The thriller Hijack, starring Idris Elba, is back for a second season. While it remains watchable, it never quite captures the same intensity of its debut.
Season 1 of Hijack was a white-knuckle television experience. Sam Nelson (Elba), a corporate negotiator, boards a flight from Dubai to London that quickly spirals into chaos when hijackers seize control of the plane. What followed was seven hours of relentless tension that not only watched Sam’s attempts to outmaneuver the hijackers, but also the desperate efforts of flight attendants, pilots, passengers, and officials on the ground to do everything they could to keep as many people alive as possible.
The season was packed with twists, each one escalating the stakes until the fear felt almost unbearable. By the finale, the only thing that mattered was that the plane stopped — landed, crashed, turned around, did anything but remain suspended in its nightmarish limbo in the sky. It was an exhausting experience, one that was profoundly effective in investing the audience into its story. Hijack Season 2 doesn’t quite reach those heights.
Like me, you may be looking at this second season and wondering, ‘How does Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson possibly find himself caught in yet another hijacking?’ The show provides an answer that is both logical and wildly implausible.
A change of scenery can’t muster up the same thrills.
This time, the setting shifts to Berlin’s 80% underground U-Bahn public transport system. The season opens with Sam descending into a station, visibly uneasy as he waits for his train. And when the doors close behind him, the framing makes one thing immediately clear: once again, the audience is trapped alongside him.
Now, understanding this second hijacking does require familiarity with Season 1, but returning viewers will quickly recognize that nothing — including the hijacking itself — is quite what it seems. There’s a larger, shadowy presence lurking behind nearly every decision, conversation, and withheld truth, creating an atmosphere of constant unease beneath the surface-level action.
Still, despite its ambition, Season 2 feels flatter. Perhaps it’s because Sam Nelson is notably less likable this time around. Perhaps it’s because key developments that shape his motivations occur off-screen between seasons, making his internal conflict harder to invest in fully.
Hijack Season 2 is best when it highlights basic human kindness.
Perhaps it’s because the passengers on the train fail to generate the same emotional attachment as the passengers aboard the plane. Or perhaps it’s because the sheer improbability of a second hijacking, no matter how the story justifies it, dulls the sense of actual danger.
That said, the season isn’t without positives. Its strongest moments are rooted in small, human acts of compassion: strangers watching out for one another, people paying attention and stepping in, and those on and off the train risking themselves for the safety of others.
In a world where real-life headlines often feel relentlessly grim, there’s something quietly affecting about watching kindness and decency persist in such a bleak, often claustrophobic, setting. Unfortunately, however, those moments aren’t enough to fully compensate for a plot that never finds the same urgency or emotional grip as before.
For a series that flew its bar sky-high with a standout first season, Hijack Season 2 ultimately falls short of its own expectations.
Hijack Season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on January 14. Watch the trailer below.
Images courtesy of Apple TV+.
REVIEW RATING
-
Hijack Season 2 - 6/10
6/10
