Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 22, 2025
Probably my biggest complaint with the streaming era is that too many television series stretch six episodes of material into ten. A lot of shows would work better as movies. That is decidedly not the case, however, for Netflix’s political thriller miniseries Hostage. This one feels like ten episodes crammed into five, and I mean that as a compliment: it goes, goes, goes, and never lets up until it’s over. It’s a rarity—a five-episode series that not only shouldn’t be a movie, but actually feels like one.
The series comes from Matt Charman, a playwright who also co-wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies with the Coen Brothers, as well as Netflix’s somber, tense 2023 Charlie Cox miniseries Treason. I was actually surprised there’s no connection between Hostage and the 2018 British miniseries Bodyguard with Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden, if only because the two share the same intensity and subject matter. Then again, most British miniseries seem to orbit political corruption (the distrust British writers have for their government has always struck me as a sign of a healthy democracy).
I don’t want to give away much of the plot because there’s a twist in nearly every episode, but here’s the spring that sets it all in motion: Suranne Jones stars as Abigail Dalton, a newly elected British Prime Minister with a tight bond with her husband, Dr. Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas), and their daughter, Sylvie (Isobel Akuwudike). Before running for office, Abigail promised her husband that family would always come first, which of course means she’ll eventually be forced to choose between the two.
That moment arrives when armed men kidnap her husband and several other doctors while he’s volunteering in French Guiana. Their single demand: Dalton must resign as Prime Minister by 1 p.m. the next day. If she doesn’t, one of the aid workers will be executed, including her husband, every 24 hours until she steps down.
Complicating matters, Dalton is simultaneously hosting a summit with French President Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), who has taken a hard right turn in office. Toussaint insists Dalton allow French troops on British soil to secure the border, in exchange for much-needed cancer drugs and other medicine Britain has run out of. Toussaint also controls the military in French Guiana, the only forces capable of rescuing Dalton’s husband, which gives her enormous leverage.
But the kidnappers also hold leverage over Toussaint: if she attempts a rescue, they’ll release blackmail material that would end her political career (I won’t spoil the nature of it, but it’s deliciously scandalous).
And that’s just the first episode. From there, chaos erupts, with Dalton and Toussaint forced into a reluctant dance of opposition and alliance. Other players surface as well: Dalton’s daughter pressures her to resign to save her father, moles undermine both sides, and Toussaint’s stepson, Matheo (Corey Mylchreest, recently of My Oxford Year), takes on a pivotal role.
The whole thing launches like a rocket out of a raccoon’s ass and doesn’t slow down until the final scene. Suranne Jones is excellent — poised, commanding, deeply sympathetic — though Julie Delpy, as the ruthless French president, doesn’t leave a scene unchewed. It’s almost entirely plot-driven, but the performances give just enough grounding to make the characters’ betrayals and compromises feel earned.
Hostage is a tense, heart-pounding ride, one of those series you inhale in one or two sittings. It’s not “great” television, exactly, but for fans of Bodyguard, In the Line of Fire, or Spooks/MI:5, it hits the spot, and it is absolutely my shit.
‘Hostage’ is currently streaming on Netflix.
