‘The Night Manager’: Tom Hiddleston Brings Fresh Style and Intrigue To Long-Awaited Second Season of Acclaimed John le Carré Adaptation

Alci Rengifo

With streaming we have become accustomed to lengthy gaps between the seasons of shows. A decade would still be considered quite the stretch, but thankfully “The Night Manager” returns just as sharp, stylish and immersive as the award-winning first season from 2016. It was always a boost that it adapts a novel by spy master John le Carré, staying true to the writer’s combination of suspense and intelligence. Tom Hiddleston does not miss a beat, returning to his role as hotel night manager turned M16 agent Jonathan Pine, haunted by the events of last season but still sharp and charming. The plot feeds out of the previous adventure with the same addiction to international headlines and smart character development.

As we catch up with Jonathan is still an MI6 agent but keeping out of field work. Now he runs a surveillance unit, known as the Night Owls, that keeps track of CCTV footage from London’s priciest locales, on the lookout for potential terrorist threats. Our hero also goes by a new name, Alex Goodwin. During a typical surveillance job, Jonathan is startled to see a man who he recognizes as a mercenary who used to work for arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), the villain from last season now presumed dead. He instantly gets the team to start searching for information on the man, which leads to a trail leading all the way to Colombia, where a rising arms dealer, Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), seems to be continuing the work Roper began. 

The first season of “The Night Manager” was notable for its craft and a cast that only grew in prominence over the years including Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Debicki, and Tobias Menzies. This new outing is wise in acting like a decade has indeed passed. We get a brief flashback in the first episode where Jonathan and Angela Burr (Colman) identify Roper’s corpse, just to tie up that plot thread. In the present, Jonathan is a little older and more haunted, still emotionally unnerved by the people he had to kill to stop Roper. He has little desire to return to being an undercover operative, but his obsession with the destruction Roper left behind pushes him to jump back in. In classic spy thriller fashion, the plot then delivers some entertainingly sultry sights. Medellin, Colombia becomes the prime locale, lit with shadowy tropical intrigue. 

The Colombian angle helps introduce an excellent new villain in Teddy Dos Santos, played with seductive menace by Diego Calva. He is one of those criminals with the subdued presence of a viper, seeming to read Jonathan with his eyes. You cannot send a spy into South America without finding him a sexy love interest. Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), a businesswoman connected to Dos Santos, becomes that interest for Jonathan. As their relationship intensifies, it only puts them both in more danger, etc. They have a lot of that classic banter of, “Can I trust you?” Neither one can be quite sure of who is actually fooling whom. That does not stop them from having steamy moments, of course. 

While Olivia Colman does return, it is a briefer role than in the first season. As if taking inspiration from Apple TV’s “Slow Horses,” this season of “The Night Manager” puts more effort into equipping Jonathan with his own ragtag band of fellow spies. Hayley Squires is particularly affecting as Sally Price-Jones, a green Night Owl who gets rattled by everyone’s big new boss at MI6, Mayra Cavendish (a no-nonsense Indira Varma). Paul Chahidi also stands out as Basil Karapetian, one of those characters who we never quite know if he is truly helping Jonathan or keeping tabs for the higher ups. These are keen actors in a series where there are plenty of explosions, hit jobs and chases, but where the action services the story. It is another thrilling spy yarn that taps into the recent history of narco and guerrilla violence in Colombia (as cliché as that can still sound), but the true heart of the enterprise is Jonathan as a haunted, wandering operative. Other spies want to save the world. This one wants to stop the villains while saving what’s left of his soul.

“The Night Manager” season two begins streaming Jan. 11 with new episodes premiering Sundays on Prime Video.