Hightown

This is an interesting series if you have a mind for historical cities and their decline or at least the challenges they are likely to face. A coastal town stuck or thrust into a modern age and battling the effects of modernization and change. 

It is not likely to be your cup of tea of you are not drawn to the seedy side of life…but who is? These are the realities of life that the creator seeks to explore though. He observes and takes you through the lives of in my view two major characters on the good side and others on the not so good side. You have a lady plagued by a love for the bottle working with the fisheries law enforcement that is trying to get into a mainstream role with the police and a man with a passion for the law but a strong tendency to bend it too when it suits him as well as a weakness for skirts. 

On the whole if you look at these two people you could argue that it is a story about addiction and recovery and to a greater extend struggle and love. 

Then you have another set of antiheroes who have embraced a whole new set of opportunities. They are as often expressed in these shows slit along racial lines. A Hispanic/Dominican Amaury Nolasco who made his name and crafted his art in Prison Break this time taking on the role of a kingpin in the drug trade with a ‘club’ which supplies visual pleasures to men. Then you have an African American rising through the ranks partnering with a young girl who has ambitions of her own. The introduction to the young African American is short and you have no idea what she will become as the show progresses. 

The struggles depicted on addiction are real and the project keeps you glued to the screen hoping for the best for these two people. 

The rest of the show is really a game of chess and chance and a contest of will and minds as good guys and bad guys battle it out for fame and fortune and in some cases truth. 

There are some absolutely amazing scenes where true love is expressed for some at their extreme lowest and those are great to watch. There are also liberating takes on truth and what it means to free oneself from lies and how in some cases this can open one up to more fulfilling relationships. 

Night Manager

This is a decent tale. Really strange to see one of my favorite Doctors playing the villain. Hugh Laurie though does a great job as no other would although he is rather low key…dangerous yes but low key. He comes off as a humanitarian but he does have a lot up his sleeves. Then there is the Night Manager. As professional as only a Brit could be just doing his job in a Five Star Hotel. As these things tend to go, he falls in love and his interest spirals into disaster when his Femme turns out to be married to a cruel jerk. Our manager as they often do just happens to have spent some time in the British Army so he plays hero. 

These escapades a repeated throughout the show and at times it feels rather ‘James Bondy’. But the writers do weave together a pleasant story of dedication on the part of the agents that are bent on getting this arms dealer and the agent who must infiltrate the organization to gather the evidence they need. 

A small team of devoted government officials must then wrestle with an entrenched few whose stake in the game has them accepting kick backs as innocent victims falls prey to arms traders. 

The back and forth between trusted friends (Tom Holland plays Corcoran a devoted friend who seems to see through Jonathan or Andrew’s Ruse. He also has seen the interest Jonathan show to Richard’s wife and warns him to back off) and the deception as well as the tense moments make quite a show and even though I was not expecting such a brief experience it delivered and told the story in about 6 episodes. Jonathan is coming in as a replacement and this is all that Richard’s side kick sees him as. While the crew is used to being arrogant and getting their way in all sorts of situations, Jonathan’s finesse is set to ruin the party and tensions from this point on are high. 

The villains and his arrogance at the end with that strange twist of fate of the stuff of legends. 

The devotion that these two women show to their savior/lover is noteworthy both unwilling to give him up to the point of extreme pain. 

Given this is part of John La Carre’s (the great Spy Master writer) work, you tend to feel that these attempts can be ruined especially when extended in series format. The Day Of the Jackal is an example. You almost just want to see the film in brief not have to see the show drugged on in series format.