Huge waste of time, so badly written and acted
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Night Manager
rabbitmoon — 9 years ago(January 13, 2017 09:18 AM)
The flaws of this series are so huge, I'm amazed anyone could give it a 10 star review. There is absolute zero chemistry between any of the characters. Roper trusts the spy hes bedding and the one he just befriended, but not his long time loyal friend. Hiddleston acts completely wooden and superficially throughout, there is no depth, nuance or complexity to his character or performance at all - its embarrassing to watch in places ("I only had half a life before - I have to finish this"). Laurie's character feels like a bad villain impression, with far too many cliched profundities squeezed into his lines ("Im going to play roulette" "Yes, lets see which one of us is lucky!") The girl's character is flat and phony throughout, just something to hang dresses from and make the show look classy. Colmans character was the same quirky/frumpy/grumpy outspoken character shes played many times before. David Harewoods accent and performance was phony as hell. The plot relied on far too many contrivances and sudden character inconsistencies to work. My gosh, the final episode where Birch uses the phone to explode the trucks, and Roper is watching his twitching fingers saying "come on, hurry up!" for a retina scan, its like a childrens drama. The weapons explode (which would send rockets and bullets propelling in all directions), and the buyer just inmediately and calmy says "I want my money back". It was like a sketch. The whole thing was like a series of phony spy sketches, I kept expecting Stephen Fry to step into scene and start riffing with Laurie. Terrible show, massively overhyped.
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amarcordian — 9 years ago(January 28, 2017 02:54 PM)
I'm afraid rabbitmoon is right. Jumps the shark after ONE episode, very serious tone but very silly plot. Definite lack of good lines and chemistry as well.
Characters feel like plot pieces moved around the board. Motivations are given but the don't 'feel' real.
Could not make it to the end of episode two. -
Ehrgeiz — 9 years ago(January 31, 2017 03:19 PM)
I think it is overrated. It has some fine actors, on the other Hand I found Elizabeth Debicki not apt to compete with the others in the main cast. Nice cinematography and a strong "Bond" vibe with them hopping around countries. But there are a lot of plot points which appear weak when you think twice about it. At times I also felt that they failed to make some scenes more remarkable, like Corkys demise.