Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hanna’ On Amazon Prime, Where An Unusual Girl With Special Powers Is Chased By The CIA

It’s not often that a TV version of a popular movie that’s written as a complete reboot actually surpasses the original, but Hanna might be one of those. But we’re not talking about quality; we’re talking about the fact that the 2011 film’s original screenwriter, David Farr, decided that he wanted to go more in-depth with the backstory of his main characters, especially Hanna Heller. Does he accomplish this with the new Amazon thriller?

HANNA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man sits in a chair, staring at a clock. The ticks get louder and louder until the clock hits 2. Then we see “Romania, 2003.”

The Gist: The man is Erik Heller (Joel Kinnaman), who infiltrates a dreary government facility to take one of the babies out of its nursery. He’s discovered as he tries to leave, resulting in some pretty violent fights, with one guard ending up in a rooftop incinerator. But Heller does escape, and brings the baby back to her mother, Johanna Zydek (Joanna Kulig). But they have to escape into the woods when CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos) chases them, from both on land and in the sky. As they try to get through a clearing, the car is shot and hits a tree, killing Johanna. Erik takes the baby and escapes into the woods.

Cut to sixteen years later. Heller and the now-teenaged girl, Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles), are living in a cave, hunting and gathering for food and clothing. Erik has also taught Hanna multiple languages, pop-culture references, and — most importantly — how to properly defend herself against anyone and everyone who might try to harm her. Something about Hanna’s senses and reaction times are a bit supernatural, but Erik has used this to his advantage in training her. He continuously shows her a picture of Marissa, telling her that at some point that woman will come after her.

Hanna, however, is sick of living in the woods. She wanders past the area that Erik has marked as safe and meets a young logger named Arvo (Alexander Gorchilin), who eventually takes her to a spot on a government satellite dish to look at the stars. Even though he thinks no one is ever there, they’re caught anyway.

In Paris, Wiegler, who has settled down with a boyfriend and his son and moved on from chasing Erik and Hanna — assuming they died in the woods — gets word that this extraordinary girl is alive and well, and she sends troops to find them. In the chase, Erik and Hanna get separated, but vow to rendezvous at their designated meeting point in Berlin.

Our Take: Since I didn’t see the 2011 film on which this is based, I can take David Farr’s TV update on his story at face value. And what I saw was an intriguing mix of action, story and well-crafted characters that will wear well over the season’s eight episodes.

The first episode, spent mainly in the Romanian woods where Hanna and Erik live, is a bit of a tonal difference from the rest of the series, as we find out more about the connection between Marissa and Erik and we see Hanna not only running and kicking ass, but finding out more about what she likes and dislikes as, you know, a teenager. But those tonal differences aren’t jarring, and they fill in blanks from the first episode, mainly involving who exactly Hanna is and why she was involved in that government project to begin with.

The first episode, though, is worth watching for Hanna’s backstory, including the bond that has developed between her and Erik, whom she thinks is her biological father. And it’s worth watching for the remarkable performance of Creed-Miles, who does a convincing job of playing a girl who knows much more than the average sixteen-year-old, and is especially strong, even with her father. Her curiosity at the logger’s cigarette and Snickers bars are just as compelling as her connection with Erik, and the first episode is jam-packed with scenes that show just how much Hanna has learned over time.

Enos and Kinnaman are compelling to watch, of course. They embody their roles so well that you’ll forget about the fact that they spent four years as Linden and Holder on The Killing. And it’s refreshing to see them on opposite sides of this story, even though later on, we’ll see that this wasn’t always the case.

Sex and Skin: Besides some light snogging between Hanna and Arvo, there’s nothing.

Parting Shot: Hanna allows herself to get captured to save Erik, and she sees the sun rise from the back of a military helicopter.

Sleeper Star: Justin Salinger plays Carl Meisner, the CIA station chief in Paris, who was with Marissa on the top-secret mission that had Hanna in that facility when she was a baby. He’ll be instrumental in later episodes, and does a nice job at being Marissa’s boss and co-conspirator.

Most Pilot-y Line: Arvo, as Hanna eats his Snickers bar: “You eat like an animal, you know?” Then he mimics her chewing, which seems like a bit of telegraphing. We know she grew up in the woods, for heaven’s sake!

Our Call: STREAM IT. Hanna has lots of twists and turns and fine performances from all three of its leads. Well worth a binge.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Steam Hanna on Amazon Prime Video