The Night Manager (Season 2)
Feb. 8th, 2026 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI am really torn about this one. On the one hand, all the downsides I assumed when first hearing about this and when watching the trailer turned out not to be the case. On the other hand, something I hadn't expected did happen - two somethings, actually - and both to my favourite character from the original, and I'm still massively annoyed about this.
What I thought/feared: because The Night Manager had been such a success, they'd simply go for the (unnecessary) repeat sequel formula, with Jonathan Pine motivated by personal loss and vengeance (again), and the two new characters, arms dealer Teddy Santos, as a Richard Roper copy, and the sole woman focused on in the trailer, Roxana, in the role of beautiful girlfriend of the villain falling in love with our hero. This turned out not to be the case, though the first episode seemed to indicate it would be, with just enough differences to make it entertaining. Then more episodes happened, and I sat up and thought: Oh. Oh. That....is actually a really clever twist on the formula. Or several. But also, come episode 3, the first of the two things happened. And, well, I can't talk about this without spoilers....
For example, I practically groaned when our seeming new antagonist Teddy was introduced calling himself "the true heir of Richard Roper", which seemed a very artificial way to connect him to the previous villain. And I did have my suspicions about Roper because I read the credits, and Hugh Laurie - like Tom Hiddleston - was credited as executive producer, which I don't think he would have been just for permission to use some of the flashbacks featuring him in the first episode and the one scene were Angela Burr identifies his body. (More about this in a second.) And then, sure enough, we get the mid season reveal that not only is Teddy Roper's illegitimate son, but lo, Richard R. is alive and plotting his supervillain comeback.
Except, though: Teddy was not meant to be the second Roper, or even the season's main or secondary antagonist. Instead, he was this season's Jed - the tragic and damaged damsel in temporary league with the villain but then falling in love with our hero. (Mind you, this last bit came after the show made it clear how dangerous Teddy is to other people; the fact that Daddy Issues brought him into this and that Roper is exploiting him doesn't make the people Teddy killed and exploited in turn less dead and exploited.) Whereas Roxana was a hardcore survivor repeatedly switching sides not because of changing affections but going with whichever side seemed to be most likely to let her get out of this alive. (Which in the end she does.) The true triangle of the season wasn't Jonathan Pine - Teddy/Eduardo - Roxana but Jonathan Pine - Teddy - Roper, and as opposed to the first season, where I thought any homoeroticism was one sided because Jonathan really came across as despising Roper, this time the show doubled down on the not-even-subtext anymore, and had Jonathan come to actually care for Teddy while giving Roper a "worthy opponent" type of obsession.
So far, so good. But here's what sticks in my throat: the treatment of Angela Burr. Her hardly being in the show (I think three five minute scenes over eight episodes) may be due to Olivia Colman by now being too busy or too expensive or both. But: firstly, in order to allow Roper to successfully fake his death, they had him blackmailing her to misidentify him. How does he do that while on the run from angry Syrians? He threatens to kill her, her child (not present) and husband. How? And even if she saw no other way but giving in for the moment, why wouldn't the practical and clever woman from s1 find a way to turn the tables the moment the immediate danger is past as opposed to waiting several years? And secondly: then they kill her off at the end of the show.
Now, about the ending: when things went well for our heroes through three quarters of the final episode but we did see Roper figure out Jonathan must have gotten to Teddy, I had an inkling we might get an unhappy ending. And yes, depressingly, it fits the times: The Richard Ropers of this world are winning in a world that increasingly values greed above anything else. Leaders of spy agencies are more likely to be like Moira (not sure about the spelling, Indira Varma's character) than like Angela Burr, and would not hesitate to kill someone like Angela who had almost managed to topple them. It's not that all of this doesn't make sense within the story, and you can't even accuse the story of nihilism because Jonathan Pine's acts of kindness also have long term results and are responsible for him still being alive by the end (though hardly anyone else is). But because we're living in such ghastly times, I like my fiction with a bit more optimism, I guess, and definitely with my favourite character not first being made to look less competent than she was, and then dead.
If this is theThe Empire Roper Strikes Back of the new Night Manager verse, I have to point out Luke wasn't the only Jedi still standing at the end of that movie...
P.S. Hang on: Roxana as Lando Calrissian?
What I thought/feared: because The Night Manager had been such a success, they'd simply go for the (unnecessary) repeat sequel formula, with Jonathan Pine motivated by personal loss and vengeance (again), and the two new characters, arms dealer Teddy Santos, as a Richard Roper copy, and the sole woman focused on in the trailer, Roxana, in the role of beautiful girlfriend of the villain falling in love with our hero. This turned out not to be the case, though the first episode seemed to indicate it would be, with just enough differences to make it entertaining. Then more episodes happened, and I sat up and thought: Oh. Oh. That....is actually a really clever twist on the formula. Or several. But also, come episode 3, the first of the two things happened. And, well, I can't talk about this without spoilers....
For example, I practically groaned when our seeming new antagonist Teddy was introduced calling himself "the true heir of Richard Roper", which seemed a very artificial way to connect him to the previous villain. And I did have my suspicions about Roper because I read the credits, and Hugh Laurie - like Tom Hiddleston - was credited as executive producer, which I don't think he would have been just for permission to use some of the flashbacks featuring him in the first episode and the one scene were Angela Burr identifies his body. (More about this in a second.) And then, sure enough, we get the mid season reveal that not only is Teddy Roper's illegitimate son, but lo, Richard R. is alive and plotting his supervillain comeback.
Except, though: Teddy was not meant to be the second Roper, or even the season's main or secondary antagonist. Instead, he was this season's Jed - the tragic and damaged damsel in temporary league with the villain but then falling in love with our hero. (Mind you, this last bit came after the show made it clear how dangerous Teddy is to other people; the fact that Daddy Issues brought him into this and that Roper is exploiting him doesn't make the people Teddy killed and exploited in turn less dead and exploited.) Whereas Roxana was a hardcore survivor repeatedly switching sides not because of changing affections but going with whichever side seemed to be most likely to let her get out of this alive. (Which in the end she does.) The true triangle of the season wasn't Jonathan Pine - Teddy/Eduardo - Roxana but Jonathan Pine - Teddy - Roper, and as opposed to the first season, where I thought any homoeroticism was one sided because Jonathan really came across as despising Roper, this time the show doubled down on the not-even-subtext anymore, and had Jonathan come to actually care for Teddy while giving Roper a "worthy opponent" type of obsession.
So far, so good. But here's what sticks in my throat: the treatment of Angela Burr. Her hardly being in the show (I think three five minute scenes over eight episodes) may be due to Olivia Colman by now being too busy or too expensive or both. But: firstly, in order to allow Roper to successfully fake his death, they had him blackmailing her to misidentify him. How does he do that while on the run from angry Syrians? He threatens to kill her, her child (not present) and husband. How? And even if she saw no other way but giving in for the moment, why wouldn't the practical and clever woman from s1 find a way to turn the tables the moment the immediate danger is past as opposed to waiting several years? And secondly: then they kill her off at the end of the show.
Now, about the ending: when things went well for our heroes through three quarters of the final episode but we did see Roper figure out Jonathan must have gotten to Teddy, I had an inkling we might get an unhappy ending. And yes, depressingly, it fits the times: The Richard Ropers of this world are winning in a world that increasingly values greed above anything else. Leaders of spy agencies are more likely to be like Moira (not sure about the spelling, Indira Varma's character) than like Angela Burr, and would not hesitate to kill someone like Angela who had almost managed to topple them. It's not that all of this doesn't make sense within the story, and you can't even accuse the story of nihilism because Jonathan Pine's acts of kindness also have long term results and are responsible for him still being alive by the end (though hardly anyone else is). But because we're living in such ghastly times, I like my fiction with a bit more optimism, I guess, and definitely with my favourite character not first being made to look less competent than she was, and then dead.
If this is the
P.S. Hang on: Roxana as Lando Calrissian?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 12:25 am (UTC)