Brief Story Line
UK's Prime Minister Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones - A Christmas Star, Gentleman Jack TV series etc) and French president Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy - Before Midnight, On the Verge TV series etc) were having a summit to discuss on possible cooperation among the two countries. A lot was riding on the success of this summit for each leader who were assisted by Abigail's Chief of Staff Kofi Adomako (Lucian Msamati - Conclave, His Dark Materials TV series etc) and Vivienne's Secretary-general Adrienne Pelletier (Jehnny Beth - An Impossible Love etc) respectively.
Unexpectedly though, Abigail's husband Dr. Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas - Them TV series etc) was kidnapped along with few other doctors working in French Guiana due to heavy political motive. Things gotten complicated when Vivienne was also having her own personal issue.
So what would happen to Alex and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
The series to my surprise was quite fast paced. After early introduction of the people involved, it did not take long before the brief conflict arise between UK Prime Minister and French president. However the suspense was immediately felt once the kidnapping occurred and from that moment the story became more exciting. The best thing though was the scenes before that first episode ended which immediately set us up with more thrilling time.
Subsequently the series focused not only on how to save the hostages but also the way to resolve the conflict between the two countries' leaders who were having trouble in pacifying their own internal political threat. It was enjoyable watching them handling the issues without being overly dramatic and showed how powerful the two lead characters were. Best of it all, although the 3rd episode seemed to have closed the biggest issue, apparently there were additional twist which culminated to grand finale in the fifth and final episode. Yes it was indeed a very short series with only 5 episodes overall and duration between 38-46 minutes. This would explain how I managed to complete the whole series in just 1 day.
The series was created by Matt Charman whose screenplay of Bridge of Spies earned him an Academy Awards nomination back in 2015. I saw that his works here was praised by critics as well which I can concur as it was intense and had some surprising twists to the story, supported by wonderful cast. Obviously I liked the fact it was only 5 episodes and a limited series with satisfying conclusion. Aside from the cast I mentioned above, there were plenty of important characters such as Vivienne's stepson Matheo Lewis (Corey Mylchreest - My Oxford Year etc), Abigail's daughter Sylvie (Isobel Akuwudike), kidnappers leader John Shagan (Martin McCann - The Survivalist etc), General Joseph Livingston (Mark Lewis Johnson - Apostle etc), Abigail's father Max Dalton (James Cosmo - The Seeker: Dark is Rising etc), Matheo's girlfriend Saskia Morgan (Sophie Robertson - The Athena TV series etc) and several others in support role.
For a series categorized under political thriller, this one was certainly fitting in the thriller genre. I did not feel the political side to be overwhelming and it was certainly entertaining. It's quite action-packed, not in the sense of a lot of action but more like it was full of suspenseful moments. It did have some actions at certain moment which added the intensity. The acting of the two lead cast of Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy was pretty awesome and I also liked Lucian Msamati here whom I already admired since his performance in Conclave. So if you are in the mood for a political thriller with attributes I mentioned, then you are welcome to give a try. It's well received by critics and seemed popular in Netflix as well, topping the chart in quite a lot of countries in its first week of release.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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