'The Night Manager' Season 2 Review: Tom Hiddleston’s Spy Thriller Defies the Odds With an Explosive Return

It's rare, though not unheard of, for a television series to stage a comeback after a lengthy absence. Twin Peaks: The Return aired 26 years after the cult classic's cancellation — a gap that's more equivalent to Hollywood remakes and legacy sequels than the average two-to-four-year wait in between streaming juggernauts like Stranger Things or Bridgerton. The prevailing question about any revival is whether the material warrants revisiting, or if the lackluster continuation is chasing its tail (and past success) from the start.

Similar anticipation surrounds the return of 2016's The Night Manager. The miniseries, based on John le Carré's 1993 novel, transferred the master of Cold War spy thrillers into the modern era and set the bar high in terms of artistry, audience engagement, and critical recognition. The good news is that Season 2 is worth the wait. This riveting follow-up hasn't lost much, if any, of its predecessor's steam, courtesy of director Georgi Banks-Davies (Kaos), returning screenwriter David Farr, and Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman reprising their electrifying roles like no time has passed. While The Night Manager's new material weaves some nontraditional flourishes into its expanding tapestry, at least where le Carré's output is concerned, the sophomore chapter maintains the same fundamental themes and impact.

What Is 'The Night Manager' Season 2 About?

A decade after defeating Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) and six years out from Roper's confirmed death, Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston) channels his hotelier-turned-amateur-spy expertise into his post as the director of MI6's Night Owl team, an overnight surveillance unit monitoring hotel security cameras for threats both known and new. On the outside, time hasn't changed him; Pine holds his emotional cards to his chest and floats through a solitary existence. Behind closed doors, nightmares about his time within Roper's inner circle plague him. He won't admit to suppressing his extensive trauma, and he can't speak about it even if the desire grips him. Known to his colleagues as Alex Goodwin, a polite professional with a flawless reputation and zero ambition, only a handful of people know his past.

Yet that past won't die. In Colombia, a preeminent arms smuggler named Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva) has branded himself as "Richard Roper's true disciple" — a claim that should spark terror in the hearts of those intimately familiar with Teddy's inspiration. Pine's world unravels with precarious speed and horrifying clarity, and the aftermath launches him into another renegade undercover operation into another den of vipers, this one characterized by Colombian politics, lavish galas, and shipping broker Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), who walks her own dangerous fine line.

'The Night Manager' Season 2 Is a Dynamic and Daring New Adventure

Small screen adaptations that stretch past their source's ending can't necessarily claim the strongest track record (Game of Thrones, The Buccaneers). The Night Manager faces an uphill battle, and Farr spins a convincingly effective original narrative from scratch. Season 2's cohesive structure neatly slots into the established rules and ambiance of le Carré's standalone world, while the overarching arc builds to heightened stakes. Farr's boldest make-or-break decisions would indeed fracture in less persuasive hands, as could Season 2's more ominous tone. Never fear, though: The Night Manager is still an absorbing pulse-pounder filled with robust psychological color and genre archetypes aplenty, from covert subterfuge and last-second escapes to fragile alliances and an ouroboros of lies.

Banks-Davies assumes the directing helm from Susanne Bier's Emmy-winning efforts and catapults Season 2 forward with brisk efficiency, her mature touch equally adept with extended verbal exchanges and bursts of white-knuckled action. The characters pause when reflection's necessary, but those moments are gasps for oxygen amidst a drumming pulse of tension that's just taut enough to make the deflections startling and the foreseeable outcomes a thrilling how-and-where journey to The Night Manager's destination — which, essentially, is everything one could ask for.

'The Night Manager's New and Returning Cast Members Shine in Season 2

Another installment wouldn't ring quite the same without a dynamic cast. Season 2 evokes the same sense of watching actors at the top of their game as they volley dramatics back and forth like tennis, and that almost justifies the season's existence. On both page and screen, The Night Manager continues to lean into Hiddleston's strengths as a compelling performer: subtle turmoil rioting underneath a glacially still facade, and acute feeling juxtaposed with lethal intensity. Pine stands out among his cold-blooded genre contemporaries for being a single-minded and vengeful man who hones himself into a human weapon, but he can't detach himself from his intrinsic compassion, even given everything the Roper incident has cost him. Yet 10 years away from field work hasn't rusted his chameleonic skills, either, shifting between aliases and pivoting his weakest moments into skin-of-his-teeth survival.

Rather than leave Pine flailing alone in the wind again, he's accompanied by a loyal and grounding pack of allies. Basil Karapetian (Paul Chahidi) and Sally Price-Jones (Hayley Squires) are welcome presences who integrate into the series' existing framework, as does fellow newcomer Mayra Cavendish (Indira Varma in reliably fine form). As for the retired Burr, although her appearances are sparser than in Season 1, Colman's performance — simultaneously empathetic and wielding the wrath of an ancient god — doesn't waste a moment. Overall, women enjoy prominent and diversified roles this time around, which is a rousing improvement.

As for The Night Manager's biggest new faces, Calva, most known for more supporting turns in Narcos: Mexico and Damien Chazelle's Babylon, demonstrates a star-making performance. Teddy adeptly steps into Roper's shoes with a humanity the latter never had, his vulnerability hidden like gold ingots inside a mountain. He styles himself after the "most dangerous man in the world" and rivals Roper's implacable cruelty, yet even that aspect manifests with a volatile edge. As the six episodes (all of which were provided for review) progress, Teddy and Pine's irresistibly messy dynamic emerges as a season highlight. Meanwhile, The Night Manager marks Morrone's first television role since Prime Video's Daisy Jones & The Six and a worthy successor to her Emmy-nominated performance. Roxana, an entrepreneur of dubious morality and steely capability, parallels Jed Marshall (Elizabeth Debicki) without retreading too-similar terrain. Like Calva, Morrone's career trajectory deserves to keep rising.

The Night Manager's explosive second installment defies the many odds set against it, down to flipping the table on everything we knew and living up to those gripping risks. For now, where the story will land in the series' third (and presumably final) season remains to be seen — but unlike last time, Season 3 can't arrive soon enough.