So I asked the friend years ago who was telling me that it was going to be repeated on TV.
He immediately smacked his lips enthusiastically and pronounced, "Better!" Of course I had to watch, if only to see how that were possible.
I think he was right. The plot is equally complex, the atmosphere similarly tinged with melancholy, and the acting just as superb. What makes it better, perhaps, is that the ending is more satisfying and the principal characters-- even some of those on "the other side"-- are likeable. Unlike Tinker Tailor, where the entire circus was portrayed as a snake pit of cut-throat careerists all very full of themselves, one cares about the characters in this story. Almost all of them are acting at least in part out of loyalty, friendship, and love. The reasons for the conflicts are Kafkaesque, such that it is difficult to place the blame on anyone in particular. This situation makes the moral ambiguity and wistfulness for which LeCarre is famous even more poignant in this case.
The ending is triumphant not so much because Smiley "won", as a colleague congratulates him jubilantly. His only response to this is a pensive and resigned, "yes, I suppose I did." What pleased him more, I think, was that he was engaged in a mission of charity towards his old Moscow Center adversary-- saving him and someone dear to him from themselves.
He immediately smacked his lips enthusiastically and pronounced, "Better!" Of course I had to watch, if only to see how that were possible.
I think he was right. The plot is equally complex, the atmosphere similarly tinged with melancholy, and the acting just as superb. What makes it better, perhaps, is that the ending is more satisfying and the principal characters-- even some of those on "the other side"-- are likeable. Unlike Tinker Tailor, where the entire circus was portrayed as a snake pit of cut-throat careerists all very full of themselves, one cares about the characters in this story. Almost all of them are acting at least in part out of loyalty, friendship, and love. The reasons for the conflicts are Kafkaesque, such that it is difficult to place the blame on anyone in particular. This situation makes the moral ambiguity and wistfulness for which LeCarre is famous even more poignant in this case.
The ending is triumphant not so much because Smiley "won", as a colleague congratulates him jubilantly. His only response to this is a pensive and resigned, "yes, I suppose I did." What pleased him more, I think, was that he was engaged in a mission of charity towards his old Moscow Center adversary-- saving him and someone dear to him from themselves.