Streaming on: Apple TV+
Episodes viewed: 7 of 7
Idris Elba could probably smooth-talk anyone into doing anything, so he’s perfectly cast as slick business negotiator Sam Nelson in this hugely entertaining high-concept aeroplane-in-peril thriller. From the first glimpse we get of his super-focused character, oozing poise and calm determination on the moving walkway at Dubai airport as he texts his estranged wife Marsha (Christine Adams) to tell her he’s flying back to London to see her, he has us in the palm of his unsweaty hand. This guy is so cool, calm and collected, in fact, it seems almost inevitable that eventually there’ll be a plot twist revealing he is, in fact, some kind of highly trained special agent, but, no, he really is just one of those guys who facilitates business mergers.
His grace under pressure act faces the ultimate test here, and not just from the entitled posh-boy twerp who’s sitting next to him in Business Class, but mainly from the gang of hijackers led by Neil Maskell’s distinctly edgy Stuart Atterton. Maskell is a master at portraying characters who could snap at any minute, as anyone who’s seen his indelible performance in the original Utopia will know, and here he is a superbly unsettling presence in the claustrophobic setting of the passenger jet. With his motive left intriguingly unclear to start with, the confrontations between him and Elba’s self-appointed passenger leadership figure are rivetingly tense, as Nelson tries to out-smart the gun-wielding desperado.
Jim Field Smith and George Kay manage the real-time storytelling and intricate plot threads with masterful control.
The ongoing battle of wits between these two would probably be enough to sustain a seven-part limited series playing out (roughly) in real time, but there are a lot of entertaining supporting characters to help keep the action percolating nicely as well. In the grand tradition of many an aeroplane-set movie thriller (and of course Airplane, the genius spoof of the whole genre), we get to know a smattering of the 200 or so passengers unlucky enough to be on board the fateful flight, as well as the poor crew, led by a deeply flawed chief pilot (Ben Miles), while the action also regularly cuts to the super-professional air traffic controller (Eve Myles) on the ground trying to convince her colleagues of the seriousness of the situation, and counter-terrorism officer Zahra (Archie Panjabi) who has to advise politicians and civil servants on the whole dilemma of whether to allow the passengers to be slaughtered or not.
Co-creators Jim Field Smith and George Kay, who worked together on slick Netflix series Criminal, manage all these characters and settings as well as the real-time storytelling and intricate plot threads with masterful control. We’re so swept up in the intensity of the drama, that occasional credulity-stretching moments never really take us out of the narrative at all. And never has the phrase “sticks the landing” felt quite so appropriate.
