The second series of Idris Elba’s Apple TV thriller moves the action from a plane to Berlin’s U-Bahn
Try this fun ice-breaker next time the dinner chat lulls. You’re on public transport and a terrifying hijack situation is in progress. When you turn around, who do you hope to see sitting in the seat behind you? If you didn’t answer Idris Elba, you should watch the first series of Hijack on Apple TV.
And while it’s not necessary to have seen the first series to enjoy the second outing of Hijack, why deprive yourself of one of the most stylish, unpredictable thrillers of the decade?
Through all of his film and TV work, Elba has never seemed more at home than as Sam Nelson, the enigmatic business negotiator in Jim Field Smith and George Kay’s rollicking hostage drama. The first series was set aboard a flight from Dubai to London, with Sam using his skills and muscles to outwit and outmatch hijackers, a modern-day John McClane just trying to get home to his family. It was the perfect balance between high-octane action caper and thoughtfully constructed story, a meal that left viewers completely satisfied.
Series two sees Sam in the claustrophobic confines of a busy U-Bahn train under Berlin as fate chooses him once again. His train is hijacked, the passengers are panicking but is Sam mentally up to the job to go through this for a second time?
If you think the showrunners, along with lead writer Guy Bolton, must now painfully bend credibility to convince us that Sam is the unluckiest business negotiator on earth, think again. Their approach to world building is always three steps ahead.
In the opening episode, we see Sam arriving in snowy Berlin, staring down the lens with a gloomy absence in his eyes, accompanied by Sam Cooke’s “Lost and Lookin’”. Elba’s magnetic performance leans heavily on that redoubtable scowl, but there’s something troubled there now too.
As he heads to the underground station at the airport, he’s jumping at shadows and hyper vigilant. Anyone would forgive him for having PTSD after what he’s been through.
Comparisons to The Taking of Pelham 123 aside (it features the hijacking of a New York subway car), this is a show that flatters its audience. Come for the unpredictable twists and cliffhangers (and if you see the episode one cliffhanger coming, I think you win a prize), stay for the consistently good judgement that seems to be going on behind the camera.
Modern TV thrillers, particularly on the streamers, often leave me with a sense that I’m being taken for a ride by someone who doesn’t know how to drive. But Hijack has the hallmarks of a team in full control of their material.
Episode one is a masterclass in tension and top flight misdirection. Close-ups of Sam’s palpable unease are intercut with vignettes of his fellow passengers: the claustrophobic teenager on a college trip, the wise guy in a beany hat, the keen former colleague who bumps into Sam on the platform. Meanwhile, the driver is sweating and seems to be losing his nerve. What does he know that we don’t?
At ground level, everything looks like a cool European political thriller, all steel greys and drone shots of the skyline, the city trapped in a snow globe where all seems peaceful. The direction cuts artfully between underground turmoil and above-ground political manoeuvring as the hijacking triggers an international incident. In episode two, Toby Jones arrives as a representative from the British government, so you know it’s serious.
A capable international cast – including the brilliant Lisa Vicari as a rookie network controller on her first night shift – scrambles to work out why one of their trains is missing as the first 44-minute instalment builds to one of the best twists/cliffhangers (twisthangers?) in TV history.
The almost impossible job of shooting and lighting action in a narrow train carriage looks effortless, the performances are pitch perfect and the script is sparing while never being so enigmatic you can’t keep up with the fast-moving story.
Hijack is a class act, guaranteed to keep you guessing but never at the expense of the world it creates.
‘Hijack’ is streaming on Apple TV
