I wasn’t planning on watching this as it seemed over-hyped, but it got a pretty good review on NPR this morning, so I think I’ll give it a try. I’ve never watched whatever medical show Hugh Laurie is famous for, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything else, so I’m not bringing any HL baggage to the viewing. Plus, it’s AMC, so I trust them to do something good.
Anyone else planning on watching it? I figured we could make due with one thread for the whole series-- it’s only 6 episodes, IIRC.
The DVR is set to record it. Whether we’ll end up watching it an episode at a time, or wait until it’s done and watch it all in a weekend, remains to be determined…it depends in large part on the schedules for all the other shows we’re recording at the same time.
This one has a pretty straightforward story, if a tad implausible in places. The scenery is pretty spectacular, and the performances are good - Tom Hollander being the standout.
You can tell episode one the Hugh Laurie character is extremely sinister. I also get the feeling there’s more to the eye than Loki dude just “settling” to be a night manager at a hotel. Looking forward to the next 5 episodes.
AMC is taking a huge risk here; British TV dramas do not at the same dramatic pace as American ones do. But you can hardly go wrong with the two co-stars.
What was Roper spitting into the champagne bottle? I thought it was pistachio shells. Later Pine goes through the garbage, empties out the champagne bottle, AND steals the SIM cards from the burner phones. Would there be SIM cards in the bottle as well?
I love Olivia Colman. She’s the George Smiley of the show.
Having seen it when it ran on the BBC, stylishly done and very watchable. No Tinker, Tailor nor Smiley’s People to be sure, but acceptable as War & Peace methadone. The changes from the book are pretty sensible.
I subscribed to SlingTV today so I could watch this. Not good with deferred gratification.
This series is only six episodes and one whole episode (1/6 of the series) dealt with Sophie, her unlikely seduction of the Night Manager, and her totally predictable murder. That could have been handled in 15 minutes. (I’m really glad nothing happened to the dog, however. I was sweating that one.)
Everyone watching knew that as soon as she went up those stairs, she was toast. How come Mr. Pine had to be tipped off by the cop from Broadchurch?
Also, earlier when he told Sophie on the phone that London was out of the question, why didn’t he say, “It’s because Hamid’s family is all over the place. You wouldn’t be any safer there than you are here, but I’m not giving up,” instead of letting her think he WAS abandoning her?
I also thought the much-anticipated Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a disappointment, but I’m still loyal to le Carré from the Cold War days. I re-watched *The Spy Who Came in from the Cold *recently-- 1965, Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner. Cold, indeed. I saw it when it came out-- I was in high school and all my friends and I were in love with Richard Burton and his incredible voice. I wonder what watching that film would be like for a young person today who never experienced the looming, ominous shadow of the Berlin Wall that even fell on high school girls in the USA…
I really liked Ep 1. I didn’t even care that there wasn’t much action. Good, well paced thriller. My only complaint would be Roper’s on-point questioning of Pine as if he had a reason to suspect him. He’s just some random guy, one of dozens he’s going to encounter every day.
He dumped the shells and the sims at the same time, it wasn’t super clear to me either. Initially I thought he was going after the shells to get dna or something and was surprised to see sim cards fall into his hand.
Roper’s the evil genius. These guys don’t get to be where they are (massive arms dealers) without some skills. One would be to remember persons/names in a savant way - think asperger’s syndrome. He has a mole in the British Intelligence service and contact with the Hamid’s in Egypt relating to the failed arms deal there. Hamid had dealings with Pine peripheral to the beating and murder of the mistress. Pine’s name may have come up from multiple sources. Could have excited a neuron deep in Roper’s brain from four years ago.
Also, Pine is a witness to the meeting in Switzerland. Everybody gets questioned. One of Roper’s skills may be judging persons by their reactions to pointed questions/directions. One example was directing Pine to deliver champagne to the girl in tub prior to calling him off. Roper was testing Pine’s reaction.
Yeah, at that point you knew she was a goner. I don’t know if Pine knew that as well, or if he was holding out some blind hope that things might not turn out as he knew they would.
I agree that he could have handled the call better. “London is out, but we’ll try Canada, or someplace else.” It sort of seemed as tho he placed all of his hopes on his embassy friend, and when he turned him down, Pine gave up hope and didn’t try any other options. It wasn’t until he got the call from the woman that he thought there might be other options.
I thought it very good - as good as anything on Masterpiece Theater. Beautiful locations. Was wondering about Pine lying to Roper about his history - or at least omitting Cairo. Would think that the kind of thing Roper could check up on. And I found the gay assistant odd.
