The Night Manager (2016-) is a spy thriller series on Amazon Prime starring Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine. It is based on the 1993 bestselling espionage novel of the same name by John Le Carré.
The Night Manager follows the life of ex-soldier and hotelier Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston) as he gets recruited to become an infiltrator by an English government operative, Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), to get into the inner circle of notorious arms dealer and smuggler, billionaire Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) in the hopes of getting enough information on him to take him down.
In the first season, nearly every episode makes note of Pine’s attractiveness. This is highlighted in Episode 3, when Roper’s girlfriend, Jed (Elizabeth Debicki), who later begins a clandestine relationship with him, comments on it: “Who are you? You come into our lives. You disrupt our balance. Everyone is attracted to you.” While Pine only interacts sexually with Jed, Roper’s henchman, “Corky” Corcorran (Tom Hollander) often makes passes at Pine while also noting he suspects Pine is up to something and will kill him if he steps out of line.
In the second season, set a decade later, Pine strangely names his cat after Corky, a belated sign of affection. Pine also catches wind of another arms operation fronting as a charity, which is run in Colombia by Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), who considers himself a “true disciple of Richard Roper”. As Pine works to find out more information, we see him flirt with both beautiful shipping broker Roxana (Camila Morrone) and Teddy in order to get more information. (Note: Teddy was also formerly involved with Roxana before they downshifted to co-conspirators.)
An example of their flirtatious dialogue from Episode 2, where Pine is posing as a possible investor for the charity:
Teddy: So you came alone? No one to keep you company?
Pine: I’m always open to offers ….Teddy: So, not a family guy?
Pine: Let’s just say … I like my freedom.
Teddy: I’ve looked into that bank you work for. They are a secretive bunch.
Pine: Aren’t we all.
These attractions culminate in a steamy three-way dance between Roxana, Pine, and Teddy in a restaurant, where sparks are clearly flying between all three characters.
One could try to argue that Pine is merely pretending to flirt with Teddy to get information, but later it is clear that though he has pulled back from flirting once he learns Teddy is Roper’s secret love child, he still cares about him and works hard to give him a redeeming arc and a part in getting Roper caught red-handed in the regime-change-levels of arms smuggling, to get him put away once and for all.
Teddy is also not a stereotypical “South American crime lord.” He can be ruthless and reckless, but he is also smart, charming, observant, and sensitive. Unfortunately, his chance at redemption is tragically cut short in the season finale.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hiddleston (who also served as an executive producer on the project) and show runner David Farr spoke extensively about the attraction, culture, and changing dynamic between Pine and Teddy throughout the course of the season:
Farr, the series’ showrunner, says that the two men begin the show as “the hunter and the hunted” after Teddy kills several of Pine’s allies. “Then it changes radically, I think, in episode 2, quite early on, where there’s already a strange attraction, which Pine is susceptible to in many ways when he’s in that strange, operational hunter mode. This is extraordinary attraction between the two of them, which I think is a flirtation — it’s a seduction going both ways.
The Night Manager is considered a major success for the streamer. The first season won multiple awards and the second season is certified fresh at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and is a top-tier spy thriller series, with high production values, excellent performances, and fascinating plots. And though its representation for Teddy falls short of the mark in some ways, his development as well as the development of Pine’s bisexuality throughout the second season makes it a remarkable entry for male bi representation in the modern spy genre.