Anything Good on TV ? (Page 86 of 86)

Third episode.
They seem to be presenting a different character's version of events in each episode. This is very tiring as I have to watch every incident twice (or three times at one point, I think) without any explanation. There is an awful lot of detail not being presented to the audience. I do hope they clear it all up at the end. It all looks good and has sterling acting, quite authentic too - apparently the BBC has received complaints about the glamorisation of smoking. It's also a bit slow.

Last edited by chrisno1 (13th Jan 2021 01:31)

THE NIGHT MANAGER

I'm not going to spend ages on this.

A very well received 6 part series based on John Le Carre's novel. I missed it first time around. It wasn't as good as everybody kept telling me it was. It was good, just not that good.

It covered similar ground, plot wise, to the government / drug company cover-up the author utilised for The Constant Gardner. This time his accidental undercover investigator is an ex-soldier, which helps with the rough stuff, of which there is some. It also explains Jonathon Pine's straight backed exterior. I can see why bets started being laid on Tom Hiddlestone becoming 007. He spends the first four episodes doing his best Daniel Craig impression, even down to the slightly knowing half-smile. When forced to impersonate an arms dealer, Tom morphs into Loki from Marvel's Avengers, all big grins and smarmy attitude. It's an interesting portrayal. I was bemused by his ability to always be watching when something significant happens. This, I suppose, was meant to be a nod to his former job as a night manager in exclusive flashy hotels. I've not ever stayed in a really exclusive hotel, but I'm fairly certain the night manager doesn't get involved in half the exploits Pine does.

Hugh Laurie stood out as the sickening and rather slick illegal arms trader Richard Roper. His mistress, Jed, played by Elizabeth Debicki, was good looking but eminently forgettable. Tom Hollander chipped in as a nasty henchman.

Olivia Coleman I simply don't like, so she did nothing for me. I found her character - the insignificant sidelined crusading agent Angela Burr - to be tiresome.

The story progressed at a sedate pace, occasionally enlivened by some violence or dramatic tension. It's all about character and personality. Most of Le Carre's books are, so the adaptations tend to be the same. Lots of chit-chat over drinks (the alcohol consumption was enormous) and lots of hidden meanings behind the caustic lines and delicate smiles.

It resolves itself in a robust manner.

My main issue, aside form the length of the thing - I could probably have read the book in six hours - was the number of inconsistencies which kept happening. For instance: it was never properly explained how Burr's team manged to wangle a fake job for Pine at Roper's favourite restaurant; and no one investigates this properly; lots of mobile phone use, except when they really should; an alarm is set off and no one ever checks the alarm log, or the monitoring service never calls; Jed goes nude swimming and leaves her dinner dress in the sea - the party isn't even half-over at this point so what's she wear later?; why does Jed visit Pine in his beach cottage?; inquiries at  government level occur faster than I can snap my fingers - no they don't; the arms dealers perform a weapons display barely a few hundred yards from a refugee camp; Pine never returns a phone he's stolen and no one mentions it's never been found; mobiles were banned at Roper's place, but several people have them and use them; there's a whole episode set in Devon which is meant to provide Pine with a fabricated history, but given it's only one or two incidents and Burr creates a whole fresh background for Pine anyway, why did they bother? I could go on.

It didn't hinder my enjoyment. It's a well made show. Well written, nice music, photography, very Bond-like credit sequence. In fact I almost felt the director was trying to make this into some kind of surrogate Bond movie. A few car chases and a couple of nifty gadgets and they could almost say it was.

Good marks, but I'm not going overboard. It's a lot better than that bore-fest The Little Drummer Girl the Beeb did a couple of years later.

Maybe I should have watched it the first time.

Last edited by chrisno1 (13th Jan 2021 02:22)

If that's not ChrisNo1 spending ages on a review, I hate to see the unedited version! 

He has slightly rained on my parade, but there are some good critical points. My view is - now that NTTD is going to be delayed yet again, The Night Manager is a damn fine stop-gap until that time comes. I'd say I enjoyed it more than most Bond films of the last 20 years (not hard, I admit) and it riffs on a number of plot points and scenes you'll find in past Bonds.

The term 'night manager' refers to a hotel's night staff receptionist or rather maitre'd who knows the secrets and has to deal with all sorts of eventualities, almost like a party chief whip. It's ironic because in the early Bonds for sure our hero was always checking in to hotels and the receptionist would have no real role except to eye up Bond.

What I liked best was how great it looked. The location work is terrific, the photography and the various places on view are for more enjoyable than what you see in the Bonds, which frankly can seem a bit depressing. In LTK, Bond checks in to a hotel and, looking around, declares it 'adequate' in one of those awkward moments of humour for Dalton. Okay, it had a kind of restrained opulence but it just didn't do much for me. And. you can apply that to so many of his venues - the hotel room in Qos, maybe even in CR and then that place in TWINE where he spends the night with Elektra. All these places may be quite nice but in retrospect a bit depressing. Even when you go back to OHMSS, the whole Piz Gloria thing is a bit chintzy and Bond going from one hotel room to another is all rather claustrophobic.

You don't get that with TNM    The venues look like where you might get some great sex on offer if you took the missus, the other places you'd spend checking out the plasma TV functions. They look sexy, chic, modern, boutique. They make you really want to be rich so you could afford this stuff, you see the point of it.
To be fair, the makers are trying to show how the arms dealers get to enjoy the fruits of their immoral trade, almost a bit like the fine lifestyle of the drug traffickers in The French Connection. In contrast, you sometimes feel the Bond producers are a bit shy about showing Bond enjoying the high life at the taxpayers' expense.

I'll put the rest in spoilers because if you haven't seen it, you'll enjoy picking up the Bond connections.

The above is redacted. You can only see it by permission of a court order.

Hugh Laurie is so awesome as a villain, by far the best thing about the Night Manager. I think maybe he's just doing Bertie Wooster with a deeper voice and more brains and really scary. Similar mannerisms otherwise.

Theres another film from about the same period, called Tomorrowland where he also plays a Bondvillain type, if you like this performance. Slightly sillier but similar characterization.

I could never get into House, but am impressed by Laurie's performance: an incredible transformation. What I really like is his early British comedy: Black Adder, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and Jeeves and Wooster.

He has written a novel called  The Gun Seller, and I gather its a spy thriller, involving arms dealers(!) which should certainly qualify him for the role of Dickie Roper. Has anybody read The Gun Seller? recommend it?

I shall have to look for this book when it feels safe to go into bookstores again.

another item in Hugh Laurie's resume that surely must have qualified him for a role in this spy thriller:
a recurring sketch in A Bit of Fry and Laurie about two secret agents called Control and Tony that seems be based on more typical le Carre plots. Difference is he's playing one of the good guys in this one.

another example
and another
yet another
here's one more

I read it years ago, it's good spy fun, yes. It's not a comedy at all, but a good action thriller. Well worth a read.