Hijack: Less Than an Hour

July 19, 2023 12:28 PM - Season 1, Episode 5

Sam attempts to convince the hijackers to land the plane. A list of demands reveals who's behind the hijacking.
posted by ellieBOA (9 comments total)

To me, this was the weakest one so far. I think mainly it was that they mostly just let Sam do whatever he needed to do for the plot. From, hey troublemaker, go back to your seat by yourself, to he's up in the cockpit smoothing things over between terrorists and first mate, to he just calls up front to cancel the landing and then a stewardess relays that to the first mate. Like, are the terrorists on break and delegating tasks to hostages now? We see Sam obtain and use bits of information, but I didn't see anything that convinced me the hijackers trust him (aside from, temporarily, desperate and dying brother).
posted by snofoam at 2:21 PM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

I know British people have a reputation for being the least multilingual in Europe but do they really not know that any Hungarian working as an air traffic controller would of course be fluent in English for the sole reason that nobody speaks Hungarian and chances are good that most flights into Budapest would have pilots from other countries? Like I know it's high stress and the main guy is upset about his brother dying and that would make him less rational, but seriously who would fall for the whole "these educated professionals working in a specifically international context only speak basic English" line?
posted by dis_integration at 4:24 PM on July 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

Every time they show the copilot I wish someone would help her get cleaned up.

The bad guy cleaners show a lot of brand loyalty, with the same kit and gear in London and Dubai.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:28 PM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

So lemme get this straight, a middle-aged mother in a house coat and slippers managed to stumblerun away from the police, despite not having that much of a lead on them, and despite the police being in better shape and wearing shoes and presumably running?

I'm sorta surprised the Dubai police broke in to the house (maybe American cops are just harder to convince that the widow Grogan hasn't been seen or heard from in a week), but I'm glad it was made explicit. On the other hand, what benefit does the organized crime group get from annihilating them? Like, what, they're going to break their silence annnnnnd what? So law enforcement can't go "Oh, so that's how they got guns on the plane?" For show purposes, sure, fine, it shows us that they're right hard and puts Sam's family in danger, but practically what were they "cleaning up"? Oh, Victor!
posted by Kyol at 5:18 AM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Get Onboard With Hijack [Vulture / Archive]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:55 AM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I really had to suspend disbelief in this one, but I’m still enjoying it and the hour flies by with my man Idris. But honestly:

• hijackers so ignorant they buy the story that the copilot needs to speak to the air traffic controller in Hungarian for the “really technical stuff”
• the assassins who kill the Dubai airport security woman and her family for…what purpose? And also hang around cleaning…what? I mean they herded them all tidily into the bathroom, so what was there to clean downstairs? Weird that they hung around long enough that the neighbours started to get suspicious. (I loved the Jack Russell terrier-owning mom who sends her kid over as a kind of canary in the coal mine. “There are suspicious men over there at your friend’s house. Go over and ask to play.”)
• and don’t even get me started on the detectives letting the hijackers’ mom run away in her housecoat and slippers. I’m not in that great of shape but I’m pretty sure I could have sprinted to her and taken her down before she could reach the highway

But will I still watch next week and the week after? Yup!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:18 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

So, there are 200 people on board, and the group is prepared to attack the family of anyone onboard who misbehaves. They must be masters of logistics! Just absolute supervillains!
The mom outsmarting the investigator made me laugh. Just a notch up from, ooh, look over there!
The plane rerouting, without transmitting anything, but you listen very carefully you can hear the doppler shift on their noooooope
posted by Pronoiac at 11:49 PM on August 5, 2023

haha these criticisms are all 1000% spot on (lotsa dumb this ep) but its just fun, and really, we would all be perfectly happy watching Idris Elba playing Scrabble, no?
posted by supermedusa at 9:31 AM on February 3

Well, I definitely would!! (I really truly would. Take note TV show producers! There’s easy money to be made here!)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:26 PM on February 5