Nightsleeper on TF1: Does it match Bodyguard?

What would happen if every train in the country broke down and went out of control? It is this thorny question that Nightsleeper, the English suspense series that will be broadcast this Wednesday, October 9 on TF1, aims to answer.

When the train is broken by terrorists

Written by Laura Grace and Nick Letter, Nightsleeper follows a group of 12 passengers who find themselves trapped on an overnight train from Glasgow to London that has been hijacked by a mysterious device.

While the train is out of control and all means of communication with the outside world are cut off, Joe Roag, a troubled ex-cop played by Joe Cole, best known for his role as John Shelby in Peaky Blinders, ends up. managed to make contact with Cyber ​​Security Director Abby Eysgarth (Alexandra Roach) using a satellite phone that happened to be on the train.

Very quickly, Abby and her team discover that this train is not the only target of this attack. The whole of England’s rail network is broken, making it impossible to control. Joe and Abby will have to join forces to try to stop the train and save its passengers…

A sequence of clichés

Presented by the BBC as the new Bodyguard (the Richard Madden series, not the Whitney Houston movie), Nightsleeper sadly misses the boat and tries to drag us into a plot sewn together with white threads.

While the series is inspired by 24 Hours and offers an almost real-time investigation, it is sorely lacking in issues and a sense of real danger. And even when the tension builds, it’s quickly resolved in a sequence that’s meant to be humorous and of very little narrative interest.

A few touching moments often ring false, and we can’t help but pile on the clichés inherent in high-tension thrillers.

Every character on the train represents a stereotype: a minister in search of popularity, a sleazy journalist, an ex-train driver who knows the railway network by heart, an ex-alcoholic… and, unforgettably, an ex-cop with a dark past. A victim of a miscarriage of justice and who will try to save the passengers in the hope of repentance.

In terms of dialogue or plot structure, Nightsleeper is full of plot devices that sometimes distract us from the plot (what are the chances that one of the passengers on the train has a satellite phone that allows communication with the outside world?).

A series without a large scale

As for the casting, Joe Cole and Alexandra Roach play a duo that works quite well on screen. The alchemy is all the more surprising because the two actors never share the screen and only communicate over the phone. The supporting cast is pretty respectable, even if no one manages to stand out from the crowd.

Despite its many flaws, Nightsleeper remains an effective thriller that still manages to keep us in suspense thanks to its cliffhangers at the end of episodes that keep us all watching. If it does not revolutionize the genre, the series still has the merit to distract us during the long autumn evenings.

Catch the first two episodes of Nightsleeper this Wednesday 9 October from 9.10pm on TF1.