“Hijack,” Apple TV +’s is a sizzling seven-episode series, a lean and mean thrilling ride 30,000 ft in the air.  “Hijack” follows the bumpy twisty and turbulent journey of a flight from Dubai to London which gets hijacked in mid-air.  And at the center of it all is passenger Sam Nelson, played by the singular screen presence that is Idris Elba.  Taking place in real time, shades of the iconic series “24” with a dash of “Die Hard” thrown in, director Jim Field Smith, with a tight script by George Kay, wisely places Elba in the center of the claustrophobic plane tornado.  Much to the filmmaker’s credit, the action feels anything but small; it’s big, wild and unpredictable.

The story starts with Nelson is on his way to reunite with his son Kai (Jude Cudjoe) and to woo his beloved estranged wife (Chantelle Allen) back.   But the audience knows better, and the sense of dread is smartly built-up scene by nail-biting scene. 

Enter the hijackers, a complicated darkly bunch.  Sam as it turns out is a corporate negotiator, who mostly wins and hates to lose.  His skill set is his analytical intuition, which enables him to read people’s insecurities.  He puts it all to lifesaving use in handling the out-of-control hijackers and the terrified passengers.   Head honcho bad guy Stuart (Neil Maskell) is more than a worthy adversary.  The scenes between him and Sam are scarily electrifying.  The narrative of the story is equally on fire, unfolding in a savvy and unpredictable way.

Ann Nikitin’s pulse-racing score propels the action.

Idris Elba gives another you can’t take your eyes off him commanding performance. His sense of internal mystery, not knowing what he’s thinking or will do next, is fascinating to watch. Elba, who also is an Executive Producer, plays Sam Nelson with a confident steely exterior even when Sam’s inner life is shaky.   Sam knows his ultimate skill, that of being a manipulative master, is indeed his most valuable weapon that will save the periled plane.

The cast is filled to the brim with talented Brits, many whom are known to American audiences most notably Archie Panjabi (Emmy award winner for “The Good Wife.”) 

So, get to the couch and binge the entertaining, suspenseful, full of mystery and internal intrigue that is Hijack!

“Sex and the City” won’t go away. Tomorrow, a second season of its spin off, “And Just Like That,” returns to HBO and Max whether you like it or not.

The first season, of course, began with Big’s death on a Peloton and careened down hill from there. Kim Cattrall aka Samantha, was gone. So was the theme music. Many new characters were added to bulk up the new hour long episodes. The show was no longer a comedy but a diatribe.

Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, with more of the same woke nonsense. Everything seems very on the nose and obvious. There’s little fizz, just fizzle, as if every character has to deliver bullet points. The Black characters are all reminding us that they’re Supporting Their Community and Standing Up for Black Women. The white characters are bending over backwards to show how liberal they are, on the right side of every topic.. It’s very exhausting.

And then there’s the sex. Sarita Choudhury’s Seema has been given Samantha’s old sex life and costumes, and she wears it well. Sara Ramirez is back as Che, which rhymes with They, having lots of graphic sex with Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda. Like all of us in the audience, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie just rolls her eyes and repeatedly says “TMI.” (She’s right.) Charlotte– Kristen Davis — is busy catering to her two teen daughters and shtupping amiable husband Harry (Evan Handler). Carrie has some dates, too, but nothing substantial. She’s busy trading barbs with Candice Bergen as her former Vogue editor, Enid (a Grace Mirabella stand in). Bergen is exceptional, as usual. Tony Danza also guest stars, and makes more sense than almost anyone else.

So there it is, a laundry list to be checked off. By the end of episode 4, I’d had had enough. But the press package contains 7 chapters, so I plowed on and through. To my surprise, the 5th episode is seminal. And also to my surprise, Cynthia Nixon was the director. (She also has Episode 6.) Suddenly there is light and air. The script is fun, and smart. No more of pounding home who’s this or that. It felt like the best of the old show. The next one did, too, and even number 7. Things are looking up.

“And Just Like That” is still annoying over all. Everyone is RICH, money is no OBJECT. It’s a whipped cream fantasy of New York. Carrie used to live in the West Village. But now she tells a new beau her address is 245 East 73rd St. Did I hear that right? The show has moved uptown between Park and Lex and that may be the problem. When you’re writing a check for $100,000 to Enid without thinking twice (Carrie becomes an investor in a website based on the failed wowowow.com of 15 years ago) there’s nowhere to go but down. How I wish Carrie would lose all her money and have to start over.

Anyway, the three main actors remain very engaging. SJP’s Carrie is much likeable this time around. The various cameos all work, and somewhere in here is John Corbett riding to her rescue as old boyfriend, Aiden. David Eigenberg as Steve finally gives into his negative feelings about Miranda’s changes– and I clapped for him. It’s about time. And the show finally uses former “Hamilton” star Christopher Jackson as uptight Herbert in a refreshing way. (Look for inside jokes about George Washington.)

I don’t know how the season ends, but I guarantee you they’ll all be back one last time for a final season. And then a reunion, followed by Sex and the Nursing Home. God speed.

PS One thing I never got about this show: none of the main trio has a single family member. Nothing. They exist in a time vacuum where there’s no past, and no one who needs them in the present other than each other. This year, even Nicole Air Parker gets a mother in law (Charlotte used to have one), who’s modeled on George Jefferson’s mother from a thousand years ago.

The perfectly gross HBO series, “The Idol” hit a new low on Sunday. The soft core porn series fell from 135K to 133k in its third week. The previous average in this time slot was 650,000 for Succession.

The show featured pop star The Weeknd in several sexually implicit scenes that I won’t describe in detail here. But the overall effect on his career is instant and extremely negative. His record sales have plummeted in the last three weeks. His fans are fighting with him on Twitter, calling out his lack of taste and extremely wooden acting.

Lily Rose Depp can at least act. But why she would put herself through this degradation is a mystery.

It’s unlikely HBO will order an other round of “The Idol.” But the full extent of the damage isn’t completely known yet. And if the sex scenes are already this X rated, where does it go from here?