Kidnap and Ransom

"Kidnap and Ransom" is an exciting series out of Britain.

Trevor Eve plays Dominic King, a war hero who is now a hostage negotiator. Corporations take out insurance policies on their most important people in certain countries in case they are kidnapped.

I'll say right off, I did love these episodes but I don't understand corporations doing this -- doesn't it just invite people in countries like India to kidnap important employees? In fact, that's what it looks like on the show because it seems like these kidnappers all have big paydays.

Dominic King makes a deal with the kidnappers, sometimes for less money, as long as the victim is kept alive and returned.

These two episodes (both in three parts) are negotiations that, let's say, don't go so well. Both are bone-chilling, suspenseful, and thrilling. I wish there were more.

Trevor Eve is wonderful as a solemn, quiet man, not without his own problems in his marriage and with his daughter. When he negotiates, it's with an iron glove rather than a fist -- he remains calm and measured throughout.

All of the acting is very good, with Eve taking top honors. In the second episode, Sharon Small from Inspector Lynley has a role as the daughter of people stuck on a hijacked bus.

Highly recommended.

Disagree with the top review and the filmography, needless camera angle switches 3 angles to watch him do anything. Dizziying and distracting like a College student was filming it. I get its a few years older but not a fan (includes action movies) trying quick camera BS. The rest is great so far.

Although not intended as such the incompetence of the lead actor as a negotiator is so overwhelming I could only laugh. Whilst taking himself so serious he makes moronic decision after moronic decision making each situation worse and causing damage and tragedy left and right. The law enforcement agencies he engages with are equally incompetent and ill equipped to deal with any thing at all. Saving grace is some nice scenery.

There's not much to the story so they pad it with lots of shaky cam, extreme badly framed close ups, weird flashy edits overlayed with odd photo filter effects. You're supposed to be swept up in the urgency of harsh jagged cuts from scene to scene most of which are 45 seconds or less. The average shot is 1 second. There are all sorts of factual errors such South Africans kidnapping a Brit asking for dollars which is not a denomination in either country.

Dominic's boss is a tool who screams and scolds him about nearly everything. And at the end of the day being a hostage negotiator doesn't look that hard. Pretty much paint by numbers. By the way if you're so valuable to your company they'd carry millions of dollars in kidnap insurance wouldn't they hire a bodyguard?

Dominic King is sent in to dangerous situations, when only the best hostage negotiator will do.

This is a series that grows on you, I spend the whole of the first episode moaning about how Waking the Dead had been axed, and how Trevor Eve was being wasted in this show, by episode two, I had forgotten that, and become engrossed in the story.

It's perhaps a little guilty of being a one trick pony in parts, they seem to force the kidnap and ransom scenario into the plot a few times, but it helps keep the show interesting.

Three episodes per series is about right, it allows it to progress at a nice pace, it looks great, the location work is superb, it's superbly acted, and gives you lots of twists and turns.

I'm glad they didn't try and run it for too long, the format is very limited, but both series are worth watching. 7/10.