Park Chan-wook’s Gripping John le Carré Series Sets a New Standard for Spy Thrillers

If you think Tom Hiddleston's The Night Manager is the high-water mark for John le Carré adaptations, you might want to hit pause. Look, The Night Manager is perfectly solid and sure, it deserves its second-season hype. But if you're really chasing the best le Carré on screen, take a detour to Park Chan-wook's The Little Drummer Girl. Somehow, Park's mini-series gets glossed over a lot, which is weird, because, in my (and apparently Park's) opinion, it leaves the rest in the dust.

Background: A Filmmaker Meets His Favorite Spy Novel

It turns out Park Chan-wook—yeah, the director behind Oldboy and The Handmaiden—is a bit of a bookworm. If you've seen his movies, you know he loves adapting novels, and that habit led him to le Carré. The first taste he ever got was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as a teenager, but he straight-up calls The Little Drummer Girl le Carré's best work.

Here’s a fun wrinkle: Park actually cornered Simon Cornwall (the boss at The Ink Factory, the production company) during the Handmaiden Cannes premiere and went, in effect, 'I’d really like to direct this.' The guy doesn’t mess around.

What’s It About?

The series zeroes in on Charlie (Florence Pugh, doing reliably killer work), a young English actress with far-left leanings who gets pulled into a covert Israeli operation. Her handler is Gadi Becker, and her mission? Infiltrate a Palestinian faction and get close to their leader, Khalil. Unlike your usual suit-and-tie professional spy, Charlie’s basically a regular person dropped into a meat grinder. That’s where Park found the hook—he loved that the main character wasn’t a career operative, but just someone with absolutely zero experience in espionage.

Park explained his interest like this:
'I was more drawn to how the protagonist is just an ordinary person, with no connection to the spy world at all.'

And, just for your next trivia night: le Carré himself shows up in the show as a waiter during a quick cafe scene. Blink and you’ll miss him.

Cast & Crew Snapshot

• Florence Pugh as Charlie
• Alexander Skarsgård as Gadi Becker
• Michael Shannon as spymaster Marty Kurtz
• Park Chan-wook: Directed all six episodes
• Production: BBC Studios, AMC Networks, The Ink Factory, 127 Wall Productions
• IMDb Rating: 7.4
• Rotten Tomatoes: 95% critics / 79% audience

The Ending: Park Fixes What the Book Couldn’t

Here’s the juicy part: Park wasn’t wild about the novel’s ending, and honestly, neither was I. In le Carré’s version, when Charlie risks her life as a spy ‘because she’s in love,’ it works on paper but, for Park—and a lot of viewers—it can come off as kind of cringey, even making Charlie seem naïve. So, what does Park do? He tweaks the ending, keeps the tension, but gives Charlie way more agency. Instead of her being just collateral in some guy’s story, she’s steering her own fate.

Case in point, the line 'I’m an actress'—which, by the way, comes straight from a conversation with le Carré’s own sister, the real inspiration for Charlie—lands like a mic drop near the series’ climax, summing up her whole arc. Park also breaks out from the usual drab, washed-out spy thriller look—if you’re expecting the grey misery of Tinker Tailor, there’s a lot more color and stylized flair here, making it feel closer to theater than a funeral.

Here’s a surprise, too: you’d think Park (the 'let’s end on a gut punch' guy) would double down on a tragic resolution. But the final moments, while still carrying that emotional bruising, leave the door open to something new—a glimmer of hope, even. Park swerves left just when you’re bracing for another bleak finish.

Where to Watch

If you want to check it out for yourself, The Little Drummer Girl is streaming on AMC Plus (via Apple TV Channel in the US).

Try it and let me know if you think it tops The Night Manager. I’m betting you’ll be surprised.