I’ve already commented on my feeling that Netflix’s upcoming UK political thriller Hostage looks more than a little inspired by its older hit drama Bodyguard. Now that Netflix has actually put out a proper, long-form trailer, that suspicion is going nowhere at all.
Compared to the teaser released earlier on, it’s a much clearer look at how the show’s going to unfold, and the tensions and dynamics that will probably end up being pretty key to its plot. Plus, it makes even clearer that there will some heart-pounding action and thrilling sequences to enjoy.
The show stars Suranne Jones as the British Prime Minister, caught in an absolute nightmare of a situation when her husband is held hostage by armed intruders. It comes at the same time as a critical summit with the French President, played by the almighty Julie Delpy.
It’s pretty clear that the two events are unlikely to be completely disconnected, and the trailer repeatedly teases a handsome young man who might just be a little too involved with the whole situation. Whether he has a personal connection to either of the countries’ leaders might only come out when you watch the whole series.
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These shows live or die by their pacing, in many ways, and with the writer of the excellent Bridge of Spies on board as screenwriter the signs are that it’ll be quite a fun slice of stuff. If it can capture the zeitgeist in the way Bodyguard did back in 2018, it’ll do extremely well for Netflix, that’s for sure.
The battle to win out as the best streaming service on the market is pretty Sisyphean – it can never really end, so Netflix knows full well that it has to keep pumping out top quality content or it’ll start to bleed subscribers. Hostage seems like an excellent little salvo to fire in that context, and it’ll arrive on 21 August, and should be five episodes in total, making it a true miniseries by definition.
