TV Tuesday: The Night Manager

This winter, many of my friends in the UK were raving about a new TV series there called The Night Manager and starring Hugh Laurie (of House fame). Alas, repeated checks of Amazon, Netflix, and our cable On Demand showed that it wasn't available here in the US...but now it is! Being broadcast on AMC as a "miniseries event" (I guess that is how they are dealing with the shorter seasons typical in the UK), the first season, with 6 episodes, can now be seen by US viewers, too. We have seen 3 episodes so far and are enjoying this tense spy thriller.

The show is based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré. Jonathan Pine, played by Tom Hiddleston who has been rumored as a possibility for the next James Bond, works at a luxury hotel in Egypt as the night manager. He's happy with this quiet job after years in the military. A gorgeous hotel guest named Sophie attracts his attention. She is the mistress of Freddie Hamid, a notorious criminal who owns much of Cairo. Sophie gives Jonathan an envelope of confidential documents to copy, and when he does so, he sees that they include lists of illegal weapons and chemical warfare agents being sold to Hamid by a company called Ironlast, whose CEO Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie, is also a visitor to the hotel. Jonathan turns the documents over to authorities in England (where he is from), but his actions have devastating effects.

Jonathan flees Egypt and becomes night manager at a remote hotel in the Swiss Alps, where - 5 years later - Roper shows up again as a hotel guest with his entourage. A British intelligence agent named Angela Burr, played by Olivia Colman, contacts Jonathan to ask him to go undercover and become a part of Roper's organization. Still feeling guilt over what happened in Cairo and knowing from his military experience what harm this kind of weapons dealing can do, he agrees. From then, there is a complex process to help him get into Roper's inner circle.

It might sound a little bit complicated, but all spy thrillers start out that way, don't they? Once Angela recruits Jonathan, the plot is fairly straightforward. We are on episode three so far (the episodes are longer than usual for US shows, as is typical for the UK). The acting so far has been superb. We'd heard that from others with respect to Hugh Laurie (who here is a charming bad guy, whereas on House he was a good guy with no charm), but Tom Hiddleston is equally as good as the newbie undercover spy. The settings are incredible - gorgeous places all over the world. We are hooked so far and enjoying the suspense and tension.

We have been watching The Night Manager On Demand through our cable provider, as the episodes air on AMC (Tuesdays at 10 pm Eastern Time). They are also available for $1.99 on Amazon.

Have you seen The Night Manager yet? What do you think of it? What other thrillers do you enjoy on TV?