pregnant, sullen contempt when Roper showed up was The. Best.

[lulee]

I missed something - what led Angela's lone office associate to call Dromgoole when he did?

[dubbel zout]

On March 28, 2016 at 2:06 PM, halopub said:

Where did Jonathan transfer the $300 million?

I thought it went to his chef friend's brother's cause, but thinking about it, $300,000,000 is an awful lot of money. 

The case was wrapped up too quickly for me, but that usually happens with these types of shows: a very long setup and then a short denouement. At least we got to see Angela being awesome.

I wish things had ended a bit more ambiguously.

[VCRTracking]

According to Wikipedia the novel did have a more ambiguous ending with Roper making his deal, Burr(who's a man in the book) and his American allies discredited. Pine and Jed do get to end up together and live in England.

It wasn't until this final episode that I realized how similar the basic story is to the License to Kill, the second and last Timothy Dalton James Bond movie. In it a drug lord named Sanchez kidnaps and mutilates Bond's CIA ally Felix Leiter and kills his wife on their honeymoon. A revenge seeking Bond goes rogue, pretending to be an assassin whom the drug lord hires and starts to trust and him, thinking he's a kindred spirit, making him part of his inner circle. The drug lord's girlfriend(who he sadistically abuses) becomes romantically involved with Bond and helps him take him down Sanchez by framing an associate of his. Bond destroys the drug lord's whole smuggling operation and kills him.

License to Kill came out in 1989 and John Le Carre's The Night Manager was published in 1993. It's plausible Le Carre saw License to Kill and thought he could write a more realistic version of that story!

Edited May 25, 2016 by VCRTracking

[meep.meep]

I enjoyed watching this, but the ending wasn't worth the other 5 episodes.  Le Carre rarely writes super tied up endings where the bad guys all get their comeuppance and the good guys and gals ride away into the sunset.  So, this ending seemed too tidy.

To whoever was wishing that they had done this like the Tinker Tailor movie, they kind of did.  That film took out all the subtle shadings from the miniseries and wrapped everything up into a big tidy bow.  In that book, some of the good characters don't triumph;  it sounds like in this book, that's similar.

I laughed at Pine putting sedatives into Freddie's drink, only to have Freddie keep taking cocaine which offset the sedatives.

Good for Burr for being a pregnant bad ass!  Now Olivia Coleman joins Frances MacDormand in the club.

[seacliffsal]

I found this final episode to e very tense-I liked it very much.  I did note in my program descriptor for AMC that it stated it was the season finale, not the series finale, so they may be planning another limited series next year.  If so, Olivia Coleman better be back!  I absolutely loved her role/performance.  Very relatable.

[Lee4U]

I read, after it aired in the UK, that there would be no other seasons - that it was just this one.  

[attica]

Differences in the US version: Pine calls Roper a "sick freak"; in the original, it's a "sick fuck." And EB lost her nipples in the drowning scene. 

[lulee]

I don't recall the words, but I thought all the press prior to the premiere made clear that this was a one-off miniseries. -- not that I wouldn't love to see Olivia Colman's Angela Burr globetrotting to catch baddies while she's wearing her baby in a wrap. 

[Lee4U]

I can't help but wonder how this might have been with a really dynamic, charismatic actor playing Pine vs. Hiddleston in the role.  There was such sparse dialogue that, for me, someone who could bring a lot of communication with silence and or expression would probably have made a difference for me but, as it is, he just was so incredibly dull.  Rats.

I think there was some reliance (by the director, etc) on what people consider his good looks and I know that is subjective, but some reliance on a more effective/resourceful actor could have made me actually like this vs. just feeling "eh" about it.

But - OC - I'll watch anything she does.  She is always different in each role and always surprises and just jumps off the screen.  

Oh well.  

[Moose135]

7 hours ago, Captanne said:

Olivia Coleman is incredible in everything she does.  Imo.

I don't know that I've seen her in anything before this, but she was outstanding here.  I'd certainly watch her other work.

Overall, I thought the series was well done, a few bumps along the way, but I enjoyed it.  I hadn't read the book, I've read a bunch of Le Carre's earlier work, but never got to this one.

I did love the final shot, after Jed drives off, Pine standing in front of the hotel, and the night manager comes up and asks if he needs anything - imagining just how much Pine's life has changed since he was that same night manager, asking a guest the very same thing.

[Captanne]

The most challenging role I've seen her in recently was the first installment of an English show I saw on Netflix called "Run".  The idea is that each episode is a single story but one character follows into the next episode and is the subject.  Then, his/her story wraps up and one character from that story becomes the next subject matter for the next episode.  It's really, really tough to watch and I only made it through hers and then the second one.  It's very depressing, I think.  But I only saw the two and then couldn't watch anymore.  In her episode, she's a single mother of two adult "boys" who are, all said, thugs.  And she's trying to keep her family together -- the boys are horrid, the ex-husband is worse.  In that one, there is a girl she meets regularly in the launderette to transfer iPhones she's stealing from inventory at work and the girl then gives her cash.  (The girl takes them to her people and they sell them.  The girl is the next hour installment but you only see her briefly in Coleman's episode.)  God, it's so depressing.  (In the girl's episode you find out who she is and why she's in this mess.  She manages to fall sort of, kind of, in love-ish and still manages to lose it all by her own choice.  The next installment is of a nice old man she meets during her story who is a recovering (?) drug addict.  I don't remember because I didn't watch it.)

[NumberCruncher]

1 hour ago, Lee4U said:

I can't help but wonder how this might have been with a really dynamic, charismatic actor playing Pine vs. Hiddleston in the role.  There was such sparse dialogue that, for me, someone who could bring a lot of communication with silence and or expression would probably have made a difference for me but, as it is, he just was so incredibly dull.  Rats.

But that would essentially rewrite who Pine is from a character standpoint.  He's not written as a charismatic, flight-by-the-seat-of-his-pants James Bond type.  He's supposed to be a recluse (i.e. night manager) asked to do something extraordinary and entirely out of his comfort zone.  Hiddleston, despite people's dislike for his more subdued portrayal here, is actually a very charismatic actor (see: his portrayal of Loki in the Marvel movies often referred to as "scene-stealing") but he has said in various interviews that this isn't a Bond-esque character and he did not play Pine that way.  I guess it's all a matter of perspective though because I think Hiddleston did express a lot of unspoken communication in his scenes.  For example, I thought his scene in the tent while Roper & Co. were waiting for the shipment to cross the border was particularly well done in conveying a sense of nervousness without giving away involvement.

Edited May 25, 2016 by NumberCruncher

[magdalene]

I liked the finale. As a long time Game of Thrones watcher/sufferer I appreciated the good guys having a win. I also appreciated Jed surviving.

I have always thought Hiddleston to be a very charismatic person. I have seen him on British talk shows and he has a smile that lights up a room and he is an excellent dancer and quite funny and sweet.  Pine however is supposed to be none of these things. 

I have heard a lot of conflicting info on whether this series might continue. AMC had called it a "season finale". The BBC wants to do more because it was a big ratings hit for them. The Le Carre people want to do more.  Laurie and Hiddleston said no in April but in a more recent interview in late April Hiddleston said he would be interested to do more as long as Le Carre was writing.  So who knows. I don't think the series is dead dead.

 

IMO, they don't need Laurie to continue but I would want Hiddleston and Coleman to reprise their roles. They would just move on to a different baddie.

[Texasmom1970]

I was glad Roper got what his character deserved in the end. The change from smugness to realization then fear, well done Hugh.

It wasn't perfect but in a whole I enjoyed it mostly because of the cast. Even with a smaller role than some of the other Olivia was MVP of this mini-series to me, her acting abilities always make her stand out in a scene to me. If this comes back in some way I would watch, better than many things on television right now.

[attica]

4 hours ago, Moose135 said:

I'd certainly watch her other work.

Broadchurch (2 seasons) for drama and 2012 for comedy will set you up well.

[MeloraH]

At the end I just pictured Corky welcoming them to hell with a smug "I told you so."

[rur]

11 hours ago, lulee said:

I missed something - what led Angela's lone office associate to call Dromgoole when he did?

When she was trapped behind the door, she was doing something with her phone. I think she was texting him that she was in a tight spot. Or at least that's what happened in the show in my head. 

Edited May 26, 2016 by rur

[Lee4U]

It is subjective, obviously.  I have seen Hiddleston in other roles and just find him very uninteresting - he never holds my attention as do others on screen. No big deal.  I know the role wasn't written to be like Bond - that was clear - which is why I would have appreciated someone who I got more from (for lack of a better phrase) in the quiet, silent, still moments where there was no particular action or dialogue.

Again - to each their own.  

[Amethyst]

4 hours ago, NumberCruncher said:

Hiddleston, despite people's dislike for his more subdued portrayal here, is actually a very charismatic actor (see: his portrayal of Loki in the Marvel movies often referred to as "scene-stealing") but he has said in various interviews that this isn't a Bond-esque character and he did not play Pine that way. 

I find that interesting, because Hiddleston is a major contender for the next Bond (so I hear) and this is his supposedly his unofficial audition for it.  That said, there were definitely times when I felt Pine (or Hiddleston's portrayal of him) was trying a bit too hard to be a spy, and it came off as bland, and Hiddleston is anything but a bland actor.  I think the series needed more levity.

 

2 hours ago, magdalene said:

I have heard a lot of conflicting info on whether this series might continue. AMC had called it a "season finale". The BBC wants to do more because it was a big ratings hit for them. The Le Carre people want to do more.  Laurie and Hiddleston said no in April but in a more recent interview in late April Hiddleston said he would be interested to do more as long as Le Carre was writing.  So who knows. I don't think the series is dead dead.

One thing I forgot is that TNM is a standalone book, so Pine doesn't appear in any other Le Carre stories.  Don't think Burr does, either.  That could be why they put the kibosh on a sequel so quickly.  They don't have another Night Manager book to adapt, so they would have to write a whole new story.  

I can see why AMC would do this because money, but it was kind of dumb to leave such an obvious opening for a sequel.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Amethyst