The TV show currently gripping everyone’s attention is Netflix’s Hostage. The story focuses on a new British Prime Minister whose husband whilst serving with Medicine Sans Frontiere is taken hostage by a terror group with a personal vendetta against the PM. It’s a great watch for the tension, political intrigued, running, shooting and explosions (if, like me, you look for those kinds of things in TV drama).
However, as numerous people have picked up on, there are numerous plot holes. To list but a few. First, senior politicians seem to be lacking in serious security detail. Downing Street despite years of experience keeping politicians safe from IRA and Islamist terror attacks even forgets the basics of bomb detection.
Mind you, the Prime Minister seems to be suffering a general lack of staff. She seems to rely on one PA to cover everything from political advise through to the kind of background checks usually left to MI5. Where is the chief of staff, where are the SPADs and Spin Doctors?
Then there is a problem with timings and protocol. Why is the PM’s husband off doing risky medical work abroad when this would have not just put his family and national security at risk but also those working with him?
Time frames are unclear but we manage to fit in three cabinet meetings (there is normally one a week). There’s time for the husband to be rescued and for him and the lead terrorist to fly back from South America. However, for some reason, the French President, mid re-election campaign stays put in London for all this time instead of returning to Paris.
We even have a political coup. In a level of efficiency that Labour and the Tories can only dream of, a cabinet rebellion and vote of no confidence by party MPs is organised in the space of an afternoon. Then without the Prime Minister actually resigning or her replacement going to Buckingham Palace to be appointed, we have a new interim PM (itself an innovation). The King might have something to say about this constitutional breach.
One gets the feeling that the script was put together without even the most cursory of research and this makes the plot completely unbelievable. More concerning is that no one involved seems that bothered and all becomes clear as to why when we get close to the end. The plot is really a thinly veiled pretext for a clumsy political point that pits defence spending against health spending.
And this matters. It matters because what we learn is that truth doesn’t matter, especially truth that gets in the way of the narrative. All that matters is that we are able to express our own truth, our own beliefs and agendas take priority over facts. This is a very post modern thriller.
So, it is important because Hostage highlights the consequences of post modern culture. Not only do we lose objective truth but we also manage to destroy story too. One of the big themes of post modernism is the idea of the death of the author but we have managed to kill the story, to put art to death as well.
Secondly, it’s important because it should challenge us as Christians, especially those of us in leadership and pastoral positions. If we decide not to let the facts get in the way of a good story and if we don’t do even the most cursory of investigations then we will end up in a mess.
Faithroots 