{"id":163555,"date":"2025-08-21T10:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163555\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:34:15","slug":"julie-delpy-and-suranne-jones-take-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163555\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Delpy and Suranne Jones Take Charge\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEmpires crumble more easily than many of us would like to admit, and in Netflix<\/a>\u2018s new limited series \u201cHostage<\/a>\u201d \u2014\u00a0 written and created by \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d scribe Matt Charman \u2014 two world leaders face an international crisis that threatens their personal lives, careers and the countries they have been tasked with defending. Fast-paced with a side of melodrama, the political thriller is an intricate puzzle of power, ruthlessness and unimaginable choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHostage\u201d opens in present-day London. Just eight months into her role, British Prime Minister Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones<\/a>) is facing two major crises. In an attempt to fix the faltering economy, she has cut the U.K.\u2019s military budget by huge numbers, much to the chagrin of her cabinet. Additionally, the National Health Service is facing a supply crisis. Pharmacies across the country have bare shelves, and the most at-risk citizens are unable to get life-saving medication. Still, Dalton is determined to press forward with an Anglo-French Summit and her historic meeting with French President Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy<\/a>). Unfortunately, amid negotiations about refugees and medical aid from France, Dalton learns her husband, Dr. Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas), and his team have been taken hostage in French Guiana while administering aid to locals in need.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHorrified, Dalton turns to President Toussaint for help, but the far-right leader would rather engage in quid pro quo than allyship. What\u2019s worse, Alex\u2019s kidnappers are demanding Dalton\u2019s resignation in exchange for his safe return. Across five episodes, \u201cHostage\u201d moves at a rip-roaring pace. As additional information about the kidnappers and Dalton\u2019s political past is revealed, it becomes quite evident that this is well beyond a simple ploy to oust the prime minister. Moreover, while Toussaint initially seeks to use Dalton\u2019s misfortune for her gain, she realizes her own shortcomings are on the verge of being exposed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the structures and stresses of government are fascinating to watch, what makes \u201cHostage\u201d captivating is seeing two women as heads of state who are vilified and undermined at every turn due to misogyny and any perceived weakness. The series illustrates the inhumanity central to politics, and it\u2019s easy to see why so many politicians turn cruel and callous to preserve themselves over the people they\u2019ve promised to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJones and Delpy are fantastic in their respective roles, but \u201cHostage\u201d has a soapy quality to it, preventing it from being elevated to true high drama. Additionally, some of the series\u2019 plot points blossom out of nowhere (as when Alex preposterously goes to Guiana without a security detail).\u00a0While fun to watch, they don\u2019t seem like fully fleshed-out ideas. Also, the big bad in the show isn\u2019t quite as fully realized as audiences might expect. Still, despite these minor mishaps, the narrative is captivating, the tension between Dalton and Toussaint is palpable and the friction Dalton has with her teen daughter, Sylvie (Isobel Akuwudike), following Alex\u2019s kidnapping is gutting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe penultimate episode, Episode 4, is the showstopper here. Amid public outcry and turmoil, Dalton and President Toussaint reflect on their motivations for entering politics and the lengths to which they will go to secure their political futures. It\u2019s also a reminder to viewers that even when we think we know how a story will end, it often shifts in a new direction, forcing us to open our eyes and minds to alternative outcomes and perspectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite some truly far-fetched storylines and one rather salacious twist, \u201cHostage\u201d is certainly worth the ride. If the current American government were in a different state, the outlook on the show may have been slightly different. However, through a 2025 lens, the limited series reminds audiences of the fragility of democracy, that perfect politicians don\u2019t exist and why greed and vengeance rooted in the foundation are strong enough to level it all at any moment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHostage\u201d is now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Empires crumble more easily than many of us would like to admit, and in Netflix\u2018s new limited series…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,6384,94503,4659,94504,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-163555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hostage","10":"tag-julie-delpy","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-suranne-jones","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115066310819973844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}