It's the year 2011 and the "Arab Spring" has begun in Cairo, Egypt. Guests at a nearby hotel are panicking and desperate to leave, and mild-mannered hotel manager Jonathan Pine must take charge of making sure all are safe in the midst of the chaos.
Thus begins the critically acclaimed miniseries "The Night Manager," with "Avengers" star Tom Hiddleston portraying Pine. It's based on the novel by John le Carre, formerly of MI6.
Le Carre's specialty, of course, are stories of espionage, and Pine is pulled into that world when –after becoming involved with a hotel guest, a billionaire’s mistress—he comes into possession of information on the notorious arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie—best known for his starring role in the TV series House—and is recruited by MI6 to infiltrate Roper's inner circle.
Pine takes a post as the hotel manager at a Swiss alpine lodge, where Roper is staying, to find out what he can so Roper can be taken down.
Hiddleston is pitch perfect as the polite Pine, whose military background will almost certainly come into play through the story's six episodes. As usual, Laurie is charming, though we know there's a lot more going on underneath the surface.
The performances serve a plot that would seem rather far fetched (a hotel employee—despite his background—suddenly turned spy?), though le Carre's background would lead one to believe it could be based somewhat on real circumstances.
Indeed, Pine was based on a real hotel manager from Zurich, Switzerland, Stephen Pike, whom le Carre got to know many years ago.
So far we're one third into the story on AMC, and the acting and beautiful locations stand out the most. It was highly praised in its original airing on the BBC earlier this year, and it promises to be an intriguing series for fans of spy fiction—how much of it is far fetched or believable, however, may only be known by le Carre and some of his former MI6 colleagues.
