\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the derivative Netflix spy drama Treason<\/em> premiered in 2022, I used the Charlie Cox vehicle as an excuse to write a small treatise on the institutional misuse and overuse of in medias res<\/em> openings.<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve occasionally needed to reference what I wrote, but I\u2019ve never been able to consistently remember what show I pegged the analysis to. Treason<\/em> has a wholly generic title, and while it has an OK cast and the recognizable structure of a television series, it\u2019s among the more forgettable dramas of an era that has had more than a few forgettable dramas. There are countless shows, some quite successful, that are far worse than whatever that Charlie Cox show was called, but few that have dissipated into the ether as thoroughly.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tHostage\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/span> \tEntirely forgettable. \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: <\/strong>Thursday, August 21 (Netflix) \n\tCompetition comes in the form of the new Netflix drama Hostage<\/em>. Like that Charlie Cox thing, it\u2019s a London-set five-parter with an instantly negligible title, a solid ensemble and the discernible shape of a television thriller, rendered near-generic by flimsy characterizations, an illogical central action and an ending both silly and cribbed from A Few Good Men<\/em> to a degree that I\u2019d call parody except for how purposeless the cribbing is.<\/p>\n \n\tThat this show and that similarly search-challenged Charlie Cox thing both hail from creator Matt Charman suggests a writer skilled at pitching a sturdy hook, but badly in need of more development time to allow the finished product to live up to its potential.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the case of Hostage<\/em>, the potential stems from the tantalizing prospect of watching stars Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack<\/em>) and Julie Delpy (the Before<\/em> trilogy) in an acting power struggle \u2014 a promise that isn\u2019t quite an empty tease, but never gets delivered upon fully.<\/p>\n \n\tJones plays Abigail Dalton, semi-recently elected as British prime minister. Dalton\u2019s biggest campaign promise was to boost the National Health Service by gutting the military. She has succeeded in the latter, but not the former, as the NHS is in the midst of a shortage of vital medical resources. A crisis is developing.<\/p>\n \n\tDalton is hoping to receive assistance from Vivienne Toussaint (Delpy), the French president, in London for a summit. Toussaint is in the middle of a re-election cycle that has forced her to kowtow to France\u2019s extreme right. Although she has the medical supplies that England needs, she\u2019s prepared to use this power imbalance for her own political needs, which may or may not be nefarious.<\/p>\n \n\tThe summit becomes more complicated when Dalton\u2019s husband, a Doctors Without Borders physician (Ashley Thomas\u2019 Alex), is taken hostage in French Guiana along with three other doctors. The kidnappers\u2019 only demand is Dalton\u2019s resignation, which seems like a no-brainer to Dalton\u2019s petulant teenage daughter (Isobel Akuwudike\u2019s Sylvie). But if you\u2019ve seen a political thriller before, you probably know that global leaders are big fans of saying that they don\u2019t negotiate with terrorists.<\/p>\n \n\tThe kidnapping \u2014 the logic and strategy of which unravel if you even partially consider them \u2014 is predictably part of a conspiracy, one that both goes higher and less high than you could possibly imagine, and quickly compromises Toussaint as well.<\/p>\n \n\tThe respective challenges that Dalton and Toussaint face are vaguely morally complex and, I guess, compelling, albeit in a gendered way that Hostage<\/em> isn\u2019t nearly smart enough to explore. Would a largely generic male prime minister whose largely generic female spouse was taken hostage ever be judged negatively for choosing job and country over family? Probably not. Is that relevant here? Barely. Toussaint\u2019s own involvement is tied to a double standard that the show hints at, though it lacks the mettle for deeper engagement. Hostage <\/em>references things, but is about very little.<\/p>\n \n\tThe show is convinced that the dilemma is inherently interesting, and it does, if nothing else, give both Jones and Delpy interesting things to play. But the dilemma functions instead of individual characteristics for either woman. They\u2019re defined by the power of their positions and the fragility of their significant others (Vincent Perez briefly plays Toussaint\u2019s media mogul husband) rather than by voices or personality traits. For an episode or two, there\u2019s enough material related to how these women attempt to project power that it\u2019s possible to ignore that neither character behaves as a human outside of the construction of the pressure-filled plot.<\/p>\n \n\tIt isn\u2019t that the show has a specific disrespect for its two central figures. Every single supporting character is their basic logline and nothing else. Sylvie is introduced after a rowdy night on the town that could have left her and her family embarrassed, but nothing from that introduction is ever relevant again. Toussaint\u2019s step-son Matheo (Corey Mylchreest) is introduced as a leftist willing to protest against his own step-mom, but nothing from that introduction is ever relevant again. The key thing we need to know about Lucian Msamati\u2019s Kofi, one of Dalton\u2019s advisors, isn\u2019t revealed until late in the series, and then even that key detail turns out to be irrelevant.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd those are the series\u2019 most<\/em> developed characters. At least it\u2019s an iron-clad guarantee that no matter how little you give him to do, Msamati will be watchable! Dalton has a team of aides, only one of whom (Hiftu Quasem\u2019s Ayesha) is given a name (but no additional traits beyond that). Toussaint has only one aide, Jehnny Beth\u2019s Adrienne, whose ubiquity is a spoiler, though viewers will be unable to come up with even a single adjective to describe her. Even Dalton\u2019s husband, whose kidnapping is the hinge for the entire series, could only be described as \u201cdoctorly.\u201d Although he\u2019s been taken with three additional colleagues, somehow nobody thought, \u201cWouldn\u2019t we care more about these people if any of them had a single sympathetic quality?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIf you have an ensemble of characters who aren\u2019t characters, good luck getting viewers to invest on even a superficial level, and good luck getting anybody to care when thriller conventions demand that you kill somebody off in order to simulate stakes.<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s an off-chance that with six or eight episodes to tell this story, Charman and directors Isabelle Sieb and Amy Neil might have been able to give viewers a few more points of attachment, but the series already feels like its resources are spread thin. The hostage subplot, which was shot in the Canary Islands, is one or two drone shots of a jungle but nothing to generate excitement or tension or visual variety. Back in the U.K., we get some interiors that might as well resemble 10 Downing Street, but it\u2019s mostly indistinguishable sets. The London location work is limited, and when crowd scenes are required, the budget looks to have been enough for a dozen people at most.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom characters to action to the lip service paid to current events and issues, everything in Hostage<\/em> is sparse. Other than \u201cpeople like when their politicians are honest,\u201d Hostage<\/em> has few ideas; at times, it plays like a half-developed spinoff of The Diplomat<\/em>, a show with an actual perspective on the challenges faced by women in power.<\/p>\n \n\tThis is a first draft for something that could have been developed and finessed into a series of substance. Delpy, Jones and those curious enough to watch them going head-to-head deserved better than \u2026 whatever this show was called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the derivative Netflix spy drama Treason premiered in 2022, I used the Charlie Cox vehicle as an excuse to write a small treatise on the institutional misuse and overuse of in medias res openings. I\u2019ve occasionally needed to reference what I wrote, but I\u2019ve never been able to consistently remember what show I pegged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[10150,2222,966,10149,274,8592],"class_list":{"0":"post-16926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-delpy","9":"tag-drama","10":"tag-jones","11":"tag-julie","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-suranne"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Cast: <\/strong>Julie Delpy, Suranne Jones, Ashley Thomas, Lucian Msamati
Creator: <\/strong>Matt Charman
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n