If you’ve been craving a scripted thriller series, then the return of “Hijack” for a second season comes just in time. Season 2 of “Hijack” premiered on Apple TV on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Season 2 will have eight episodes and will conclude on March 4.

“Hijack” stars Idris Elba as Sam Nelson, a corporate negotiator who is used to pulling enormous deals across the finish line. In Season 1 of the series, he is forced into a much higher-stakes mediation when the plane he has boarded is hijacked. The first season of the show takes place in real time over the course of seven episodes, and while Sam is able to help land the plane safely, the incident is revealed to be far more complex than a standard terror attack.

In Season 2, Sam will find himself on a commuter train in Berlin that once again falls into the hands of nefarious actors. Above ground, authorities scramble to save as many lives as they can, but Sam is at the center of the crisis once again. Can he talk his way out of things one more time?

Watch the trailer for ‘Hijack’ Season 2

Check out reviews for the second season of “Hijack” to see if the show piques your interest! The show has so far registered a 65 on Metacritic, indicating “Generally Favorable” reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently sports a critical score of 58%. You can stream the series with a subscription to Apple TV, costing $13 per month after a seven-day free trial.

Check out reviews for ‘Hijack’ Season 2

Randy Myers | San Jose Mercury News

Like its predecessor, “Hijack” is a fun escapist thrill-ride, though it does go off the rails and sticks too closely to the same playbook as Season 1 — trading air passengers for Berlin train commuters…Season 2 brings back key memorable players including Max Beesley as Marsha’s DI boyfriend and Archie Panjabi, not given much to do, as a counterterrorism expert. But even with a handful of others resurfacing and a sly turn from Toby Jones as an official with intel, it is Elba, also an executive producer, whose magnetic star power keeps this train on its tracks.

Lucy Mangan | The Guardian

Sam Idris Elba Nelson is back. And this time, he’s on a train. An underground train, part of the Berlin metro, and let me tell you – shenanigans ensue….I can say no more without massive spoilers, but if you’ve tuned in for one minute, you’ll be there for them all. So enjoy, and I’ll see you again at the end of what promises to be another rollicking ride.

Sherin Nicole | RogerEbert.com

As in the first season, each episode ends in a cliffhanger. In terms of storytelling, although both seasons play out close to real time, the Berlin Incident feels tighter in key moments, with an unrelenting pace. Somehow connecting us to this new set of hostages on a deeper level. Both seasons have their strengths, and as the second one unfurls, it’s clear “Hijack” has a house style, employing similar beats and plot twists in new ways. At least, mostly new ways. There are connections to the first season that will galvanize fans as this train barrels towards its denouement. And although you might get impatient for the last few secrets to be revealed, it’s an ending that’s worth the ride.

Ben Travers | IndieWire

Each 40-ish minute episode following the premiere delivers diminishing returns, Elba can only beg people to listen to him so many times before growing monotonous, and when the train creeps to a polite stop at its final destination, there’s little suspense to the resolution and even less sense. At first, “Hijack” Season 2 seems intent on proving it has a sustainable premise; that a semi-regular bloke like Sam can wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time, season after season, on as many planes, trains, and automobiles as Apple deems necessary. But like a subway car diverted without warning, Season 2 soon loses its sense of direction and erases any hope of arriving at the promised destination.

Brian Tallerico | AV Club

Hijack feels like a great example of something that arguably should have stayed a one-hit wonder, at least on paper. How do you get Sam Nelson into another international drama? Sure, audiences looked the other way when 24 did it over multiple seasons, but even that became a bit of a punchline…Will viewers go along with a show that seemed about as self-contained as can be now that its setup appears to have shifted?

James Dyer | Empire Magazine

The story, meanwhile, thrashes around like a live wire, protean plotting causing the show to ricochet wildly between the opaque and the obvious. By the time we reach the home stretch, it does begin to lose momentum and with most of the pieces revealed, the story’s latter section, much like its central conceit, feels on rails. But while this latest “Hijack” may not quite manage the gourmand’s takeaway its first season was, this is still much closer to a Five Guys than a Happy Meal.

Joel Keller | Decider

We’re not sure if Season 2 of “Hijack,” co-created by Jim Field Smith and George Kay, will be real time like the first season was, but it still reminds us a lot of “24”…While we’re busy as viewers just waiting for the train to get hijacked — after all, that’s what the show’s title indicates will happen — we are definitely being misdirected by the goings-on. Now we have to find out the why. And, given the tightly-paced, if not sometimes absurd, action of the first season, we get the feeling that Smith and his writers have a lot of the same planned for Season 2, which is actually one episode longer than the first.

Hijack

June 28, 2023

Expert negotiator Sam Nelson is in for the ride of his life—and so is everyone on board with him—after a group of hijackers take control. Sam will try every move in his playbook to take them down…as the stakes grow higher by the second.