Swiss uncles and Mallorcan vistas
Mar. 7th, 2016 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Night Manager episode 3
Pine was busy stirring the pot with Burr’s support for most of this episode, which was certainly gripping although I had a few queries. The daughter’s suicide was never really explained – was it really because her daddy worked with arms-dealers or thought that boasting that her gift was the most expensive necklace wasn’t anything short of tacky? Sorry, that’s flip, but my point is that there wasn’t really an explanation for something pretty major other than it was a plot point. Moreover, why did things come to a head between the married couple at Mallorca just then apart from suiting the plot either? I didn’t get the feeling from the missus’s conversation with Pine that things were going to go so bad imminently.
We (and Pine) found more stuff out – we probably know a little more than him – such as that Billy is Jed’s son, and Roper knew. Of course he did. Actually, with Jed filling a stepmother’s role for Danny, it isn’t really clear why she wasn’t upfront about from a twenty-first century perspective. I’m wondering if it was a hangover from the earlier date of publication of the book? She trusted Roper until she found out he was a callous arms dealer – eh, I suppose she didn’t want to burden him with ‘another man’s child’ or make him feel like he had a competitor for her attention when they first met and then thought she couldn’t reveal the truth? Basically Jed is sympathetic, although she’s the latest in the string of women Pine is interested in/involved with (they’re getting away with it because of the actor, but it is very much Bond/male wish fulfilment territory, to the point when the missus said at the poolside that she didn’t want to sleep with him, I was ‘ARE YOU SURE?’ because of both narrative drive and the actor. Ahem).
Despite his being a bad sort, I almost felt sorry for Corky, being squeezed out for being rightly suspicious of Pine. And the thing is, he knows too much, so they aren’t going to let him sail off Mallorca, presumably.
Pine’s relationship with Danny was brilliant. As he’d been ordered to by Roper, he took an interest in the kid – basically filling a paternal void, while using him ruthlessly. We had another flat-out lie about the phone and the way he used Danny to pass on info to Angela at the ice-cream place was pretty good (he kept using ‘Danny,....’ all the time, which was an interesting verbal tic.) There was a lot of Pine the amateur being a pretty good intelligence-gathering operative to enjoy as well as Pine finding his place in ‘the family’ and around Roper.
Meanwhile, we were a step ahead with what the men at MI6 were up to. Their attempt to threaten Rex, who stood up to them brilliantly in the office (his boss seemed a little wet in comparison) and then the bribe – loved, loved, loved how it was phrased. In fact a lot of the dialogue was a pleasure in this episode. And now we know why – they’re in cahoots with Roper, suspicious of ‘Limpet’ (heh) although they’re mainly buying the cover story Mrs Burr sold them, so the goodies are getting away with it, for now. Should I feel sorry for Tobias Menzies getting another villainous role when, if it weren’t for the Hiddlestone, he might have hoped for playing Pine?
Anyway, I enjoyed the glimpses of Mrs Burr’s backstory, although I wondered when she said ‘We keep our promises’ if she can really deliver on that.
The way they shoot Mallorca et cetera continue to be absolutely gorgeous.
Pine was busy stirring the pot with Burr’s support for most of this episode, which was certainly gripping although I had a few queries. The daughter’s suicide was never really explained – was it really because her daddy worked with arms-dealers or thought that boasting that her gift was the most expensive necklace wasn’t anything short of tacky? Sorry, that’s flip, but my point is that there wasn’t really an explanation for something pretty major other than it was a plot point. Moreover, why did things come to a head between the married couple at Mallorca just then apart from suiting the plot either? I didn’t get the feeling from the missus’s conversation with Pine that things were going to go so bad imminently.
We (and Pine) found more stuff out – we probably know a little more than him – such as that Billy is Jed’s son, and Roper knew. Of course he did. Actually, with Jed filling a stepmother’s role for Danny, it isn’t really clear why she wasn’t upfront about from a twenty-first century perspective. I’m wondering if it was a hangover from the earlier date of publication of the book? She trusted Roper until she found out he was a callous arms dealer – eh, I suppose she didn’t want to burden him with ‘another man’s child’ or make him feel like he had a competitor for her attention when they first met and then thought she couldn’t reveal the truth? Basically Jed is sympathetic, although she’s the latest in the string of women Pine is interested in/involved with (they’re getting away with it because of the actor, but it is very much Bond/male wish fulfilment territory, to the point when the missus said at the poolside that she didn’t want to sleep with him, I was ‘ARE YOU SURE?’ because of both narrative drive and the actor. Ahem).
Despite his being a bad sort, I almost felt sorry for Corky, being squeezed out for being rightly suspicious of Pine. And the thing is, he knows too much, so they aren’t going to let him sail off Mallorca, presumably.
Pine’s relationship with Danny was brilliant. As he’d been ordered to by Roper, he took an interest in the kid – basically filling a paternal void, while using him ruthlessly. We had another flat-out lie about the phone and the way he used Danny to pass on info to Angela at the ice-cream place was pretty good (he kept using ‘Danny,....’ all the time, which was an interesting verbal tic.) There was a lot of Pine the amateur being a pretty good intelligence-gathering operative to enjoy as well as Pine finding his place in ‘the family’ and around Roper.
Meanwhile, we were a step ahead with what the men at MI6 were up to. Their attempt to threaten Rex, who stood up to them brilliantly in the office (his boss seemed a little wet in comparison) and then the bribe – loved, loved, loved how it was phrased. In fact a lot of the dialogue was a pleasure in this episode. And now we know why – they’re in cahoots with Roper, suspicious of ‘Limpet’ (heh) although they’re mainly buying the cover story Mrs Burr sold them, so the goodies are getting away with it, for now. Should I feel sorry for Tobias Menzies getting another villainous role when, if it weren’t for the Hiddlestone, he might have hoped for playing Pine?
Anyway, I enjoyed the glimpses of Mrs Burr’s backstory, although I wondered when she said ‘We keep our promises’ if she can really deliver on that.
The way they shoot Mallorca et cetera continue to be absolutely gorgeous.
