Hijack Review

Hijack, the new thriller from AppleTV+, isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with its story. After all, it gives away the main hook of the narrative in its title. But with a cast lead by Idris Elba, I was hoping that the series would turn out to be more than a run-of-the-mill hijacking story and allow us the chance to really dig deep into some of the show’s characters – and perhaps get a solid grasp on the motivations behind the action the show gives away in its title. Unfortunately, while there are some strong episodes to be had in the eight-episode run of Hijack, the slow start and the insanely thin ending turn this series into a catastrophe.

The basic plot is simple enough. Elba is Sam Nelson, a business negotiator, who is headed home to London on a full flight from Dubai. Sam has an ex-wife (Christine Adams, wasted in the role) he’s still in love with – although she’s now dating a cop (Max Beesley, who naturally gets more to do than Adams) – and a teenage son, who is less-than-thrilled at his mom’s new beau. Unfortunately for Sam – and most of the passengers on the plane – a team of organized hijackers end up taking control of the flight not long after take-off, putting everyone’s life in danger and forcing Sam to try to use his crack negotiating skills to figure a way out of this situation. There’s a lot more going on than just the hijacking, of course, with the series introducing a host of characters but failing to take the time to develop nearly any of them. Our touchstone characters are Sam, Archie Panjabi’s British security official Zahra Gahfoor, and Eve Myles’ British air traffic controller Alice Sinclair, but we’re inundated with so many characters, so many small plot threads, and so much confused chaos that the plot starts to splinter under the weight of it all.

That’s not to say that the series is a complete waste of time. There’s a run of three episodes near the end of the series where everything clicks, the story feels taught, the tension is high, and the focus is perfectly aligned on just the right mix of characters. I found myself jumping to the next episode, eager to figure out just what was going to happen next. Because, during those episodes, the series allows us the chance to connect to several characters who have been lingering on the fringes of the story thus far. We get a better understanding of the complexities of the hijacking itself, we see flashes of humanity in those carrying it out, see the toll the potential tragedy is taking on those trying to solve things on the ground, and get glimpses into some of the passengers and plane crew members we’ve spent only cursory amounts of time with. Because guess what? Thrillers don’t work unless there are characters for the audience to care about. And, until this point in the story, Hijack hasn’t given us much in the way of compelling or interesting characters to latch onto. We get plenty of action, threats of violence, and signs that there’s more going on than meets the eye in the initial set of episodes, but the series seems too concerned with making sure we understand the threat that it forgets to show us who is involved in this situation on a personal level. And no, showing us that Sam has an ex-wife and kid doesn’t count.

The saving grace of the series comes in the central performance of Elba. As has been clear throughout so much of his career, Elba is a true star with the gravitas to hold an entire audience in the palm of his hand whilst on screen. And the same is true here. When the series pulls away from the plane and Elba, it suffers (and it’s not like there aren’t heavy hitters in other sectors of the series – Myles is great, if underused, and Panjabi would be stellar if the series cared enough to give her either a character to play or a narrative to anchor). Sure, there’s no real explanation for how Sam Nelson has the ability to figure out some of the things he figures out or the physical ability to fight his way out of certain situations – while the series says he’s a business negotiator, there’s certainly some insinuation that there’s more to this job than meets the eye. But Elba makes it work. He’s steady, even-keeled, never trying to pull too much focus. If only the story could provide Elba with the juice to power his performance. But, alas, when the narrative is too overstuffed – and trying to make us care about far too many characters for the series’ limited running time – even the best leading man can’t keep the series from falling apart at the seams.

And that’s what Hijack ultimately turns into: a confused story with too many characters and too little time to devote to them in order to make use care enough about nearly all of them. Had the story been slimmed down – perhaps focusing solely on those in the plane with Myles’ air traffic controller taking the main role on the ground – this might have amounted to more than a thin story with a truly non-impactful ending. But what we have is a half-baked story with little to recommend it, even with the solid 2.5 episode stretch in the middle of its run. Quite the disappointment.

Hijack premieres on June 28 on AppleTV+. All eight episodes of the series were provided for review.