Recensioni degli utenti

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.

Did I hate it? No. Would I watch it again? Also no. Nothing really wrong with the show, and it kept me interested enough to see it through. That said, when under review, it really falls apart in an amateurish way. Too many wild plot twists and gaps that felt rushed and uninspired. The ridiculous number of security breaches and oversights made British and French intelligence agencies look like Scooby-Doo. A few characters like the PM's daughter, were incessantly annoying and didn't add anything to the story. I didn't mind the political threads, but they felt tacked on and mostly ended up as red herrings with little connection to the antagonists' actual motives.

All that said, it still managed to entertain me. It's not a show anyone will be talking about for weeks to come, but it's worth a watch if you've got a free night to binge something.

Could have been better, good idea of a storyline.

I definitely thought we were going to get you can't handle the truth, we live in a world that has walls & those walls have to be guarded by men with guns, you have just weakened a nation, sleep well.

Worth watching, but not something you would watch twice!!

This show started out slow and just got worse with each episode. At first I just wanted to see where it was going. We gave up in the first 5 minutes of episode 3. Bad acting and writing. It was painful to watch. And please, to everyone involved in writing these shows, enough of the angst-ridden teenager nonsense. It's so unnatural to give the teens so much power (not to mention horrible ancting), and yet my husband and I are seeing more and more of it. It's an insult to any parent's intelligence.

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.

The show was as good as I thought it would be. None of the issues other reviewers have bothered me, however I'm a Belizean and our official language is English. We were once a British colony so why the hell would the British soldiers need translators?? That's my only issue!! Overall the show was well paced and had the right amount of tension and suspense.

I don't care how far fetched Hostage is, it's great, entertaining TV! For me, escapism is a must to block out reality. No-one said this is based on true events, so why not just enjoy it for what it is: pure, unadulterated, suspenseful entertainment. Fab parody of politics and conspiracy. Loved it. Chill out and enjoy 😆

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?

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.

Hostage kicks off with a high-stakes premise and rarely lets up, moving at a relentless pace that mixes political maneuvering with personal peril.

The story occasionally stretches credibility - there are moments that make you think, "no way this could actually happen" especially in the first couple of episodes. But if you lean into the heightened reality, the series delivers a tense, absorbing ride.

At the centre is Suranne Jones, outstanding as Prime Minister Abigail Dalton. She brings a mix of steel and humanity that makes the wildest twists feel grounded. Julie Delpy is her perfect foil as French President Vivienne Toussaint - cool, enigmatic, and always hinting at deeper motives. Their on-screen push and pull is the show's real power play.

The series looks great, too. Directors Isabelle Sieb and Amy Neil keep the action tight and urgent, while Jeff Russo's score hums with understated menace. It's bingeable television in the truest sense: five hours of fast politics, high drama, and personal stakes colliding.

Yes, some plotting relies on convenience, and a few resolutions arrive too neatly wrapped. But the energy, the performances, and the sheer audacity keep it entertaining throughout.

Not prestige realism, but an unapologetic political potboiler with flair.

Overall: 8/10 - tense, stylish, and far more fun than it has any right to be.

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.

The series has potential but relies too heavily on overused patterns. The female Prime Minister is pushed into extreme situations while her husband is reduced to a weak, emotional role. Their daughter is written as another bratty, defiant teen, a cliché that's become stale ( I wonder if writers are forcing bad parenting down our throats). The French president is portrayed through scandal, a tired stereotype. On top of that, glaring logic gaps like Ayesha opening the door just as the Prime Minister's daughter conveniently saw her father captive on the screen, a contrived and unrealistic setup or Ayesha's phone surviving a bomb blast, pull the viewer out of the story. Hostage entertains at surface level but feels more forced than fresh.

The fact they even had the French president killed on British soil felt unbelievable, in reality, such an event would have thrown the entire country into chaos.

I only wish the writers had put in more effort, because there's nothing new here; it's all been told before.

Did it reinvent the wheel, no, was it meant to..... no!

Was it entertaining for a few hours to just sit down and switch your brain off after a long, yes!

I think people have forgotten the art of just relaxing, and just putting on some fluff to pass a few hours, and if everyone thinks that everything has to be high art these days, or written perfectly to meet your unrealistic expectations, you'll never be happy.

I rewatched Avengers Endgame recently, and is dumber than a bag of spiders, but thats just what I wanted that night, and that's one of the highest grossing movies ever made..... this was less dumb, perfect no, completely unrealistic yes, but why does every movie/show now have to meet a bunch of armchair critics expectations or else its "terrible writing", "unrealistic", "worst thing I've ever seen".

You all need to start chilling out, and if something passes sometime for a few hours, you should be grateful people are making anything to help you pass the time in your little lives, this certainly was not the worst thing I've seen, and I appreciate the effort the makers/actors/and esp the crew put in to give you something to make time passing a little less boring.

It's rare that I find a plots outcome hard to predict but this one took me by surprise. Yes, it's not entirely believable that the 'kidnappers' could have managed everything they did but you have to give the writers some poetic license every now and again or we'd have come very boring programmes out there. Could not fault the acting. Every single person was superb and the supporting actors really shone in this series. The length was just perfect too. Didn't drag it out. Story progression was really natural. Great mix of political drama, thriller, and action. Just the right amount of all.

Hostage isnt sure what it is. Poltical drama ? Family drama? Action Thriller ?

Its a bit of all of these but isnt particularly convincing at any of them.

Plot, character and basic logic take a back seat in order to keep the story moving along and allow for each episode to escalate the stakes above the previous.

Its bingeable, braindead tv that occasionally surprises but more often has you muttering at the gaping absence of realism.

UK Intelligence agencies, MI5 & MI6 are still one of the best in the world. Yet this series depicted that they were failures to protect their PM and her family. Had no clue what was happening on the streets of Loondon! Diplomatic relations between two rich and developed nations at the highest level looked like a family feud.

Poor plot, inadequate research and below par direction. Not worth the time.

I don't understand some of the low reviews because...the poster didn't like the teenage daughter character or they thought the plot was far fetched.

The U. S. is currently sliding towards Authoritarianism with a low intellect, convicted criminal as the face of a plot to destroy American democracy...something many thought was not "believable".

At any rate, this exceeded my expectations despite the surprisingly low reviews.

The acting is superb and the entire series was highly engaging.

I'd liken this to The Diplomat, as entertaining.

It's a fairly compelling series, though it's difficult to emotionally connect to some characters because there's so little exposition. But my gawd - the daughter is beyond insufferable. She's horrific. Terrible acting, terrible character. Totally undeserving of being in the presence of Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy. She's so needlessly infuriating that it honestly made the show almost unwatchable. I think about how much better it wouldn't been without her. There's also a pretty insufferable reporter asking pesky questions when this woman's husband's life is on the line. It's possible to create conflict without having such unwatchable characters. Especially the angsty, hopelessly stupid daughter.

I highly anticipated this series because of Suranna Jones.

How sorry I am that, even she fails to reach her usual level of acting in this horrible written series.

What were they thinking? Did they think that the viewer is too stupid to recognize a dreadful script? Too many completely unrealistic storylines and bad acting make me advise you to stay away from this...complete waste of time.