The Netflix political drama 'Hostage' is a pumpkin patch of plots, subplots, and marriages of convenience.
You kind of know what to expect when you watch the trailer. And then, as the infomercials used to say, there’s more.
The Netflix political drama Hostage is a pumpkin patch of plots, subplots, and marriages of convenience. And it’s television drama at its gripping best, despite Rotten Tomato audience ratings averaging it out as a yawn.
Take one female British prime minister, add a husband who’s a do-gooding doctor, a steely female French president, and a measure of sex scandal.
Then, fold it gently into a mixing bowl of political intrigue, a touch of humanness between two world leaders, a national health crisis in Britain and a bit of extortion.
Now, bake it in a hostage drama for 5 hours and, voila! Add popcorn and other snacks to season.
Hostage is that entertaining. Abigail Dalton is the British Prime Minister whose husband, Dr Alex Anderson, works for Doctors Without Borders.
She’s freshly elected and about eight months into her tenure at 10 Downing Street, facing a crisis on home soil.
The NHS or National Health Service has run out of cancer pharma’s, and the country is outraged. Dalton turns to the French President, Vivienne Toussant, for help.
French PM a purse-lipped ball of unpleasant
Now, Toussant is an arrogant, purse-lipped ball of unpleasantness at first.
The kind of person who hides the skipping rope on the playground so that only she can play at her own will. She arrives in London for a summit with Dalton, demanding that the French control UK border policing at Calais, to halt the illegal immigration of refugees.
Toussant is up for re-election, and she needs that win to secure a favourable poll.
Then, at the same time, Dr Anderson heads off to the Ebola-stricken French Guyana on a humanitarian mission. He’s kidnapped in the middle of a village, and Dalton’s held to ransom. Quite by 1pm within a day, or Hubbie gets lynched.
While this is happening, Cabinet’s serving up its own dish of delightful intrigue.
A vote of no confidence is engineered to ditch Dalton. Then, in another layer, we soon learn that that is not the only conniving plot unfolding in the not-so-United Kingdom during the crisis.
Problems across the channel for Toussant are just as grave. She becomes embroiled in a sex scandal.
Twisted sex scandal
The two leaders eventually come together, until death did them part. The French and the English find common ground, and for a bleak moment, sanity prevails.
Until the next twist in the narrative. An internal terrorist plots.
This is serious, intriguing, and engaging drama at its best. The show is very well paced, and there’s no rush to a conclusion after an up-and-down rollercoaster of plotting and plaguing that accelerates towards the end.
It’s measured, well-crafted, and excellently directed by Isabelle Sieb, who completed three episodes and Amy Neil, who did the balance of two. But you don’t feel any change of hands because both pairs were steady, with viewer entertainment in mind. They don’t drop the ball on the plot.
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Suranne Jones is great as Dalton, her character a mix of Tony Blair and the gentler elements of Margaret Thatcher, if there was such a thing.
Toussant is played by Julie Delphy, just as brilliantly. Dalton’s plus one, Dr Alex Anderson, is played by Bashy, whose performance as the bleeding heart spouse fits the mould.
Actually, the whole bang-shoot of this somewhat large cast is really good. There’s not a moment in the show’s five-hour, five-episode run that any of the characters feels unbelievable.
Go and read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and see if you agree after watching Hostage.
Perhaps the folk who rated it lower than junk bond status were intimidated by the many twists and turns in the plot. Hostage is highly recommended and a binge-watch of note because it’s worthy of your time.
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