This review is based on the first two episodes of The Night Manager season 2.
Oh, how long I waited for the BBC’s The Night Manager to return.
It’s slick, suave, gripping, full of suspense – in short, it’s everything I want from a spy thriller, especially one that I hope will return for a decade.
When the first season premiered on the BBC in 2016, I remember watching it while sitting on the edge of my seat, gripped by the tension between Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and wanting to know how the explosive ending would unfold – and it blew up.
The series is brilliant as a standalone series, based on the 1993 novel by renowned espionage author John le Carré. If those six episodes were all we could get of a TV show about Jonathan Pine, then that would be fine (although it would be a bitter pill to swallow).
But, thank goodness the creators of this series decided to return, because there is much more to Pine’s story and his great potential as a secret agent that can be explored in the second season. The phrase ‘better late than never’ feels more appropriate.
This time, Jonathan Pine initially works as a lowly MI6 agent in the department tasked with monitoring others – The Night Owls.
After everything that happened with arms dealer Richard Roper (Laurie), he now goes by a different name: Alex Goodwin. His work was important, but he remained out of the limelight, remaining in the shadows. Just where he likes it.
Of course we won’t have a story if his life stays like this. When talking to Metro at the season two premiere in London, writer David Farr explained that the masterminds behind the series were talking about a possible return for years with le Carré’s blessing – but they didn’t want to just ‘ruin’ him. First, he had to come up with a gripping story, which he ultimately did.
When does The Night Manager season 2 come out?
The Night Manager season 2 begins on New Year’s Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
The first episode of the new season will air on Thursday 1 January at 9.05pm on BBC One, and episode two will air on Sunday 4 January at 9pm.
Both episodes will be available to stream on iPlayer starting January 1.
Episode three will air on Sunday 11 January at 9pm on BBC One, and will be available to watch on iPlayer on the same day.
There will be a total of six episodes.
The Night Manager season two is more than just le Carré’s novel, but it still takes elements from the story. The novel is actually set in Colombia, where the second season takes place – so the show is returning to its roots while also treading new ground at the same time.
Pine (aka Goodwin) has a quiet life in London, working very unsociable hours. His job involved going to a nondescript office to study hotel CCTV footage with his colleagues. He is in charge of the department, whose main purpose is to supervise, not engage in any action.
Richard Roper is gone, as the trailer confirms he has been dead since the events of season one. But his legacy lives on.
A decade later, a growing threat emerged in the arms industry, with one figure referring to themselves as ‘Roper’s disciples’. When Roper’s name was mentioned, Pine couldn’t resist leaving his desk job to get back into the action.
It doesn’t help that he’s constantly sleep-deprived and Roper’s nightmares haunt his every move. You can feel the tension bubbling up Pine’s skin with every double glance and sideways glance Hiddleston makes. He’s a restless person, so it’s no surprise that he jumps back into his old life at the first opportunity.
Just like the actor who plays him, Pine is an easygoing chameleon. His new mission requires him to assume a new personality so he can get close to Colombian arms dealer Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), who is featured as the story’s new antagonist.
Much like Roper, Dos Santos has a swagger and charm that draws people to him like moths to moths, even when they know how dangerous he is. He can be destructive, but he also seems very attractive, even to Pine.
Someone who shares her charisma is businesswoman Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), someone Pine first meets in London, and then again in Colombia when she adopts another new identity. She had to trust that he would not reveal his true intentions, despite not knowing whether he could be trusted.
They don’t trust each other, but there’s no denying that their chemistry is getting better.
Night Manager season two wastes no time in getting all of us up to speed who have been waiting a decade for this story. It feels real and real, unlike many other action dramas on the streamer today.
Verdict on The Night Manager season 2
Night Manager season two is a great return to form after the first season aired a decade ago. Tom Hiddleston transforms back into the ever-observant and meticulous Jonathan Pine, but this time he’s even more tormented than before, as the ghost of Richard Roper haunts his every move. Having only watched the first two episodes, I can’t say for sure whether this drama will reach the same level of brilliance as the drama in its first season, but I have high hopes.
Hiddleston said Metro at the premiere that Pine was initially a representation of le Carré himself, who later handed over the reins to the actor playing his literary character – and it comes through in Loki’s stellar performance.
‘He said very generous things from the start,’ he told us of his conversation with the late author. ‘I asked him if there was anything I needed to know about playing Pine. He said, “Tom, you must have guessed it by now, Jonathan Pine is me, and now he must be you.”’
Pine may be traveling the world, making a fortune, and befriending terrifying villains, but he’s still exploring reality, one of the reasons why I think he’s so beloved by audiences in 2016.
He is a man thrown to the wolves, but he himself emerges as a feared predator.
I know that today, on New Year’s Day, many people recovering from their antics the night before will enjoy the first two episodes of this thriller as much as I did. Watching Tom Hiddleston return to action is the perfect way to start 2026.
The Night Manager season 2 premieres on New Year’s Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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