Summary
Into the Night (Netflix) is a strong and refreshingly lean original offering from Belgium, with an intriguing hybrid premise that should grab some attention this weekend.
This review of Into the Night Season 1 (Netflix) is spoiler-free.
And welcome Belgium to the streaming wars. This intriguing debut original, which blends the contained thrills of a plane hijacking with a broader dystopian sci-fi premise, is a smart opening gambit; at just six episodes, each running less than 40 minutes, Into the Night (Netflix) is binge-ready out of the departure gate and impresses with its tension-building and novel concept.
That concept sees the sun becoming suddenly deadly – not an altogether out-of-the-box idea in our current climate – and the NATO-affiliated Terenzio (Stefano Cassetti) hijacking a commercial plane in response. The plane’s pilot, Mathieu (Laurent Capelluto), is under new orders to fly the vessel and its passengers deep into the night, and thus the title makes sense, even if the backgrounds and agendas of those involved remain somewhat nebulous.
This unusual blend of high-concept ecological calamity with the tight suspense of a heist thriller is what gives Into the Night its enjoyably pacey rhythm, as the six breezy episodes are largely contained to the flight itself and concern themselves mostly with the backstories, competing power plays and increasingly primitive instincts of those aboard. Well-stocked with capable Belgian actors who help to sell the idea of our only possible salvation as a pinprick of light in an otherwise endless night, some credulity-straining twists aren’t enough to undermine what is otherwise a solidly engaging and refreshingly lean national debut.
