The Night Manager - The Complete 1st Season - DVD

Content: Former British soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) works as a night manager in a luxury hotel in Cairo. Actually, Pine generally stays out of the affairs of his guests. This changes when he falls in love with the beautiful Sophie. She is the mistress of Freddie Hamid, the scion of a powerful Egyptian clan that also owns the hotel. When Sophie hands him explosive documents about a shipment of illegal weapons from arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), Pine decides to inform the British Embassy. However, instead of this stopping the deal, this decision only reveals Sophie's betrayal, whereupon she is brutally murdered. Since Pine must assume that he too has been targeted by Sophie's killers, he goes into hiding. With a new identity, he works as a night manager in a hotel in Zermatt, where he lives in complete seclusion. But when, four years later, Roper and his entourage turn up here of all places, old wounds are reopened. When he gets the chance, Pine again gets hold of valuable information about Roper's machinations. This time it ends up in the right hands, namely that of Angela Burr (Olivia Coleman), who heads a small department that is in direct competition with MI6. She convinces Pine to infiltrate Roper's inner circle with a fake CV and a dangerous ruse. But when he actually succeeds, it is only the beginning of a deadly game. Because with operatives from MI6 and other intelligence agencies also on Roper's payroll, his cover could be blown at any moment. And the fact that he's attracted to Jed (Elizabeth Debicki), the arms dealer's mistress, doesn't make his covert operation any less dangerous.

The Night Manager is based on the 1993 novel The Night Manager by John le Carré Oscar-winner Susanne Bier has adapted the 500+ page bestseller as an eight-part mini-series for a collaboration between broadcasters AMC and BBC. She has modernized the story a little, omitted or changed some characters (for example, the man Agent Burr became a very pregnant woman in the series) and also designed the end a little differently than is the case in the novel. But overall, the series sticks closely to the original and presents an old-school spy thriller. This is by no means meant in a negative way. Because The Night Manager really doesn't come across as antiquated. Rather, it means that Beer resists the current trends to enrich such stories with lots of action and fast cuts, and prefers to advance the tension subtly.

She succeeds very well at that, too. Although there are a lot of long dialogue sequences where nothing much really happens, the basic suspenseful atmosphere gets denser and denser from episode to episode. Despite a rather leisurely staging there really isn't anything like boredom for a second. This is partly due to the very engaging imagery, but of course also to the very well chosen actors. Especially Hugh Laurie is great as the ice-cold arms dealer and Tom Hollander steals the show as his unpredictable and always suspicious lackey. Tom Hiddleston is also very well cast as the silent hero. There are a few scenes in which it becomes very clear why rumours spread some time ago that he could become the next James Bond.

The Night Manager is entertaining crime television of the highest order that truly doesn't have to hide from many a motion picture of this genre. Even if the story itself is quite conventional and for lovers of classic spy stories the big surprises are missing, so the series offers everything that needs good entertainment: suspense, good actors, great scenery and a really good villain. For this, the bottom line is a very clear: Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The picture of the DVD presents itself in very warm colors and shows a good to very good overall sharpness. There are minor weaknesses in detail here and there, especially in darker moments. The DTS mix makes the dialogue sound very powerful from the frontal area. Some sound effects and ambient noises provide some movement in the surround every now and then, which is then convincingly filled with life during the action-heavy sequences. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 tracks are also well mixed, but a little less powerful. Good.

Extras: As a bonus, there are eleven interviews with the cast and creators of the mini-series to offer on the third disc (approx. 50:05 mins), in addition to the usual programme tips and some impressions from the premiere of the series at the Berlinale (approx. 3:40 mins). These have the usual promo character, but definitely offer some interesting details about the adaptation of the novel and the filming.

Conclusion: The Night Manager is an exciting mini-series based on the novel by John le Carré. Academy Award winner Susanne Bier has conjured up a gripping spy thriller from the material, using very classic means to create great suspense and also scoring points with great actors and atmospheric locations. The 3-disc DVD set presents the eight episodes in good picture and sound quality. As a bonus, there is only the usual promo material, but the interviews are still worth seeing. Overall, there is a very clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp