Even though I had already had read the book, I found myself watching in suspense. This show was really good at drawing my attention in, and not wanting to look away for even a second. I loved the theme music for this, I thought it was perfect. The casting for most of the characters was pretty great. Tom Hiddleston for the most part did a great job as Pine. Corcky was just how I pictured him to be. I had a problem with Angela Burr and Joel Stedman, though. Burr is male in the book, making him a pregnant female completely changes his character, and I do not like how she portrayed him. Joel is really Joseph Strindski in the book, and is supposed to be white, not black, I'm pretty sure. Joel is nothing like Joe in the book, I don't like how he seemed so soft in the show. They completely left out Joe's partner, Pat Flynn. For the most part this show was really good, and I was in love with it until like episode five. Pine was perfect until he killed Corky, and Freddie. He doesn't kill them in the book, he's not a killer. He would never let someone take the blame then kill them like he did with Corky in the show. And he would never kill someone for revenge like he does to Freddie, in the show. In the book, he makes a point of saying he doesn't hate Freddie, and how he was going to get revenge and avenge Sophie was to take down Roper's illegal dealings. And of course, there is a lot more things they left out of the show that was in the book, that I wished they included. But the main reason I gave this show such a low rating was because of the ending. It made no sense why they did what they did in the show, and it was so lame to me. Watching it was intense, just like reading the book, but the end of the show was nothing like the end of the book.

Former soldier, with the help of MI6, infiltrates arms trader network.OK : this is Tom Hiddleton's show, as he is in almost every scene and constantly in close-up. It looks like he is preparing for the Bond role : every woman falls for him (even some guys...), is supercool, never makes any mistakes, he kills without mercy and in the end wins all. The baddie is your classic Bond villain and even the multicultural MI6 support team reminds you of some recent Bond characters. Only the big chases and the gizmo's are missing (but I guess the TV-budget wouldn't allow those).It is wellmade ofcourse but from a Le Carré novel you would expect so much more. There are no real surprises but the plot somehow keeps you interested. In the end I did feel a bit sorry for Hugh Laurie as the villain, as he made a much more interesting character. If there's some sequel I hope they include him again.

Espionage? Ugh.Who are some of the actors in this strangely titled television series? Some of the most respected: Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie. The script is very well-written, but I say that not having read the book from which the series was adapted, with the same title and written by John Le Carre. I took advantage of free viewing with Amazon Prime. I'm very glad I did because I dislike espionage films or TV and would have passed this one up. There are terrific espionage films and TV and I always end up enjoying them - anything by Tom Clancy, for example. 'The Night Manager' was not an exception. The plot is so nicely laid out, the environment of a hotel seems to be custom-made for drama ('Hotel Babylon' is light entertainment but proves my point. Nothing but story lines in a hotel! The stakes are high - bringing down a well-respected man who is, unknown to the greater world, a criminal. The wonderful thing to me about this production is the opportunity to hear the voices of Laurie and Hiddleston. They speak and you listen. Their voices are like musical instruments.

This short-series is absolute mainstream-garbage! Why? 1. The series has a shallow plot, knit from a mindset-pattern that is easy to see through: "Good" guy «kills» "bad" guy - under the applause of the audience. This is utterly boring and not very realistic - nothing new, no surprises, all in all an excellent sleeping pill.2. The series makes part of overall manipulative mass-media, following basically Hollywood-propaganda-rules: The attentive viewer may easily detect the old revenge-mould or perpetrator-victim-saviour-pattern - which is meanwhile as boring as useless, because it changes nothing. We already live in a world of violence, and we all know that. This series does only perpetuate this, nothing less nothing more. The revenge-and-destroy-logic, by which most western countries operate and function today, is promoted in this series and is responsible for probably most governmental breaking-the-law-in-order-to-do-good-myths. "People don't change", as "House M.D." once put it - at least not as long governments do not respect even their own constitutions. In the case of this shallow series, "the bad guy" is depicted, of course, as "really mean" (kills children, beats wife) and therefore has to be destroyed or killed. But this rule has proved itself as totally useless in fighting violence - which somehow makes this series pointless and superfluous.3. The series represents political mainstream brainwash: That there are evil forces within every government we already know. That there are starry-eyed idealists or brainless do-gooders around, always ready to save the rotten world, is also well-known. So what's the point? Even the main protagonist does not know why he does what he's doing, and maybe this is the best part of this bad series: the successful portrayal of a totally shallow "hero" who has no self at all, who has no motives whatsoever. If he'd say "I" he would have no clue at all what that would mean - an unconscious ant, shambling through live like under drugs. So the end justifies the means? So we are entitled to travel around the world, meet interesting people and kill them? So the empire is allowed to cause "collateral damage" where ever it wants to - it does not matter? No, it does matter! Maybe we could see real changes as soon as such films are no longer produced. Maybe that would be a sign of real change: that nobody would watch such garbage anymore. All in all we really know already (and are fed up with the fact) that governments are the greatest criminals today (and the hidden states and so-called "elites" behind them even more). But the movie wants to make us believe that there are governmental forces that really care - for humanistic reasons even. Untrue. See current destruction of this earth and the ever-ongoing killing of people (best current example: Syria, another land destroyed by the big white west).Summary: Mainstream garbage at it's worst. I only watched it because I liked Hugh Laurie as "HOUSE M.D."! Now I am betrayed of 8 hours of my precious lifetime. Thank you, dear Night-Garbage-Managers.