America’s culture of paranoia is on full display in the new CBS thriller “Hostages.” In this 15-episode suspense drama from Jerry Bruckheimer — the mastermind behind the “CSI” global juggernaut — no one is safe. Not the American family. Not the president of the United States. The very people assigned by law to protect us as citizens, the FBI, are very likely to take you prisoner.
The series premiere wastes no time getting down to business. Dr. Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette) is scheduled to remove a non-malignant mass from the left lung of the president (James Naughton). Rogue FBI agent Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott) is on board to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Early on in the hour we see that Carlisle, a stranger to the razor blade, has unorthodox means of doing agency business when he diffuses a hostage situation in Washington, DC by killing a kidnapper who has switched outfits with the hostage. How’d he know that? “Boots didn’t match the suit,” he says to a disapproving superior (the most clever thing Carlisle says in the entire episode).
Privately, he has hired a bunch of telegenic, gym-fabulous goons to terrorize Sanders and her family. Think masks, guns, home invasion. Carlisle, who has a wife in a coma and a young daughter, wants Sanders to administer an unidentified liquid to the president during the operation and kill him.
Obviously, Dr. Sanders is not going to kill the leader of the free world — and for God’s sake, that’s Toni Collette in the lab coat, so you know it’s not going to happen.
“Hostages” kills some time delving into the family’s secrets which are standard TV fare. We have the usual truculent teenage daughter (Quinn Shepherd) who has the secret, adult boyfriend and the drug-dealing son (Mateus Ward) who supplies his buddies on the lacrosse team.
Dad (Tate Donovan) is another gem, vigorously persuading his wife to follow Carlisle’s demented scheme so the rogue agent won’t tattle to Ellen about his erotic wanderings.
Set in DC (an “in” location this year, with “House of Cards” and the forthcoming “The Blacklist”) and suburban Maryland, the show comes down to a battle of wits between two very different actors.
McDermott, usually cast as a leading man (“The Practice,” “American Horror Story”), relies on a steely squint and that sinister stubble to play the heavy. Maybe it’s because his dialogue (“They have to fear us. Sometimes you have to do a bad thing for a good reason.”) is so devoid of personality.
Collette already has an Emmy (for “The United States of Tara” )and a track record that includes everything from indie chestnuts “Muriel’s Wedding” and “Velvet Goldmine” to such mainstream hits as “The Sixth Sense” and “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Ain’t much she can’t do, so when she temporarily foils Carlisle, we have a pretty good idea who’s going to keep the tables turned on this show.