What to watch on TV this week: The Night Manager S2, The Rip, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, His & Hers

The Night Manager S2

Sunday, streaming on Prime Video

There was a time when British actor Tom Hiddleston soared up the list of potential replacements to Daniel Craig’s James Bond. That was largely because of The Night Manager, the 2016 espionage thriller adapted from a John le Carre novel.

As Jonathan Pine, an ex-military hotelier who is thrust into the sphere of Richard Roeper (Hugh Laurie) a villainous arms dealer, Hiddleston was slick, resourceful and sexy — he wasn’t above a little honey trapping if it called for it, and that gave the audience smouldering scenes between him and Elizabeth Debicki.

It was a one-and-done, and le Carre died in 2020. But now, a decade on, The Night Manager is back, and with it, Hiddleston, to fill the vacuum left by the long stretch since the most recent Bond.

As with any spy story, the plot pushes belief, but that’s how we want it, and if it means another six episodes of watching Hiddleston’s Pine trying to get out sticky situations, we’re up for some ludicrous plot twists.

This time, Pine is activated when in his low-key surveillance gig, he spots a familiar face from his past, which puts him in the path of a formidable new foe who calls himself Roeper’s truest disciple, as well as a woman of questionable values.

From the parks and townhouses of London to the resorts of Spain and the jungles of Colombia, there’s a conspiracy afoot, and it links back to Pine’s past in unexpected ways.

The cast also includes OG players, albeit in much smaller roles: Laurie, Olivia Colman, Alistair Petrie, Douglas Hodge and Noah Jupe, as well as newcomers Hayley Squires, Diego Calva, Indira Varma and Camilla Morrone.

There also won’t be a decade-long wait for another instalment — a third season has already been commissioned.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials

Thursday, streaming on Netflix

It’s been more than a century since Agatha Christie published her first novel and she remains the undisputed queen of the murder-mystery. Every year or so, the Brits adapt one of her stories for a star-studded three-part miniseries, and this time, it’s the Seven Dials Mystery, which involves a death at — where else — a country manor. It stars Mia McKenna-Bruce (soon to be seen in Sam Mendes’ four-move Beatles epic) in an ensemble that also includes Helena Bonham-Carter and Martin Freeman.

Hijack S2

Thursday, streaming on Apple TV

Recently knighted as Sir Idris (which just feels right, you know), Elba returns as Sam Nelson, the corporate negotiator who was a passenger on a hijacked plane. Two and a half years later, he’s again at the centre of a plot, this time in the underground labyrinthine tunnels of the Berlin U-Bahn metro. But not everything is as it looks, a mistake that could prove fatal to all.

His & Hers

Streaming now on Netflix

A woman is murdered in a small town near Atlanta and among those investigating her death are Anna (Tessa Thompson), a ruthless TV reporter, and Jack (Jon Bernthal), a detective. The first twist is that Anna and Jack are estranged husband-and-wife, and they have a lot of baggage and pain between. The second twist comes at the end of the first episode and it’s a real “what the” moment.

The Rip

Netflix, Friday January 16

There’s so much latent love for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as a unit, that anytime they team up, especially on screen, is time for good cheer. They don’t always deliver but it’s nice to be optimistic. In thriller movie The Rip, they play two cops who discover a $24 million stash during a bust, but money makes people do the wacky, and distrust settles in as to who they can and can’t trust.