This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The biggest surprise about Hostages (Monday, 9 p.m., Ch. 2) is that it's on CBS. This is a show that feels a lot more like Fox's "24" or Showtime's "Homeland" than your average CBS crime drama.This is not "Hawaii Five-O" or "CSI" by any means."Hostages" is a 15-episode miniseries of sorts that promises us all sorts of danger and suspense. Whether it can deliver on those promises remains to be seen.Monday's premiere is intriguing. Just before Dr. Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette) is about to operate on the president of the United States (James Naughton), she and her family are taken hostage. Ellen is told that if she doesn't kill the president during the procedure, her family will be killed.Well, you pretty much know that's not going to happen in the first hour because then there would be no show.The leader of the apparent terrorists is rogue federal agent Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott), but we don't immediately know what his deal is.Perhaps the most intriguing part of the show is that the Sanders family has all sorts of secrets Duncan and his team can exploit.After watching the first episode, I'm intrigued enough to watch another episode or two. We'll see whether any of us are intrigued enough to make it through all 15 hours.