‘Hijack’ Season 2 series review: Idris Elba cannot save this train from going off the tracks

Idris Elba returns in Hijack Season 2 set in Berlin, but this sluggish train thriller derails fast despite strong turns from Elba and Toby Jones.

There is a memory of Bruce Willis as John McClane saying, “How can the same (expletive) happen to the same guy twice?” in Die Hard 2, as we watch super negotiator, Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) being held hostage on a Berlin train with over 100 passengers and one terrified driver, Otto (Christian Näthe).

In the first season of Hijack, Kingdom Airlines Flight 29 from Dubai to London was hijacked for some complicated reason as the show devolved into peak silliness with different hijackers and reasons being revealed in each episode. It was fun nonetheless with Elba’s jaw doing most of the acting.

In season 2, it is two years after the hijacking and we see Sam on a U-Bahn looking tense, and we assume that the hijacking has put him off travel for good. All sorts of sketchy people seem to be on board, including Otto the driver, who shoots past two stations without stopping, and a young man with a rucksack.

After refusing to engage with his former intern, Mei (Jasmine Bayes), Sam does a weaponless takeover of the train. Through the interminable eight episodes, we learn that Sam is being forced to hijack the train which is wired with explosives (cue blinking lights and a red-letter clock face) to free the crime boss and co-conspirator of the Kingdom Airlines hijacking, John Bailey-Brown (Ian Burfield).

Sam’s ex‑wife, Marsha (Christine Adams), is in a lonely cottage in Scotland for an anniversary, while her boyfriend, Daniel (Max Beesley), a police officer with the Met, worries about her safety. There are flurries of snow (which look very pretty) and weighty conversations.

Still from the show | Photo Credit: Apple TV