Rehén

I don't know why but teenage daughters on tv are the most irritating of all. The kid is in the public eye and yet she acts overly dramatic with her teenage angst making anything and everything difficult for her PM mother. They should have kidnapped her instead. Or better yet, just not have her character in the show.

With the daughter out of the picture, it is a good watch full of suspense.

What to say about this, sounds good on paper but so poor in execution.

Many, many 'surely that's not the way that would be done' moments but the standout for me by far was the team of French Special Forces apparently being transported in an Apache AH64...clearly a 2 seater helicopter...which the French don't use. Just lazy production.

I'm a fan of the lead actress Suranne Jones. I have liked pretty much everything she's been in. Intrigued by British accent of the French President's French husband. Hmmm lots of confusing plot twists. Honestly Netflix has way worse shows.

This last bit is on length required for reviews. Why 300 words?

These kinds of shows always demand suspension of disbelief for their twists to work. In the vein of Tom Clancy and other political action thrillers, the fun is to be had in the (sometimes immense) moments of incredulity. The more wild so much the better. In the end, it's a power fantasy, and this time it centres women, which, for me, breathed a bit of fresh air in an otherwise fairly trite subgenre.

It's not amazing, but it's certainly far from terrible. Good production, decent acting, and good pacing help it along as well. 5 episodes is perfect. I hope more shows take notice. The 8+ episode length for stuff like this always feels like filler.

Having read a 4* review by Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Save yourself the time: it's soap opera territory, with more holes than a piece of swiss cheese.

I like Suranne Jones, but the plot and the script are so lightweight, and spectacularly predictable.

I really struggled to stay awake.