'Hostage' series review: Netflix political thriller craves a captive audience

Netflix

Thank heavens British politics are no longer a mess since there's a completely flavourless person in charge. In Hostage, a new political thriller miniseries, Suranne Jones portrays Abigail Dalton who happens to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom and is therefore said person in charge. Abigail is trying to negotiate a deal with French president Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy) to fix the country's urgent medication shortage, but they are thrown a curveball when Abigail's husband, a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas), and his colleagues get abducted in French Guiana by masked goons.

Also starring in the series are Isobel Akuwudike as Abigail and Alex's daughter Sylvie Anderson, Lucian Msamati as Abigail's aide Kofi Adomako, Jehnny Beth as Vivienne's aide Adrienne Pelletier, while Corey Mylchreest plays Vivienne's stepson Matheo Lewis.

If you've seen at least three thriller series coming from the British Isles in the last 15 or so years before hitting play on Hostage, you pretty much know what you're in for. The overall story will try to dig into things like sacrifice, truth, justice, patriotism and moral boundaries, whilst the plot mechanics feature two-faced personalities, betrayals, shameful secrets, family drama and spurts of moderate action. This show plays by the book when it comes to all that and it is often comfortable to be held for ransom in the comfort of your own home by this type of television, especially when you have a lead like Jones who translates Abigail's fallibility, displeasure and anxiety neatly. A few strong supporting turns like that of Msamati, as well as solid editing and tight pacing throughout the five-episode run by editors Ben Drury and Jesse Parker contribute to the moments of success, too.

What's unfortunate is that faint praise is the best that you can do. Whether we're talking about writer and creator Matt Charman's scripts or the direction (Amy Neil and Isabelle Sieb), the series as a whole lacks dynamism and edge which would make it stand out from the bunch, although the directors at least deploy competent visual language. However, perhaps the biggest factor in that lack of dynamism is Delpy who delivers one of the most sauceless performances on TV in recent memory. The friction between Abigail and Vivienne is presented as a key element, and it's supposed to produce political intrigue, but Delpy is the embodiment of the "Go girl, give us nothing" meme while Jones is working overtime to make something out of those scenes. It also doesn't help that Vivienne's own storyline isn't super compelling either.

Charman's writing falters elsewhere, too, like the downright amateurish material that is given to Akuwudike to perform, ensuring that the poor actor becomes another victim of middle-aged writers writing teens and kids in belittling fashion. Similarly toothless are the politics; other than implying that Vivienne probably uses slurs when referring to non-white immigrants, the characters are rather flat, which is why you're not truly invested in them getting either their flowers or comeuppance in the finale. At the end of the day, this is more or less designed to be harmless algorithm filler—it's decently made fast food that could've, and should've, been more gripping if it had a little bit of flair. I'm sure it'll do its job as a recommendation for viewers who finish the similarly flavourless 'The Diplomat', but it is nonetheless worrisome that Hostage was probably ordered only because that show has received awards attention recently. C'est la vie.

Smileys: None

Frowneys: Julie Delpy

Suranne Jones is the prime minister, Rihanna is Smurfette.

2.5/5

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