Kingdom 2-9 Is Not Responding
Main Cast: Idris Elba, Neil Maskell
Creators: George Kay, Jim Field Smith
Are you old enough to remember the disaster movies of the 1970s? I was a little kid and only saw them after they had been thoroughly cleansed for TV, years after their release. I didn’t care if there were no naughty words. I watched for the cast of colorful characters bickering as they tried to escape the burning building or sinking ship.
Those movies had their day in the sun. From Airport to The Poseidon Adventure to The Towering Inferno. They even got a brilliant parody in Airplane. The genre picked up muscled action heroes and dropped a lot of realism and we got Die Hard and Armageddon. More recently it seems to have morphed into various versions of the zombie apocalypse.
But that pure adrenalin of the relatable disaster is back in TV series form with Hijack. This is seven episodes of tension in the air and on the ground as a plane carrying Idris Elba heads to London from Dubai.
Obviously, given the title, the plane is hijacked. Elba plays Sam, who is clearly our hero. His day job is as some sort of negotiator and he just wants to get home to his estranged wife and his teenage son. He has no time for these shenanigans.
Hijack is not one story, it’s four. In the air we follow two groups: the hijackers and the hostages. On the ground we follow Sam’s family and the international efforts to find out what’s happening to the plane, why, and how to respond. The story is told in real time, with the six hour flight lasting the full seven episodes.
Sam is joined in the air by the other passengers and the crew. Notably, the pilot (played by Ben Miles), the first officer (Kaisa Hammarlund), Sam’s first class neighbor Hugo (Harry Mitchell), and flight attendants Deevia (Zora Bishop) and Arthur (Jeremy Ang Jones). There are many more but these are the characters that create the framework for the larger ensemble.
The hijackers are led by Stuart (Neil Maskell), who gives the orders. The others take turns showing us both the ruthless and human sides of this group of villains.
On the ground are dozens of characters, both good and bad. Standouts include air traffic controller Alice (Eve Myles) who identifies and takes charge of the situation, and the British Foreign Secretary (Hattie Morahan), who is arguably the most morally complex character in the cast.
Hijack is a story about negotiations and moral dilemmas and good guys vs bad guys. The showrunners control the tension, creating peaks and valleys that keep the audience invested but not exhausted. They wisely leave out all but the bare minimum of corrupt or amoral politicians and go instead with a straight-forward approach focusing on the immediate situation.
I was hooked on Hijack from the first episode. Elba is as charismatic and enigmatic as ever, and his character retains some mystery throughout the episodes. The pace is high without being frantic, and the peripheral characters are developed just enough that we care what happens to them.
There are two weak points. The first is the enormous cast. There are too many people both in the air and on the ground and it’s easy to lose track of who they are and what role they play.
The second is the character of Daniel O’Farrel, current partner of Sam’s estranged wife. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to dislike him, but he is a noxious combination of smug and whiny. The actor (Max Beesley, who I last saw in The Gentleman) is not the problem. It’s the writing. He acts like an insecure child but the script seems to think he’s a hero. Fortunately his screen time is fairly limited.
Though the story arc of Hijack is definitely complete within this season, the show has been renewed for a second. I hope we learn more about Sam’s work outside of a hijacked plane, and maybe we’ll get to know Daniel well enough to stop loathing him.
Whatever season two brings, Hijack is well worth a watch. It’s engaging, fast-paced, and allows Elba to be the hero we all want him to be. It is streaming on Apple TV+.
Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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