Recommendations of the Editorial team
When crazy things happen in our lives, we sometimes say things like: “If something like that had been in a script, it would have been rejected as too unrealistic.” But if you watch political series on the streaming service you trust, this sentence will get stuck in your throat. Because obviously in some scripts even the worst nonsense goes unchallenged, like the Netflix series did for me “Hostage” taught again. Is this disinterest or intentional?
Imagine: French President Emanuel Macron honors British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a state visit. The visit lasts several days but does not include any appointments other than a reception and an exhibition basketball practice.
The two top politicians have plenty of free time during the day, but actually have to negotiate. Macron is blackmailing Starmer by withholding vital French medicines and wants to use this to force stronger border security. The conversations about it? More of a chat. Until Kofi calls for lunch. Kofi, that’s not a butler, but the Chief of Staff: Starmer’s most important employee.
Viewers deserve compassion
Meanwhile, Starmer’s wife is kidnapped in the South American jungle. The Prime Minister himself conducts negotiations with the hostage takers via Zoom call from 10 Downing Street. Also in the room: Macron’s chief of staff, who conspired with the kidnappers and leaves the situation room to discuss the next steps with them on the phone in an unbureaucratic manner outside the door. Meanwhile, in London, their president is sorting out his colorful family relationships and pondering whether he should run his re-election campaign with a liberal or a right-wing populist program. When traveling you can let your thoughts wander.
Encore? Shortly afterwards, Starmer first loses his elderly father to an assassination attempt in the hospital and then a spontaneous vote of no confidence from his party friends, all of whom he kills. He is disempowered. Unfortunately, he was still in his official residence when a bomb detonated there and killed Macron. Starmer is injured, but not evacuated, but instead sits all alone in a spartan basement room, while his successor, who has apparently fallen from the sky, appears in front of the press minutes later and declares a state of emergency under the control of the military.
Phew. It is not the Prime Minister who deserves sympathy here, but only the audience to whom this fare is offered.
We are not with Benjamin Blümchen here
Of course, political thrillers are no more about boring meetings than hospital series are about emptying bedpans or police series and reports of disturbing the peace. I too want to be entertained and not lectured. And because I don’t have weeks of time, as a viewer I also agree with the streamlining of processes and the courage to leave narrative gaps. But the deal with the audience is that the essence of a story that has become a series does not collapse like a house of cards upon closer inspection, but remains consistent. However, in “Hostage,” where Starmer is an Abigail Dalton and Macron is a Vivienne Toussaint, the opposite is the case.
The problem with this story isn’t that it’s made up. The problem is that it pretends to base itself on reality without knowing that reality.
In “Benjamin Blümchen” the mayor can of course be a selfish autocrat, after all he is also dealing with a talking elephant. Your world is a fantasy world. Törööö! But anyone who sets a series in the real world and uses real locations has a duty of care.
Bridging logic gaps with completely implausible processes and characters who far exceed their competence is not smart, but lazy cheating. Series like “Borgen” have shown that things can be done better when technical expertise is included. The public deserves more – and so do the time-honored institutions of British democracy.