Tom Hiddleston and 'The Night Manager' make a sad return

It may come as a shock to the denizens of Hollywood, but not every show needs to be revived. Not every story needs a sequel. Not every success can be repeated.

In our era of constant reboots, revivals and remakes from Hollywood, it shouldn't be surprising that the stories getting the do-over treatment are getting more random and odd with each passing year. The first head-scratcher of 2026 is "The Night Manager," which first aired on AMC in the United States a decade ago. A slick John Le Carré adaptation starring Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie, it told the story of a military man turned hotelier turned spy, bent on taking down a particularly brutal arms dealer.

"Manager" was good, great even. It was a boon to Hiddleston's career, in particular, at a time when the thespian was best known for spitting insults at Thor in superhero movies. It was faithful to its twisty, clever source material and ended with a satisfying conclusion. That really should have been all she wrote.

But here we are, 10 years later, and "Manager" has returned, this time on Prime Video (streaming Sundays, ★½ out of four), for a new adventure with Hiddleston's Jonathan Pine that goes beyond Le Carré's novel. Although it looks the same, the new "Manager" doesn't quite feel the same, as Pine goes undercover in a new operation, tries to take down another bad guy and conspiracy. It's all very been-there, done-that, especially as the story reveals silly connections to the original narrative. Unsurprisingly, the story based on one of the greatest authors of spy stories ever trumps the imitation.

The new episodes open with Pine closing the book on his "Moby Dick"-like pursuit of Richard Roper (Laurie), a notorious international criminal whose organization Pine infiltrated in Season 1. Pine's undercover work, like so much undercover work in stories, got a little too personal and emotional, and he has really dealt with the trauma of the violence and death from that period of his life. Instead he's buttoning down and repressing it all in the present, working under the name Alex in a sleepy London-based MI-6 division. But all of a sudden he spots one of Roper's old mercenaries, and suddenly his quiet life starts blowing up, piece by chaotic piece.

Pine's new mission draws him into a web of organized crime in Colombia, including the beautiful young Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone, "Daisy Jones and the Six") and playboy Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva). The show trades the Middle Eastern backdrop of the first season for a South American one, and Pine has to use all his charm and improvisation to get out of a series of increasingly dangerous pickles, all the while worrying that British Security Services might be involved in all the evildoing.

The story sounds overly complex and it is. The scripts do little to fully illuminate the conspiracy that Pine is trying to unravel and even less to add depth to the other characters, who are as forgettable as they are shallow. Roxana is particularly ill-served, a spicy Latina stereotype in ever more revealing clothing as the season goes on.

Hiddleston is still dashing, but the novelty of the actor as an action hero is gone. His youthful glow has dimmed, as is normal as he has aged from his 30s to his 40s, but part of the charm of the original series was how Hiddleston pulled his svelte charm and Bond-like debonair from an innocent baby face. This is the show, after all, that got his name thrown out in the world for the actual James Bond role, however briefly those rumors lasted.

Ultimately, the resurrection of "Manager" feels like it was less because creator David Farr had a brilliant idea for a belated sequel and more that dad shows like this do well on Prime Video, and this one had name recognition. It reads like any boring airport thriller you pick up to get through a long flight. Maybe that's good enough for some people. Just be careful not to confuse it with Netflix's "The Night Agent," a domestic espionage thriller on Netflix that's premiered since "Manager" made its original bow ("Agent" Season 3 streams Feb. 19).

Most of us, however, can manage without it.