Into The Night
A Netflix Original’s
Directed by:
Inti Calfat
Dirk Verheve
Writing Credits: Jason George (Script)
Cast:
Pauline Etienne as Sylvie
Laurent Capelluto as Mathieu
Stefano cassetti as Terenzio
Genre: Drama, Suspense, Science Fiction
Cinematographer: Thomas Hardmeier
Editor: Stijn Deconinck
Composer: Photek
Runtime: Season 1, (6)Episodes
Language: English
Synopsis:
A stiff, firm, and tense European Tv show, a Run for life formula, which tastes a bit imaginary, “Into the Night”. Moving with humor and imaginary storyline, The night ruins the story. A good score, play with the mood by Photek that drives the seat with more eagerness. A full-time nightmare momento. A plane hijacked from Brussels by an Italian (Stefano Cassetti) in NATO uniform. A quote about “Sunlight means Death” leads the handful of people trapped on board, including a stewardess, a co-pilot, a ground crew member, and a mechanic, who aren’t going to Moscow. Oh no. They must flee west. WEST. Racing against the always-rising sun.
Review:
One problem at a time is – Into the Night. As the obstacles are made clear. Fuel, injuries, repairs, “supplies” as those dozen or so on board pick up bits and pieces of confirmation that something is going on “down there,” is what keeps the series alive. Then the co-pilot (Laurent Capelluto) and his passenger fill-in assistant, downcast chopper pilot Sylvie (Pauline Etienne) reassure each other, for flying them safe at this situation and then the passengers, none of whom is really reassured. As Ines, (Alba Gaïa Bellugi), the multi-lingual, mouthy young Italian model bitches onto her dormant Instagram account, “I’m gonna DIE in Scotland surrounded by Belgians!”. The Belgian religious crank (Jan Bijvoet) mistrusts every “Muslim” on board. There’s a Russian mother (Regina Bikkinina) desperate to take her little boy “home” for surgery, an Afro-Belgian home healthcare worker (Babetida Sadjo) caring for an elderly Russian, and not to be trifled with.
Hero/villain? Who is who and that makes the screen time a much rich. Not a lot, and that’s a good thing about this series, where all six episodes are titled after a character and begin with a prologue. As formula dictates, everybody here has “a secret,” a troubling character flaw, a hole in her or his past to make us question motives even as they show us inner resources when the chips are down.
The ticking-clock that underscores many a thriller is only evident in the landing-refueling stops this Belgian airliner has to make. Gas is always a worry, as is what they’ll find when they land to get it. It’s a different race against the clock every touchdown. The in-flight debates, “one problem at a time” solving, etc., are slower. But as we get to know the cast, this flagging pace is less of an issue than it might have been.
If there’s a flaw to it, I’d say not letting it maintain the compactness that head-down/work-the-next-problem storytelling demands. Yeah, it’s open-ended. But there’s mordant humor, most present in the early episodes, that carries the day. The co-pilot clinging to “sorry for the inconvenience” corporate messaging too long, his troubled fill-in co-pilot Sylvie’s admission that “I drank a bottle of vodka” before boarding, and the Black woman as truth-teller, chills out the plan of the story. Wild and strange things play around the scenes and at last how things messes! “A binge-worthy watch!”