Hijack

A sucker for British Crime drama, I was looking forward to this one and Idris Elba in the show was a bonus.

I quite enjoyed the show, something slightly different from everything else I've been recently watching. Idris Elba - you're either going to LOVE his acting or say, bruh he did what he usually does, what's new? The support cast however did a good job. The writing and the music for the show, however, were the highlight for me. Of course, there are cinematic liberties that you'll have to be okay with, the plot is not airtight.

Each episode builds and retains the intensity well; this show had weekly episodes and the plot made me care enough to come back and watch the next ep. Now that all of them are out, you might want to binge it and might end up liking it more than I did. Would recommend!

The first episode set up an interesting premise and introduction to the characters on this plane as well as on the ground. Unfortunately the further the series progressed the more implausible it became. Not implausible due to the many factual flaws around aviation in general but air traffic control in particular. These points are passable for e as this is clearly not a documentarybut a drama. So close enough to get a pass. However the show stetched credibilty to breaking point the further into the series it got. To the point where the final two episodes were sufficient to provoke rolled eyes, the final one being so far away from 'reality', that I really wondered if the writer had just lost interest and wanted it over and done with.

So let me get the obvious out of the way. This could never happen like this. I'm a pilot and almost everything about the aviation side of this show is about as wrong as you can get.

So if you can suspend your disbelief about the aviation, tech, firearms, policing and politics... you can actually enjoy this.

The suspense and trying to figure out how things are going to pan out makes this a pretty enjoyable watch in my view.

It could be better of course, but there is plenty here to get you engaged and the characters have plenty of depth to make them interesting and three dimensional.

So just put aside your objections to the obvious flaws, and enjoy the ride.

And of course, the legion of armchair airline and counter-terrorism experts are along to tell everyone how a fictional programme isn't at all like the real world. No doubt they also take issue with the latest Star Trek for not having realistic Klingons, and Dr Who because real aliens are not made out of styrofoam. And if you pay attention to the date of those reviews, you will see they were all written after the first episode airs.

I have zero issue with a fictional TV programme's realism, so long as I am entertained. And Hijack is entertaining. It's a bit far-fetched in places. But the acting is good, no surprises there with Idris Elba, the whole cast is strong. There are some tense moments, handled well. In particular, you really feel that they are on a real plane, an incredible set.

If you are able to put your armchair joystick to one side, this is definitely worth a watch.

Hijack is an intense thriller that's told in real time over the course of 7 hours, or 7 episodes. It's a hijacking on a plane to London with an extremely successful negotiator (Idris Elba) on board who does his best to step up and save the lives of everyone on the plane including his own. This is unlike any role Elba has played before and he absolutely knocks it out of the park. I'd be surprised if he's not nominated for best actor of a limited series. The show itself may get nominated but Elba definitely deserves it. I was hooked from the very beginning. This is a show that's probably best watched binged because you're not going to want to wait week to week for an episode.