The Night Manager series 2 is currently keeping heart rates up across the nation, but some BBC One viewers aren’t convinced the drama quite adds up. While the thrills are coming thick and fast, some fans reckon the show’s gripping action is being undermined by a handful of glaring plot holes.
The Tom Hiddleston-fronted thriller, which continues on Sunday nights throughout January, has been branded “lame” in places by viewers. They say certain moments are stretching credibility a little too far.
Episode 4 (January 18) finally lifted the lid on Richard Roper’s faked death and reunited Jonathan Pine with Angela Burr. It was a punchy, high-stakes instalment. And while plenty of fans were happy to strap in and enjoy the ride, others were left baffled and frustrated.
Here are some of the plot holes viewers have been calling out in The Night Manager series 2.
***Warning: mild spoilers from episode 1 to 4 of The Night Manager ahead***
The Night Manager series 2 riddled with ‘plot holes’
The first four episodes of The Night Manager have now aired on BBC One and, while many viewers are fully onboard, others admit they’re having to “suspend disbelief” more than they’d like.
In episode 4 of the thriller, Teddy Dos Santos was hunting down prosecutor Alejandro in a bid to silence him. Alejandro held crucial evidence that could expose the true contents of the shipping container – putting his life very much on the line.
So why, fans asked, did he spend so much time standing in front of a window?
One Reddit user wrote: “Did it make anyone else nervous as heck that Alejandro, knowing he is being watched and hunted, is constantly standing at the window or out on the balcony?”
Another added: “I thought he was going to be sniped.”
A third said: “I kept thinking ‘Get away from the windows!’”
“The amount of times Alejandro stood near a window or edge, I was half-expecting him to be taken out from a distance,” commented another.
The Night Manager series 2 is ‘nothing but one big plot hole’
The window-faux-pas wasn’t the only moment to leave viewers scratching their heads. Some questioned why Teddy allowed Jonathan – known to him as Matthew – to leave Colombia at all, given everything Jonathan knew about his operation.
One viewer asked: “It makes no sense. Why is Jonathan Pine not killed the minute they have his money? They know he doesn’t have much more.”
Another summed it up bluntly: “The show is entertaining if you suspend your disbelief. But it’s nothing but one big plot hole.”
Others took issue with Roxy switching languages during her phone call to warn Pine – something they felt would have instantly exposed her intentions to her captor. One wrote: “Roxy was talking to her mother in Spanish in the first conversation. And then when she was ‘leaving her a message’ (actually Pine) it was in English. Too obvious.”
Then there was Angela Burr and Jonathan Pine’s reunion in a Colombian airport – a very public setting for a supposedly secret meeting about a heavily armed cartel with eyes and ears everywhere.
One viewer complained: “How casually Pine puts EVERYONE in jeopardy. Meetings in the open, characters at windows, not thinking it was a terrible idea for the prosecutor to tell someone else not the Supreme Court Justice herself about the shipment. I am entertained but this is silly and those with covert training would be much more covert!”
Another added: “Angela Burr getting from rural France to Columbia in about 12 hours is right on the edge of possible. The average flight from Paris to Columbia is 11 hours.”
Other complaints about The Night Manager series 2
Following episode 3’s big twist, some viewers were left unimpressed by the return of Hugh Laurie’s Richard Roper.
One said: “The twist at the end of S2E3 is so lame, rehashing the past and not innovative at all.”
Another agreed: “Honestly they should just stick with another villain and let’s get on with something new.”
A third added: “Can’t stand the ‘he’s dead’ but now ‘he’s back’. It’s lazy.”
“Faked deaths are such a horrible, soap opera trope, which makes me start to side eye whatever I’m watching,” said another.
Others were less convinced by the characters overall.
“I’m not believing any of the characters at all,” wrote one viewer. “None of them gel. It’s like they’re all acting at each other instead of with.”
Another added: “The Teddy and Mayra characters are just so poorly written.”