'Red Eye' review: Flying on a wing and a prayer

'Just between us, we would have been overjoyed to find Liam Neeson as the air marshal on this flight.' Photos: Handout

Why do TV characters, who really should know better, do stupid or weird stuff that invariably lands them in trouble? Why, to advance the plot of many a thriller, of course.

The laziness of such writing/plotting aside, this is how it goes for the main bloke in ITV's six-part Red Eye: he fights a nightclub bouncer in Beijing, gets stabbed in the side, drives off, crashes the car in the rain and then walks away – all in the opening minutes.