What to stream this week: Ludicrous Netflix thriller Hostage, plus five more picks

This week’s picks include a ludicrous thriller starring Suranne Jones as the British PM, Timothy Spall’s droll murder mystery, the moronic superhero Peacemaker and the so-bad-it’s-good War of the Worlds.

Hostage ★★★ (Netflix)

Forget Chekhov’s gun, the lurking narrative principle in this British thriller is Chekhov’s husband. As politician Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) ponders a tilt at the prime minister’s gig, she worries about a clash between country and family. Her doctor husband Alex (Ashley Thomas) tells her, “If it ever comes down to a choice, you’ll make the right one.” Cut to eight months later, Abigail is PM and Alex is working with a charity in French Guiana when – surprise! – he’s kidnapped. The ransom demand? Abigail has 24 hours to resign or Alex dies.

The story never stops unfolding in Hostage, which is a vital asset because this limited series skips past the implausible and situates itself in the ludicrous. If it slowed down, you might ponder how daft it all is. But it doesn’t and soon Abigail, who has cut the defence budget to increase health spending but is nonetheless getting hammered on a shortage of critical cancer drugs, is hosting a crucial summit with the French president, Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), who is drifting rightwards during a tight presidential election.

There’s some smart commentary on the demands placed on leaders, and a measure of camaraderie between two powerful women being constantly scrutinised, but before Vivienne can intervene in French Guiana, her grip on power is also under threat. This is just the initial set-up, so credit to the show’s creator Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies) for building quickly on that shaky foundation. A total of five 45-minute episodes is a concise watch, twisty and climactic. Hostage doesn’t overstay its welcome.

But there’s also no room for contemplation, or the kind of expansive Sorkin talkin’ The West Wing devotees yearn for. Everything is happening at 10 Downing Street, where Abigail has her staff downstairs and her panicked teenage daughter, Sylvie (Isobel Akuwudike), upstairs.

Even as the stakes escalate even further, the king and the security services hardly feature, and the Americans are thankfully sidelined. But there is Vivienne’s stepson, Matheo Lewis (Corey Mylchreest), as a very handsome pawn.

The glue holding all this together is a terrific performance from Jones. The Gentleman Jack and Vigil star draws every ounce of anguish and regret from the melodramatic plotting, showing how there is no right way to handle the contradictory demands and constant threats (including Abigail’s cabinet colleagues). As prime minister, Abigail is ultimately a hostage to her job. This spindly thriller doesn’t have any great wisdom about changing that, but it’s banking on you being left too breathless to notice.

Death Valley ★★★½ BritBox

There’s a solitary death every episode, but thankfully many laughs, in this droll, self-aware take on the quaint British murder-mystery procedural. Set in rural Wales, Death Valley’s opener initially feels familiar: a dead body, suspicions of foul play, neatly lined up suspects. But Detective Sergeant Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) is nervy and keeps making inappropriate comments. Then she discovers the victim’s reclusive neighbour is John Chapel (Timothy Spall), a retired actor and amateur sleuth she’s a huge fan of.

The dynamic between Janie and John, who naturally become unofficial partners, is the fulcrum of this six-episode series from Trollied creator Paul Doolan. “I’ve watched you for hours,” Janie tells John, which sounds creepy until you learn he played the title role in Caesar, a long-running but now concluded TV show about a 1950s detective with his own case-of-the-week schedule. John’s full of deductions, possibly cribbed from old scripts, while Janie bristles at his superior attitude. The mysteries run at a Death in Paradise tempo, but the deductive banter between the mismatched investigators has a spiky momentum that lets Janie and John get to grips with each other’s flaws while planting some history to be unearthed. Spall and Keyworth sail through every scene, with the former enjoying himself in the snippets of Caesar reruns characters watch. Yes, it’s cosy, but there’s also genuine wit.

Peacemaker (season 2) ★★★ HBO Max

Superman and Guardians of the Galaxy creator James Gunn continues to indulge his comic book pulp instincts with a second season of this spin-off series about a compromised – and often moronic – vigilante superhero trying to fit in to a changing world. Wrestler turned actor John Cena continues to prove that his comedic instincts far outweigh his dramatic skills, playing Peacemaker, aka Chris Smith, as a distinctly American idiot blessed with jingoistic ideals and messy mistakes. Dimensional travel, vengeful relatives and spurts of bloody violence set the tone for a series that remains a cartoonish change of pace.

Night Always Comes ★★★½ Netflix

The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Vanessa Kirby reunites with one of her directors from The Crown, Benjamin Caron, for this American independent drama, which tracks inequality’s grip and the cruel endurance of youthful mistakes across a chaotic night. Kirby plays Lynette, a waitress and former sex worker from Portland, who has less than 24 hours to replace the deposit for her childhood home after her mother, Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh), spends their savings. Increasingly desperate, Lynette revisits her past, literally fighting to hold on. It’s a thoughtful, if grim, movie, and Kirby is outstanding.

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox ★★½ Disney+

This limited series about one of this century’s most best-known miscarriages of justice, the conviction and subsequent acquittal of American exchange student Amanda Knox for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher by an Italian court, does a decent job of correcting the public record. It shows how Knox (Grace Van Patten) was railroaded by investigators and crucified by the media. But the show, which counts Knox and Monica Lewinsky among its producers, doesn’t have a great deal to say about who Knox really was.

War of the Worlds ★ Amazon Prime Video

A contemporary screen-sharing take on H.G. Wells’ venerable 19th century science-fiction classic, this ludicrous alien invasion thriller qualifies for so-bad-it’s-good status; my teenage son and his friends held a watching party online, during which they howled at its missteps and rank product placement. Seemingly filmed via a video call, Ice Cube plays Will Radford, a US security officer whose extensive surveillance software gives him a front-row seat to the newly arrived interplanetary invaders. The plot is ludicrous, the filmmaking sloppy, the performances disconnected. It’s a true desktop disaster.

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