Little Drummer Girl anyone?

[IAmBeyonceAlways]

Anyone watching? Cant see another thread!

I want to get the book!

Love, love, love how much this makes me think, and yy to the comment about audiences expecting The Night Manager which is why they're unimpressed.

Ooh interesting suggestion that Charlie may switch sides. Charlie was asking what happened to Gadi's wife and was told she "jumped" which could infer previous recruit switched sides. Charlie certainly looks like the lines are blurring. And the "wife" jumping could also be why Gadi has time out before being coaxed back into the group.

Melamin Agree re the 'Bondiness' of The Night Manager. There were a lot of glamorous locations and macho action sequences, much more so than the book, although I can completely see how they developed the book in that way. Doing that kind of thing to The Little Drummer Girl would have been sacrilege, which is why I am so pleased with this adaptation.

I do think JLC's writing dropped off a lot after about A Perfect Spy, and my favourite books of his are the earlier ones. I can hardly read his latest novels.

I see we're back to the idea that anyone who doesn't think this is fab is simply not clever or sophisticated enough to 'get' it, as though it were Doestoevsky instead of Le Carre!

I'm perfectly capable of working things out for myself, thanks. I don't need to be spoon-fed with 'glossy', 'accessible' TV. And I can still recognise pretentious too-clever-by-half fare when I see it.

Also, I can't believe the restraint Gadi is showing when Charlie is constantly throwing herself at him. What a chillingly cold fish he is. I do love the interaction between them though. The scene in the cafe with him as a priest had me chortling. Charlie is witty and funny.

I think he is taking extra care of Charlie as something went wrong last time round.

IcedPurple sorry if I haven't been clear. I think watchers fall into one of the following categories:

a) don't understand what is going on and have switched off (many people on Twitter, some of whom seem to be expecting a simpler plot and clearer storytelling a la The Night Manager, which is what it was (mis)sold as)

b) do understand what is going on and think it pretentious and too-clever-by-half (you and many others, no doubt)

c) don't understand what is going on but are enjoying it anyway (a few people on this thread)

d) do understand what is going on and loving it (me and I hope some others)

As my mother would say, what a boring world it would be if we all liked the same things.

I don't believe Gadi is a cold fish PrincessScarlett . I think the sexual tension between them is great.
I think he is resisting getting too close because he knows it will compromise his ability to protect her. He seems to be fighting it constantly.
I love it for their relationship alone.
The overall story arc seems to be becoming clearer, slowly.
How many episodes do we have to look forward to?

Viewing figures for last night were 2.7 milliion, down a million on last week and about a third of the figures for 'Strictly'.

So seems quite a few of us are switching off from all this 'nuance' and 'sublety'.

Drivinmecrazy - maybe "cold fish" isn't the right terminology to use. Agree there is sexual tension. I think to Charlie he was initially a cold fish but she is enjoying trying to break him down. I love that he's so serious and then Charlie will make a little flippant comment and you can see him smirking slightly.

I'm in group c, Lady Peter. I think I have read it but a long time ago and I can't remember how it turns out. Thanks for your exposition, most helpful.

Wasn't sure what to make of this at first, but it's really grown on me. Florence Pugh is perfect in this role.

They had to kill off Salim so that the Palestinian cell wouldn't become suspicious. He was due to make a scheduled call to them to confirm all was OK, so they wanted to make it look like he was killed in a road accident. They didn't really want to do it, but viewed it as a necessary sacrifice.

There were some quite chilling details, such as when Salim started to come round, and they had to drug him again, and deciding to put Anna in the driving seat, because it was more convincing that her hot-headed driving would cause an accident, rather than careful Salim

DH has gone overseas for 3 weeks and seriously expected me to not watch, so we could catch up together. Oh, how I laughed.

ScoobyGangMember

DS1 is watching it in between university essays and is loving it too. Must have done some parenting right.

I’m really enjoying it and not finding it remotely pretentious, or slow.

Good moment last night when the reflection of the burning was in both lenses of Kultz’s sunglasses.

Was Charlie actually smuggling all that moonshine (what would she have done with it?) or was it planned out like that, they told her to stop at the kiosk and buy it?

Or was it her own little ruse to explain any nervousness?

And she did have Austrian currency, so why the little hoo ha in the cafe? Was that just a bit of gentle wind up of Gadi?

I thought she bought the moonshine to cover the Semtex so border patrol would find that and not delve further. Clever. Not sure if she came up with that herself or was told to.

The scene in the cafe and not having the correct currency was part of her wind up/flirting with Gadi.

I am really really enjoying this.

I've watched episode 1 twice and ep 2 & 3 once and still bloody confused but will stick with it!

Doesn't help that DH made me a large gin before watching ep3! 🙂

I have put the book on my Xmas wishlist...

I thought the Israelis put the moonshine in the boot to divert any suspicious border officials. Did we see Charlie buy it?

Yes, she buys it from a road side stall/shop.

Oops. Wonder if that was a calculated tactic or stupidity.

Definitely not stupidity as it stopped the border guards finding the Semtex.

I think that was a deliberate ploy by Charlie to avoided the Semtex being detected.

Which is what I thought the Israelis' motive was. Must pay closer attention.

I gave up and didn't bother watching episode 2. I have so much else recorded to watch that I felt life's too short to bother 

I have moved from bemused to thoroughly sucked in and loving this now.

Have gone back and rewatched from the beginning, so much I missed first time round! Lots of things now clicking into place.

I've also ordered the book!

Couple of observations:

1. It's 1979 - the miniskirts are not right and the eyebrows are all wrong (I know, I was there)

1. Gadi has reduced me to a puddle of lust, especially his lovely forearms and hands.

Me too @BoreofWhabylon!

I said to DH last night I was actually waiting for the next episode! And, I have dropped unsubtle hints about wanting the book for Xmas! 🙂

Yes yes to Gadi! 😍