The Night Manager (2016) - SPOILER-FREE Review

Directed by: Susanne Bier

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hollander

Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is a former British soldier that now works as a night manager for a luxurious hotel. After a very important guest asks him for help, his actions take him to Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) and his world, as he is a powerful arms dealer.

Before watching a movie or a TV series, there are some details that I just know they're going to be an excellent major pro for it. When a series like this casts two actors (Hiddleston and Laurie) of this caliber, I instantly knew that their performances would be carrying the entire show. I wasn't wrong, Hiddleston and Laurie have so many amazing scenes, either between them or with other (great) supporting characters, like Olivia Colman (Angela Burr) or Elizabeth Debicki (Jed), but that's not only due to the quality of each of them.

If the script isn't great, then it doesn't matter how good the cast is, the show is going to be bad. The writing for The Night Manager is SO smart and captivating. There's barely action sequences throughout the series, so for me to be entertaining and focused on its story, the script has to be nearly perfect ... And it is. Brilliant.

It's not that hard. A great script and a top cast make a pretty good TV series on their own, but the story is also really interesting. Everything from the arms dealing's work to Pine's espionage is very well directed, even if my major issue with this show comes within this topic. It's a shame that a script so intelligent has to develop its story through so many exposition scenes. I mean, there's literally an episode where a kid tells Hiddleston's character EVERYTHING he needs to know in order to discover some new stuff about Roper's work. Some of the information, he didn't even ask for it...

Another issue that I have with the story, is that all of this starts due to this relationship between Pine and a woman. It's super cheesy and I didn't buy it, not even for a second. I think it's too forced in order to actually have a story (even if it's not the only reason why Pine started his spy work).

The Night Manager is still a great miniseries. It has a perfect cast, great characters (even more the supporting ones), very smart and captivating writing, and an interesting plot. Too much exposition scenes and a forced romance bring it down a little, but I binge-watched this show in one day. That's the best compliment I can give it.

| A+ : 9.3-10 | A: 8.7-9.2 | A- : 8.0-8.6 | B+ : 7.3-7.9 | B: 6.7-7.2 | B- : 6.0-6.6 || C+ : 5.3-5.9 | C: 4.7-5.2 | C- : 4.0-4.6 | D+ : 3.3-3.9 | D: 2.7-3.2 | D- : 2.0-2.6 | F: 0-1.9 |