I was on the verge of quitting Hijack because I thought it was preposterous. The production value brought me back. Whilst watching I thought to myself that I’d like to hear someone pick this apart. You were gentle but thank you : )
Yes yes yes very well said!!! Incredibly frustrating watch. Some of the fundamentals so disconnected from reality that it became impossible to believe any of it. But can we talk about how the hero keeps making bad decisions and giving bad advice yet with an air of heroic wisdom and confidence? And it's kind of glazed over when he later goes 180 on it himself.. When a protagonist makes mistakes you kind of want them to feel meaningful in some way, be it to highlight a personality flaw or room for growth etc, but he simply does stupid shit with a heroic sounding low whispery voice and never gets called out. This wouldn't be good enough for a 90 minute feature film. Yet one full season? Oh wait TWO SEASONS???
@@smvballer6 Yes, I was on the edge of my seat too (pretty sure thats what you meant) in my case I think largely thanks to the thrilling setting and the good acting. Making it even more frustrating that they dropped the ball on the writing. As to why you enjoyed it more than me: maybe you have a lower bar when it comes to that good old suspension of disbelief. Or maybe I'm an aviation nerd. I don't consider myself one though. It made me frustrated cus I wanted to like it. cheers
Hijack is the kind of thriller where the entertainment comes from shouting at the screen when characters do something incredibly stupid (like an old school slasher where someone goes down into the creepy unlit basement for NO GOOD REASON other than the writer needs to move the plot forward). We know that the hijackers have to get in the cockpit at some point so the pilot has to do something REALLY STUPID in order to for the screen writers to get the door open. It doesn't matter what reason it is, the fun is in watching someone make terrible choices. 24, as iconic as it is, also had that same wonky charm where the plot was as dumb as a bag of rocks, but the fun was in escalating the stakes and seeing how our heroes could get their way out of trouble.
Coming late to this, but really appreciate your comments, and the fact that you were kind about it. It’s really sad that today writers can get away with such lazy (and, sorry, idiotic) screenwriting just because “the tension is kept high”. Shows like these contribute to make our world a little dumber, and that’s not what we need.
You analyse is spot on mate! Just subscribed👍🏻 Also (and spoiler ahead), what bothered me the most is, the show totally ignored the fact that the terrorists 100% got away with their intended plan! Yes the plane was landed somewhat safely and therefore the threat for the protagonist was eliminated (means he got home), however there were zero consequences for the antagonists on the ground who planed and set up the whole thing. They made their money and got away🤷🏻… if this was done with a season 2 in mind, there was way to little setup to let the audience know that a continuation of that story is intended!
After 9/11 would any pilot open the door in any hijacking scenario ? I don’t think so 😅 I’d imagine they receive a much stricter training now. But, I’m no expert. It’s like you said… some characters’ behavior about procedures and also their actions don’t make sense , and it’s frustrating.
Hah, appropriate! 🤣 And yes, the first officer’s disappearance act is a classic example of one of the many fairly standard plot holes the writers didn’t have either (a) the time, or (b) the wherewithal to fix. So they just ignored it and hoped you wouldn’t notice if there was enough other batshit stuff going on.
I watched this looking forward to the next episode and wanting to know how it ended. The ending was sufficiently satisfying. On this basis it beats 90% of other tv shows. The problem was in the writing (pacing, convincing dialogue, character development and actions consistent with their values and experiences, believable consequences, etc) which probably goes to show how bloody difficult writing is. I also didn’t like Idris Elba’s character and wonder if I was not supposed to like him given his only showing empathy when he wanted something and being dismissive in conversations when there wasn’t. He was a manipulator by his own admission and would probably have been so in his personal life too which could’ve been shown in the breakdown of his marriage and relationship with his son. He had a journey of self discovery he could’ve gone on, but no, nothing. Still good tv but quickly forgotten.
Completely agree! Especially regarding Idris’s character design. It was primed for an arc, but he never got one. And yes, writing is really, really hard. Which is why the best shows tend to have a full staff of writers and this helps manage the forest for the trees problem of getting stuck in the details.
The thing that impressed me the most here ( apart fromthe usual entertaining, fantastic fast - paced, geeky and nerdy break down ! 😂) such a gracious and positive response to your " Last Flight " script that currently didnt made it to film ...yet! Such a mature response, gets my100 % admiration here ! 😊 BTW,, although I'm subscribed but never get this chamnnel's notifications. If its happening to me , is it happening to others?
I think that might be your notification settings rather than anything to do with the channel - find the bell icon and click that! And thank you for the support!
My biggest niggle, very early on was the Captain opening the cockpit door. Now I might have overlooked that had he just jumped up and done it, but attacking his First Officer Co-pilot first? No way. And no way would fighter jets have been allowed to disengage from the threat the aircraft posed to those on the ground. Superhuman bad guys organising all that from their prison cells? A bit of a stretch. All that said it was watchable enough and I agree with your own observations. It could have been better given the production involved.
Agree with all these niggles. I didn’t list all of mine in the vid for tedium reasons. There were many!! Why not get the first officer back in the plane to land?! (For example)
Damn, I didn’t even think about letting the co-pilot to land it. Good take! The whole part of ‘they say its okay, its not a hijack, false alarm’ is a bit easy. I mean, a pilot can be forced to lie. That part kinda got me to my nerves.
The attack on the first officer was never fully justified and yes she should have landed that plane . The ‘hard working family ‘ Mum was hilarious and the comedy beats worked very well I felt, but even though I found the whole thing enjoyably ridiculous and entertaining, I was still frustrated . I wanted the passengers to fight sooner WHICH might be deliberate on the makers part, making me want to see some violence even when the protagonist is a man of words etc . Something about violence as entertainment ??? however, I definitely want to see more dramas set in air traffic control rooms.
The Captain hurts the copilot very bad and for the rest of the series everybody ignores that! It was fun to watch but very frustrating. And I couldn’t care less about the subplot of the son and the new partner of his wife.
With a TV series you can't ask to pace the establishing scenes all at the front end or be impatient. You want a slow boil you don't want to cook your frog too soon. I also liked that his kid didn't Macaulay Culkin the scene and didn't set up silly traps. Then I forgot that British TV series are short and sweet so 7 episodes makes for a perfect fit. Liked it, as in, it's a writer's strike looming so enjoy a scripted TV while you can attitude.
@@thescriptflipi felt the same way. Started rewatching 24 a few weeks ago. It really starts to show its age, but character development is just great. And Kiefer is a great actor anyways. Would love to see a future breakdown about Shawshank Redemption. Why it’s being seen as the best movie ever, and what the critics are from a film maker standpoint. Or The Green Mile. Or even a bit more controversial; Under the Dome, which will have a lot of critics.
could not make it past episode three and was seriously confused why it has such high ratings. it does feel bad to insult peoples' work like this, but the writing made this completely unwatchable for me. it establishes in the first 15 minutes that nothing that happens has any basis in reality or any consequence in the story itself.
I think it helps that Idris Elba is an incredibly attractive man, with a posh silky smooth voice. I'm just calling it as a woman with eyeballs and ears.
The real question should be how he keeps his face so moisturized during his entire endeavor. I wear a sheet mask on the face, a k95 mask, eye pillow and headphones. I wouldn't know what was going on.
I think this series just shows how research and realism are not that important as long as you get the tension right for a thriller. There are a lot of wtf moments throughout it but I kept watching lol
before watching this vid, im gonna comment a really boring happy ending, with a sad last minute "final showdown" the last ep was soooo weak after a solid buildup
Your personal take was spot on. Yes, there were plotholes big enough to drive a Starship through like that all powerful organised criminal organisation...but it had lots of shots of Idris Elba's clean cut face, stern eyes etc which my wife loved. I basically had to sit there with a "drool bucket", 😂 Plus for me it has a big plus for representation in terms of middle class black characters and that single mom(?) traffic controller was clever, knew her stuff and was quite watchable. I for one do not regret sitting down with my wife to watch this series every week. In that way it reminded me of E.R. or Sherlock. Since then we tried to watch the TV series the Flash but we gave up when the writing went rapidly downhill. Keep up the good work you have a lot to offer, 😊
Very kind of you, and I totally appreciate you binging on my content! 🤣 The mad thing about Hijack was that it was still very watchable - but at the same infuriating. I think because there’s an idea of the show it *could* have been in your head, and you keep hoping it would finally become that (it didn’t). Agree with your wife - Idris’ charisma holds the whole thing together, even if you’re not the gender that needs a drool bucket 🤣
It frustrated me as well. Would have been better if it was able to be binged. After Ep 5, I found myself losing interest. So little happened that moved the story forward.
You said , first ill talk about the positives and continue to say nothing about it Lmao. Oh no, a young person knows of the landline is this show is trash; maybe he works in IT; maybe he works for a phone company either way that’s a weak talking point. Why didn’t he climbed out the balcony Idk maybe he’s on the fourth or fifth floor lmao
@@thescriptflip still that’s the most nick picky reason to hate a show . Some lady loaded a clip and shout the pilot that’s epic! but dude still thinking about the balcony come on man weak talking play
Spot on. Just finished watching it. Very frustrating and many strange decisions in the script that are likely motivated by DEI more than anything else (including the passive nature of the protagonist). Great potential, huge waste of time.
It seems you caught jealousies I’m not a medical professional, but I hear the only known cure is to say the word cheese 🧀 over and over again So “Say cheese” 😂😂😂
I was on the verge of quitting Hijack because I thought it was preposterous. The production value brought me back.
Whilst watching I thought to myself that I’d like to hear someone pick this apart. You were gentle but thank you : )
Iron fist in a velvet glove :)
Yes yes yes very well said!!! Incredibly frustrating watch. Some of the fundamentals so disconnected from reality that it became impossible to believe any of it. But can we talk about how the hero keeps making bad decisions and giving bad advice yet with an air of heroic wisdom and confidence? And it's kind of glazed over when he later goes 180 on it himself.. When a protagonist makes mistakes you kind of want them to feel meaningful in some way, be it to highlight a personality flaw or room for growth etc, but he simply does stupid shit with a heroic sounding low whispery voice and never gets called out. This wouldn't be good enough for a 90 minute feature film. Yet one full season? Oh wait TWO SEASONS???
Haha, exactly!!
Dawg, I was on the edge of my feet the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Why the heck am I’m not feeling like you?
@@smvballer6 Yes, I was on the edge of my seat too (pretty sure thats what you meant) in my case I think largely thanks to the thrilling setting and the good acting. Making it even more frustrating that they dropped the ball on the writing. As to why you enjoyed it more than me: maybe you have a lower bar when it comes to that good old suspension of disbelief. Or maybe I'm an aviation nerd. I don't consider myself one though. It made me frustrated cus I wanted to like it. cheers
@@yearlyoatmeal that makes sense 👌🏾. Your absolutely right 🍻
Just watched Hijack and found your analysis. Well done, and I totally agree with it. I hope you keep going, because your content is really good. 👍
Hijack is the kind of thriller where the entertainment comes from shouting at the screen when characters do something incredibly stupid (like an old school slasher where someone goes down into the creepy unlit basement for NO GOOD REASON other than the writer needs to move the plot forward). We know that the hijackers have to get in the cockpit at some point so the pilot has to do something REALLY STUPID in order to for the screen writers to get the door open. It doesn't matter what reason it is, the fun is in watching someone make terrible choices. 24, as iconic as it is, also had that same wonky charm where the plot was as dumb as a bag of rocks, but the fun was in escalating the stakes and seeing how our heroes could get their way out of trouble.
Yes, agree! 24 generally (at least until the later seasons) held together pretty well though.
Yeah, it was good, but a couple of unbelievable bits. Idris Elba is fantastic as usual.
Coming late to this, but really appreciate your comments, and the fact that you were kind about it. It’s really sad that today writers can get away with such lazy (and, sorry, idiotic) screenwriting just because “the tension is kept high”. Shows like these contribute to make our world a little dumber, and that’s not what we need.
I couldn’t agree more
You analyse is spot on mate! Just subscribed👍🏻
Also (and spoiler ahead), what bothered me the most is, the show totally ignored the fact that the terrorists 100% got away with their intended plan! Yes the plane was landed somewhat safely and therefore the threat for the protagonist was eliminated (means he got home), however there were zero consequences for the antagonists on the ground who planed and set up the whole thing. They made their money and got away🤷🏻… if this was done with a season 2 in mind, there was way to little setup to let the audience know that a continuation of that story is intended!
After 9/11 would any pilot open the door in any hijacking scenario ? I don’t think so 😅
I’d imagine they receive a much stricter training now.
But, I’m no expert.
It’s like you said… some characters’ behavior about procedures and also their actions don’t make sense , and it’s frustrating.
Correct. They absolutely wouldn’t, which is why they created the ludicrous coercion device which was horribly handled in itself.
I love the production values of the airliner set and I hope it inspires imitators… but where the hell did the first officer go in the final episode
also lol at this video having a pre-roll ad where Idris Elba shills gold
Hah, appropriate! 🤣
And yes, the first officer’s disappearance act is a classic example of one of the many fairly standard plot holes the writers didn’t have either (a) the time, or (b) the wherewithal to fix. So they just ignored it and hoped you wouldn’t notice if there was enough other batshit stuff going on.
I love your analyses. Great job. Keep 'em coming.
Thank you Jeff! Got some ‘real’ work on at the moment hence the radio silence for a bit. New content coming soon 👍
I watched this looking forward to the next episode and wanting to know how it ended. The ending was sufficiently satisfying. On this basis it beats 90% of other tv shows.
The problem was in the writing (pacing, convincing dialogue, character development and actions consistent with their values and experiences, believable consequences, etc) which probably goes to show how bloody difficult writing is.
I also didn’t like Idris Elba’s character and wonder if I was not supposed to like him given his only showing empathy when he wanted something and being dismissive in conversations when there wasn’t. He was a manipulator by his own admission and would probably have been so in his personal life too which could’ve been shown in the breakdown of his marriage and relationship with his son. He had a journey of self discovery he could’ve gone on, but no, nothing.
Still good tv but quickly forgotten.
Completely agree! Especially regarding Idris’s character design. It was primed for an arc, but he never got one.
And yes, writing is really, really hard. Which is why the best shows tend to have a full staff of writers and this helps manage the forest for the trees problem of getting stuck in the details.
The thing that impressed me the most here ( apart fromthe usual entertaining, fantastic fast - paced, geeky and nerdy break down ! 😂) such a gracious and positive response to your
" Last Flight " script that currently didnt made it to film ...yet! Such a mature response, gets my100 % admiration here ! 😊
BTW,, although I'm subscribed but never get this chamnnel's notifications. If its happening to me , is it happening to others?
I think that might be your notification settings rather than anything to do with the channel - find the bell icon and click that!
And thank you for the support!
@@thescriptflip Done and undone that several times...look a dumb blonde , but I'm not !🤣
My biggest niggle, very early on was the Captain opening the cockpit door. Now I might have overlooked that had he just jumped up and done it, but attacking his First Officer Co-pilot first? No way. And no way would fighter jets have been allowed to disengage from the threat the aircraft posed to those on the ground. Superhuman bad guys organising all that from their prison cells? A bit of a stretch. All that said it was watchable enough and I agree with your own observations. It could have been better given the production involved.
Agree with all these niggles. I didn’t list all of mine in the vid for tedium reasons. There were many!!
Why not get the first officer back in the plane to land?! (For example)
Damn, I didn’t even think about letting the co-pilot to land it. Good take! The whole part of ‘they say its okay, its not a hijack, false alarm’ is a bit easy. I mean, a pilot can be forced to lie. That part kinda got me to my nerves.
The attack on the first officer was never fully justified and yes she should have landed that plane . The ‘hard working family ‘ Mum was hilarious and the comedy beats worked very well I felt, but even though I found the whole thing enjoyably ridiculous and entertaining, I was still frustrated . I wanted the passengers to fight sooner WHICH might be deliberate on the makers part, making me want to see some violence even when the protagonist is a man of words etc . Something about violence as entertainment ??? however, I definitely want to see more dramas set in air traffic control rooms.
The Captain hurts the copilot very bad and for the rest of the series everybody ignores that!
It was fun to watch but very frustrating. And I couldn’t care less about the subplot of the son and the new partner of his wife.
With a TV series you can't ask to pace the establishing scenes all at the front end or be impatient. You want a slow boil you don't want to cook your frog too soon. I also liked that his kid didn't Macaulay Culkin the scene and didn't set up silly traps. Then I forgot that British TV series are short and sweet so 7 episodes makes for a perfect fit. Liked it, as in, it's a writer's strike looming so enjoy a scripted TV while you can attitude.
Fair enough!
Keep it up. Your numbers will soon become exponential. The key is keep making videos.
Thanks buddy - I think I may have shot myself in the foot by uploading a vid with copyrighted content, the algo hasn’t picked up a vid since!
Good review. This deserves more views TH-cam algo.
Thanks James :)
Ah, referring to Jack Bauer on 24. A man of culture. Thanks for the video, as I requested. Such a shame they didn’t got back Jack Bauer from Russia.
Early seasons of 24 are absolutely up there. I didn’t say this in the vid but Hijack is absolutely a very poor man’s 24.
@@thescriptflipi felt the same way. Started rewatching 24 a few weeks ago. It really starts to show its age, but character development is just great. And Kiefer is a great actor anyways.
Would love to see a future breakdown about Shawshank Redemption. Why it’s being seen as the best movie ever, and what the critics are from a film maker standpoint.
Or The Green Mile. Or even a bit more controversial; Under the Dome, which will have a lot of critics.
could not make it past episode three and was seriously confused why it has such high ratings. it does feel bad to insult peoples' work like this, but the writing made this completely unwatchable for me. it establishes in the first 15 minutes that nothing that happens has any basis in reality or any consequence in the story itself.
Great breakdown as always!
Thanks for the support!
It was deeply frustrating, lots of convenient setups and redundant characters
Couldn’t agree more!
I think it helps that Idris Elba is an incredibly attractive man, with a posh silky smooth voice. I'm just calling it as a woman with eyeballs and ears.
But imagine how much better it would be if he talked a bit more instead of just sitting there and looking at things with his headphones on?
@thescriptflip when in doubt, work the face.
The real question should be how he keeps his face so moisturized during his entire endeavor. I wear a sheet mask on the face, a k95 mask, eye pillow and headphones. I wouldn't know what was going on.
SPOT ON!!!!
I think this series just shows how research and realism are not that important as long as you get the tension right for a thriller. There are a lot of wtf moments throughout it but I kept watching lol
It’s a balancing act - the less research you do the more of the audience will tune out. But agree it managed tension well!
before watching this vid, im gonna comment a really boring happy ending, with a sad last minute "final showdown" the last ep was soooo weak after a solid buildup
The showdown was shoehorned in and really felt it
As usual the writers do not know anything about guns or jets or anything really.
Your personal take was spot on. Yes, there were plotholes big enough to drive a Starship through like that all powerful organised criminal organisation...but it had lots of shots of Idris Elba's clean cut face, stern eyes etc which my wife loved. I basically had to sit there with a "drool bucket", 😂 Plus for me it has a big plus for representation in terms of middle class black characters and that single mom(?) traffic controller was clever, knew her stuff and was quite watchable. I for one do not regret sitting down with my wife to watch this series every week. In that way it reminded me of E.R. or Sherlock. Since then we tried to watch the TV series the Flash but we gave up when the writing went rapidly downhill.
Keep up the good work you have a lot to offer, 😊
Very kind of you, and I totally appreciate you binging on my content! 🤣
The mad thing about Hijack was that it was still very watchable - but at the same infuriating. I think because there’s an idea of the show it *could* have been in your head, and you keep hoping it would finally become that (it didn’t).
Agree with your wife - Idris’ charisma holds the whole thing together, even if you’re not the gender that needs a drool bucket 🤣
It frustrated me as well. Would have been better if it was able to be binged. After Ep 5, I found myself losing interest. So little happened that moved the story forward.
You said , first ill talk about the positives and continue to say nothing about it Lmao.
Oh no, a young person knows of the landline is this show is trash; maybe he works in IT; maybe he works for a phone company either way that’s a weak talking point. Why didn’t he climbed out the balcony Idk maybe he’s on the fourth or fifth floor lmao
He wasn’t that high up - we saw when the ‘cleaner’ had a look out there
@@thescriptflip still that’s the most nick picky reason to hate a show . Some lady loaded a clip and shout the pilot that’s epic! but dude still thinking about the balcony come on man weak talking play
This show is about what Liam Neeson's character wouldn't do. 😀
Yes! Good shout 🤣 And think I’d prefer the Liam Neeson version? 🤔
😆😆
good review, i gave up on this crap after ep2 so frustrating and unrealistic
Review Death's Game korean drama
Spot on. Just finished watching it. Very frustrating and many strange decisions in the script that are likely motivated by DEI more than anything else (including the passive nature of the protagonist). Great potential, huge waste of time.
It seems you caught jealousies I’m not a medical professional, but I hear the only known cure is to say the word cheese 🧀 over and over again
So
“Say cheese” 😂😂😂
Ich bin eine fromage
Its bad, don’t waste your time, wasted mine 7hrh
Did you make it to the end?
This review is as boring as the series
Hijack is complete rubbish. No need to dance around the point I feel
Idris Elba leading the bandwagon......sadly, poor and boring screenplay!