My thoughts on The Night Manager Season 2
I just finished Season 2 of The Night Manager, and I absolutely hate it. I’m not even going to talk about the visuals or whether it looks "good" or not—it’s the core message that rubs me the wrong way.
In Season 1, Jonathan Pine is a professional. He’s careful, he doesn't raise suspicion, and he doesn’t drag his inner circle into shady ventures. For the most part, he’s self-reliant, and the casualties among the "good guys" are kept to a minimum.
But Season 2? In Season 2, Pine’s entire support group gets wiped out! He’s reckless, messy, and constantly exposing himself. The man was literally on active duty; he shouldn’t have lost his professional edge like that.
The original message was: "The world is a terrible place, but there are people doing their best to protect us from the horrors." Now? Now it feels like the protectors are incompetent (sorry, Jonathan Pine) and that evil always wins, evil is immortal, "abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
Seriously? "Let’s just kill everyone off so Hiddleston can suffer beautifully" — it’s such a primitive trope.
Also, IMO, the excessive violence just makes you desensitized to it. Turning that quiet, creeping, terrifying evil into a villain who just disposes of people... and dogs... left and right? That’s a total failure in my book.