I love a good miniseries.
Less commitment than a full TV show but more developed than a movie, miniseries are usually the perfect length for more experienced bingewatchers to fully consume on a lazy Saturday.
No one makes a better miniseries than BBC, and when they combine their talents with that of AMC and Ink Factory on an adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 novel “The Night Manager,” it’s no wonder that the resulting six-episode series makes for some of the best television of the year.
And in an era of TV excellence, that’s saying something.
We’re introduced to Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine as he calmly strolls through a riot in the midst of the 2011 Arab Spring. Bricks whiz by, gunshots split the air and cars burn around him, but he doesn’t seem scared in the least.
If anything, he’s exhilarated and maybe a little amused. This is a man who’s seen worse.
“The Night Manager” follows Pine, a former soldier, as he goes from the relative safety of his hotel management job to a complex British Intelligence plot against an international arms dealer. Carrying the series on his charismatic shoulders, Hiddleston is endlessly charming, unfailingly polite and astonishingly handsome.
Seriously, I never truly understood the Hiddleston mania before — boy, do I get it now.
Recruited by an intelligence officer after he stumbles onto documents detailing an arms deal, Pine infiltrates the closely guarded world of billionaire Richard Roper, described early on as “the worst man in the world.”
Played to perfection by Hugh Laurie, Roper is the ultimate gentleman-villain. I have to admit, though, after watching eight seasons of “House,” it’s still jarring for me to hear Laurie speak in his native British accent.
The entire cast is top notch, but Olivia Colman is especially delightful as Pine’s rough, tough and endearingly dowdy handler, Angela Burr, who was originally a male character in le Carré’s book. As the series progresses, things move back and forth from Pine’s infiltration within Roper’s organization to Burr’s struggle with her own government’s shady dealings.
Graceful goddess Elizabeth Debicki rounds out the cast with a dose of elegance and flawless bone structure as Roper’s much younger beau. At a staggering 6-foot-3, she towers over literally everyone else on the show, and I loved every minute of it.
Proving that explosions and body counts do not make a spy saga, “The Night Manager” puts much of the recent espionage fare to shame.
If the series reaches half the popularity in America that it attained in the UK, Hiddleston and Debicki may find themselves in even heavier demand in the coming years.
Serving, arguably, as Hiddleston’s six-episode audition for James Bond, “The Night Manager” may even pave his way to martinis and Aston Martins.
And what an audition it is.
Kate Halliwell
@Kate__Halliwell
