TV Show review
June 28, 2023 · TV-MA · Returning Series
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Hijack.
Woke representation / casting
Natural mix of British and international actors fits the story's London base, Dubai-London flight, and Berlin train without audience-visible signaling or logic mismatches. Idris Elba's lead as a local negotiator aligns cleanly with character and setting.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue stays on negotiation tactics, criminal demands, and agency responses. Any bureaucracy appears as standard thriller friction, not modern activist institutional critique.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative drives through personal survival, family issues, revenge, and syndicate crime; no emphasis on race, gender, sexuality, or identity politics across either season.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Intelligence agencies and police show typical thriller flaws like coercion or red tape, but this stays within crime-conspiracy conventions and lacks reframing into anti-Western, anti-patriarchy, or systemic identity messaging.
Review
Hijack is a real-time Apple TV+ thriller series starring Idris Elba as Sam Nelson, a sharp corporate negotiator who handles a plane hijacking from Dubai to London in season 1 and a Berlin subway train hijacking tied to the same criminal network in season 2. The story centers on high-stakes negotiation, passenger survival, family strain, revenge, and intelligence agency involvement across both seasons. No audience-visible identity-driven themes, activist messaging, or representation-first framing appear in the core narrative, marketing, or public discussion.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Fully original story with no source material or established canon to alter.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No meaningful public accusations of woke messaging, DEI emphasis, or identity politics from right-leaning or general audiences; discussion centers on plot and pacing.
Creator track record context
Core team (George Kay, Jim Field Smith, supporting writers and directors) works primarily in straightforward thrillers and dramas with little to no documented identity-driven or activist output.
Production
