Hostage

Hostage is surely a good time – it's a series that is entertaining, has some fine performances, is slightly surprising in parts and fits the binge-watch model perfectly. It just won't be one that you'll likely remember after watching.

The trouble is, beneath the series' slick exterior lies a slightly wonky storyline – one that ranges from the shrug-worthy to the downright jump-the-shark.

Perhaps Chapman and his team will find a satisfying way to bring the personal and political drama of Vivienne Toussaint and Abigail Dalton together in the last two hours in a manner that makes the shallow nature of these three episodes feel like table-setting. It’s possible, but the cheap cliffhanger to end the third hour makes it seem even less likely that viewers are going to get a satisfying, meaty payoff.

Neither impressive nor dreadful, the series is adrift in the doldrums of artistry. If they handed out Emmys for dull television, then I am certain “Hostage,” a limited British series now airing on Netflix, would make a clean sweep.