Critical response
The series holds a 91% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.4/10 based on 67 critics. The website's critics consensus reads: "The Night Manager's smart writing and riveting story are elevated all the more by Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston's captivating performances." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gives the series a score of 82/100 based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Adam Sisman, le Carré's biographer, wrote in the UK The Daily Telegraph: "It is more than 20 years since the novel was published, and in that time two film companies have tried and failed to adapt it, concluding that it was impossible to compress into two hours. But this six-hour television adaptation is long enough to give the novel its due." He added: "And though Hugh Laurie may seem a surprising choice to play 'the worst man in the world', he dominates the screen as a horribly convincing villain. Alert viewers may spot a familiar face in the background of one scene, in a restaurant: John le Carré himself makes a cameo, as he did in the films of A Most Wanted Man and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But he is on screen only for an instant: blink and you'll miss him."
Reviewing the first episode for The Guardian, Archie Bland began by noting: "The Night Manager is as sexed up as television drama comes. In Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie it has bona fide international stars; in John le Carré's source novel it has a pedigree of untouchable grandeur. The palette is as sumptuous as one of our hero Jonathan Pine's beautiful hotels". He added, "It's Laurie's vulpine performance that gives The Night Manager its force once the smell of money has worn off. But we barely see him for the first 40 minutes – a delayed gratification trick that's always worked like magic on me, ever since we spent the whole first episode of The West Wing waiting impatiently to meet Josiah Bartlet." Turning to Hiddleston's performance, Bland wrote: "And as the embodiment of the show's atmosphere of paralysed establishment glamour, Hiddleston is the business. When the noble beast beneath that accommodating English exterior begins to make itself known, I find the righteous revenge he's intent on wreaking on Roper compelling."
IGN reviewer Jesse Schedeen gave the serial 8.8 out of 10, saying: "The Night Manager proves that television is the ideal format to bring le Carré's novels to life. This miniseries is tightly paced, suspenseful and boasts strong performances from the likes of Hiddleston, Laurie, Colman and Hollander. With any luck, this series will open the doors for more of le Carré's classic spy tales to make their way to the small screen."
The New Yorker reviewer Emily Nussbaum was unimpressed, calling the miniseries "elegant but ultimately empty", with "overwrought sequences of doomed love", "just an old recipe made with artisanal ingredients". She praised the actors but found the characterisation of Roper "less Dr. No and more Mr. Magoo". However, Brian Tallerico called it a "brilliant adaptation" on RogerEbert.com, with praise for the performances of Hiddleston and Laurie, and for Susanne Bier's direction: "Bier brings a cinematic language to The Night Manager, and a deeper understanding of character than we often get in projects that hinge on espionage. She understands that it's not about the twists and turns of the spy game but the impact it has on those who are playing it."
Series 2 holds an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.9/10 based on 50 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Marking a belated but welcome return for Tom Hiddleston's tortured spy, The Night Manager's second season is a glamorous and haunted continuation that only gets better as it goes." Metacritic gives the series a score of 75/100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Writing in The Guardian, Jack Seale gave the first episode four out of five, saying: "Although the drama still feels like cashmere and silk, the blade stashed in the folds isn’t so sharp [...] There is something fundamentally gauche, too, about the way season two methodically tries to rebuild the dynamic of the first run", but concludes: "None of this is to say The Night Manager is suddenly average: it still floats far above most of the competition. But it no longer feels pristine."
The Independent gave the first two episodes four out of five with Nick Hilton remarking: "Gripping without being excessively silly, compelling without being indulgently cerebral, The Night Manager pulls off the, increasingly rare, trick of knowing its audience, understanding its success, and replicating the formula."
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