Who is she? I don't know!

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023 

#29 : Hijack 

Idris Elba’s thriller about a hijacked flight was incredibly silly. It was hard to believe these muppets had it in them to take a trolley drinks order, never mind take control of a plane. And Ben Miles as an adulterous captain was, for reasons unknown, very laughable indeed. But there’s no denying that it was mega binge-worthy, with irresistible cliffhangers that compelled us to hit the “play next” button right through to the end. Such good fun.

I would have watched this earlier but kept it back to watch with our youngest because it seemed exactly the sort of thing that she'd love - she just lives it with every twist and turn being greeted by actual screams (which are very funny!).

And this didn't disappoint - it's complete nonsense, but very, very watchable with some excellent (yet utterly ludicrous) twists and turns. All you need to know is that it's about a hijacked flight and it happens in "real time" - it does a reasonable job of hanging together provided you don't think about things too much (and you really don't want to be doing that). 

It has quite the cast - Idris is perfect as the "ordinary guy" who just happens to be ridiculously good looking, filthy rich and capable of convincing everyone he's right in about three seconds. Also in the mix are Neil Maskell (playing the kinda guy he ALWAYS plays), Eve Myles (always watchable), Archie Panjabi (ditto), Ben Miles (who looks permanently embarrassed about how rubbish he is), Max Beesley (actually surprisingly believable in an ocean of ludicrousness), Kevin Eldon (always ridiculous) and Holly Aird (woah - no-one saw that coming!) - and a load of other people who you might recognise, but I didn't! No-one's going to be up for a BAFTA as a result of this, but let's just say everyone acts in the manner necessary to fit in here.

It's well filmed - I imagine they must have built an incredibly large plane in order to be able to film the shots they did, but it's well-done and all looks very stylish. Much more stylish than any plane looks within five seconds of take-off, but the important thing to do here is suspend every element of disbelief in your body (they don't let anyone go to the toilet on a seven hour flight!) and just enjoy the ride. I can report that our youngest LOVED it - there were plenty of screams throughout the season (and there were even some twists that I didn't see coming!). 24 is an excellent touchpoint here because if you liked that, then you'll like this - and it's on Apple TV+ if you fancy something utterly ridiculous yet enjoyable.

#28 - Yeah, this was good
#30 - Well worth a watch

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