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shallownessThe Night Manager
Episode 6
Oh, I love it when a show ends so satisfyingly, emotionally and plotwise. It’s so rare. Being an adaptation of a novel where there’s been consideration of these things must help. There were twists and turns and betrayals and loyalty from the white hats, and it was all so tense. The explosion of the trucks was spectacular and satisfying. Like most episodes of this series, it was gripping.
And Angela was a HEROINE. Once again, the actress’s pregnancy added vulnerability to the character putting herself in dangerous situations, like her insistence on a face to face with Roper, let alone the visit to his room to steal from the safe or dealing with the ‘room service’ call. But despite sniffing at it, she used the gun, disabled the bodyguard (I love characters who remember that that’s an option, rather than dithering over the killshot). Actually, she was great from her attitude in the ‘closed-door hearing’ where she made her distrust of them screamingly clear onwards, and that can’t have been long after the break-in. Colman made Angela so down-to-earth but also extraordinary. And she was smart enough to follow Pine’s line of thought.
And Pine was so smart. Even though Roper was on to him – and having Jed tortured – his schemes to disable Roper and the mix of lying and honesty were gripping. I kept marvelling at his nerve wandering around the hotel and hanging out with Freddie - he was lucky that the hotel seemed to have retained only one staff member over the years, I suppose. And the high-wire act he’d been performing in Roper’s inner circle helped.
At one point, I thought he would kill Roper – after killing Freddie, who seemed to think that being in the room while Sophie was killed meant that there wasn’t blood on his hands. But I take it that it was Freddie’s death, which they ascribed to Roper, as well as his racist patronising (still thinking he was Churchill?) and the loss of the money that meant the buyers were after him at the end. And Angela the enforcement agent could live with that.
Don’t know if Pine had it all planned – how could he? Working out that Caro had returned to spy on Jed was rather brilliant, though – I tend to think he was more about creating problems and obstacles for Roper as things went off, but it was all great.
And Roper really was horrible, blackmailing Caro like that, and JED (huh, short for Jemima). Of course she’d given herself away because she was well past what she could cope with, but went on because she had no choice and had had no choice since her relationship with Roper had started, but it took Jonathan to make her see that. Oh, but it was fun when Sandy, at least, went through the wondering if she was an agent of some sort.
But like Sophie, Jed remained silent. And it made sense, suddenly, that they hadn’t killed her, to use her for some leverage on Jonathan (which didn’t work, but added to the drama). At the end I was all ‘be very kind to Jed’ seeing as she was tortured. Well, she had sex with someone she wanted to have sex with and the promise of a future and to get to see the son she’d probably thought she wouldn’t. (Really liked Debicki’s physicality in the final scene. I look forward to seeing more of her work. Acturally, rewatching her in The Man from UNCLE is now going to be more interesting.)
We ended back where we’d started (almost), except nowhere near there at all. (Er, I wonder what Jonathan did with the three hundred million.)
And it all clicked together, and it was great pay-off for what we’ve all been through. Excellent work, everyone.
There’s a film adaptation of another Le Carre book (with a female director! Featuring Ewan McGregor with what looks like bad hair, Naomie Harris, Damian Lewis, Mark Gatiss and Stellan Skarsgaard) comng out soon. I’m wondering if it’s going to come a little too soon after this adaptation, which has made the most of its six hour length to let us get to know the characters, follow their ups and downs and swelter with them in the tension.) Having said that, I’ve never bingsed on Le Carre books, maybe it’s not a bad experience.
Episode 6
Oh, I love it when a show ends so satisfyingly, emotionally and plotwise. It’s so rare. Being an adaptation of a novel where there’s been consideration of these things must help. There were twists and turns and betrayals and loyalty from the white hats, and it was all so tense. The explosion of the trucks was spectacular and satisfying. Like most episodes of this series, it was gripping.
And Angela was a HEROINE. Once again, the actress’s pregnancy added vulnerability to the character putting herself in dangerous situations, like her insistence on a face to face with Roper, let alone the visit to his room to steal from the safe or dealing with the ‘room service’ call. But despite sniffing at it, she used the gun, disabled the bodyguard (I love characters who remember that that’s an option, rather than dithering over the killshot). Actually, she was great from her attitude in the ‘closed-door hearing’ where she made her distrust of them screamingly clear onwards, and that can’t have been long after the break-in. Colman made Angela so down-to-earth but also extraordinary. And she was smart enough to follow Pine’s line of thought.
And Pine was so smart. Even though Roper was on to him – and having Jed tortured – his schemes to disable Roper and the mix of lying and honesty were gripping. I kept marvelling at his nerve wandering around the hotel and hanging out with Freddie - he was lucky that the hotel seemed to have retained only one staff member over the years, I suppose. And the high-wire act he’d been performing in Roper’s inner circle helped.
At one point, I thought he would kill Roper – after killing Freddie, who seemed to think that being in the room while Sophie was killed meant that there wasn’t blood on his hands. But I take it that it was Freddie’s death, which they ascribed to Roper, as well as his racist patronising (still thinking he was Churchill?) and the loss of the money that meant the buyers were after him at the end. And Angela the enforcement agent could live with that.
Don’t know if Pine had it all planned – how could he? Working out that Caro had returned to spy on Jed was rather brilliant, though – I tend to think he was more about creating problems and obstacles for Roper as things went off, but it was all great.
And Roper really was horrible, blackmailing Caro like that, and JED (huh, short for Jemima). Of course she’d given herself away because she was well past what she could cope with, but went on because she had no choice and had had no choice since her relationship with Roper had started, but it took Jonathan to make her see that. Oh, but it was fun when Sandy, at least, went through the wondering if she was an agent of some sort.
But like Sophie, Jed remained silent. And it made sense, suddenly, that they hadn’t killed her, to use her for some leverage on Jonathan (which didn’t work, but added to the drama). At the end I was all ‘be very kind to Jed’ seeing as she was tortured. Well, she had sex with someone she wanted to have sex with and the promise of a future and to get to see the son she’d probably thought she wouldn’t. (Really liked Debicki’s physicality in the final scene. I look forward to seeing more of her work. Acturally, rewatching her in The Man from UNCLE is now going to be more interesting.)
We ended back where we’d started (almost), except nowhere near there at all. (Er, I wonder what Jonathan did with the three hundred million.)
And it all clicked together, and it was great pay-off for what we’ve all been through. Excellent work, everyone.
There’s a film adaptation of another Le Carre book (with a female director! Featuring Ewan McGregor with what looks like bad hair, Naomie Harris, Damian Lewis, Mark Gatiss and Stellan Skarsgaard) comng out soon. I’m wondering if it’s going to come a little too soon after this adaptation, which has made the most of its six hour length to let us get to know the characters, follow their ups and downs and swelter with them in the tension.) Having said that, I’ve never bingsed on Le Carre books, maybe it’s not a bad experience.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-03 08:21 am (UTC)