Ugly, mechanical, soulless: Apple TV+’s Hijack reviewed

Idris Elba would have made a perfect James Bond. Not the James Bond that we knew and loved when he was played by wry, capable Sean Connery or playful, tongue-in-cheek Roger Moore. But he definitely ought to have been a shoo-in for the horror show that the Bond franchise has become: dour, humourless, pumped up, ponderous, portentous, joyless…

In his latest vehicle, Elba plays high-level negotiator Sam Nelson, an ordinary man yet possessed of a very particular set of skills. These include being able to walk coolly and slowly through an airport to final boarding at exactly the pace – no more, no less – you need to reach the departure gate at the precise millisecond before it closes; and the ability to detect, through subtle clues, that the flight he has boarded may be about to be hijacked.

And he’s right. It is. There’s another clue in the series title Hijack, which must be a novel concept to most of its target audience because when was the last time you can remember getting on a plane and worrying about such a thing happening? It’s about as remote from our experience as, say, trying to decide whether to travel ‘smoking’ and risk being kippered by the person next to you or go ‘non-smoking’ and endure the whole flight without a gasper.

Two episodes in, it’s hard to discern the motivation of the hijackers. They’re an unlikely bunch. Sure, one of them looks and sounds like a stereotypical Islamist. But mostly they appear to have wandered in from a Sky crime caper: a sadistic, hot-headed young Welshwoman, a hard-as-nails, death-stare English tough guy; an old school Costa del Crime Cockney. What they have in common is that they are much more aggressive and unpleasant than they need to be, in keeping with the general tone of the drama: if you want ugly, mechanical, soulless, then this is the show for you.