When Apple TV+ released the first trailer for ‘Hijack’, featuring Idris Elba, promoting the show as a real-time thriller, I was already intrigued enough to know I’d watch the first episode. What I didn’t realize was this show would be so compelling that I’d be upset at Apple for not realizing all the episodes at once. Finally we have all seven and till the end I was at the edge of my seat, even as we get to the dramatic conclusion.
To backup a step, Idris Elba’s character, Sam Nelson, is planning a trip back to London from Dubai, where he homes to see his estranged wife and their son. His estranged wife Marsha-Smith Nelson, played by Christine Adams, who Sam clearly still has feelings for, has moved on for a new man DI Daniel O’Farrel played by Max Beesley. . Sam’s son is distraught about the time away from his father, and pushes away the new man in his mom’s life. On Sam’s side once on the plan everything is going smoothly for him and the flight, until the discovery of a bullet by passengers prompts the waiting hijackers to strike and thus take over the plan within the first hour of the seven hour flight. Sam attempts to intercede, introducing the hijackers, and the audience, to his career, as a corporate business negotiator. This sets up a dynamic that will remain through the rest of the flight, as Sam tenuously stands at times between the passengers, and hijackers, with the hope of getting everyone safely home.
Eve Myles in “Hijack,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
On paper this is a show that at many points can seem like it would go off the rails; however, impressively each episode builds on the last to deliver more thrills while for the most part keeping the show grounded. Even when the realism can skew at times, you are already so on board you simply buy the premise. This is sold in many ways by the incredible acting of all the cast members, with Idris Elba as a standout as he so often is in these roles. Elba’s pronouncement that he’s a corporate negotiator might seem like a bad ‘Taken’ copy, if it were said by perhaps any other actor. Still we buy Elba’s commitment so much so that even when Sam is seeming to be in command of his emotions, when we get to see those few cracks, deftly micro-acted by Elba, we’re reminded of the stakes once again and how much pressure Sam, and indeed all the passengers, really feel.
In addition to the passengers on the plane, we are shown a variety of scenes on the ground including a airport control center, a crisis center put together by the British gov’t, as well as a number of scenes that help illuminate for the audience the stakes of the hijacking. Though there’s that tugging feeling to always want to return to see more about Sam and the passengers, I felt this did a wonderful job of adding some real world context, especially with the scenes of the British gov’t struggling to decide how to react. Likewise I especially loved Eve Myles work as Alice Sinclair, air traffic controller at London Heathrow Airport, whose role may strain credulity, especially in the final scenes, but whose delivery is so captivating I’d want no one else taking her role.
Even after the ‘resolution’ of the series, we are left with a significant number of questions that make me wonder if somehow there will indeed be a Season 2. Though Apple TV+ teased this as a limited series, if it captivates audiences as much as it did me then I could see some expanded world with a sequel or a spin-off. Even if this is all there is to ‘Hijack’ though, this was a strong series from the jump, and one I highly recommend for a fun summer watch.
