Elisa Blix, a flight attendant, has to juggle irregular working hours with two school-age children. When the mother of a school friend offers to babysit her daughter for a sleepover, she hesitates but agrees. But the unthinkable happens: when Elisa and her husband go to pick up their daughter the next day, they find an empty house. The cleaning lady tells them that it was only a temporary rental.
They have to face the facts: the girl has been kidnapped. Why? By whom? The police launch an investigation that soon extends beyond England’s borders. But it is a nosy and unscrupulous journalist who proves most helpful in tracking down the culprits. Desperate, Elisa takes every risk to find her daughter.
A target on your back
Based on Alex Dahl’s 2020 book “Playdate,” the series takes an intriguing approach. It shows how an ordinary family can become the target of a maniac, and that the unthinkable can happen to anyone. The investigation focuses on the parents and their past. Are they indirectly responsible, did they provoke someone’s hatred? The parents must therefore endure the judgment of the police and public opinion, in addition to their fear of never seeing their daughter again. Although this is not a main narrative arc, it also illustrates the ambiguity of social media. The mother uses social media to amplify the impact of the search, but in return she receives hateful posts blaming her.
The tension is constant, and the plot is well crafted. The beauty of the sets contrasts with the parents’ anguish. Far from her role in Andor, Denise Gough plays a mother who will do anything to find her daughter. Opposite her, the beautiful Holliday Grainger plays a cynical and calculating woman. An effective series that plays on every parent’s deepest fears.
Mini-series, 5 episodes (60 mn), 2025, on Disney+
WITH : Denise Gough as Elisa Blix, Jim Sturgess as Fred Blix, Holliday Grainger as Rebecca Walsh, Ambika Mod as Selma Desai, Bronagh Waugh (The Fall) as DI Shona Sinclair
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