Hostages
CBS | Release Date: September 23, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
9
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
NewsdayVerne GaySep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: Smart, intriguing thriller, but the opener is slightly overheated. Read full review
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Both pilots [Hostages and "The Blacklist"] are among broadcast TV's better offerings this fall. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Hostages piles on twists upon complications upon secrets with enough breathless zeal to keep us wondering what will happen next, even when it challenges our disbelief. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Things get tense fast in CBS’ new Hostages, and if it can maintain that tension for 13 weeks, the network has a winner. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzSep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's a dramatic premise that should yield high rewards for Hostages, whose confident pilot episode ends with a cliffhanger worthy of the name--a kind that should bring audiences back lusting for more. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s a pretty great first hour and if they can keep up the suspense before changing direction, it might be a feat worth watching every week. Read full review
80
Denver PostJoanne OstrowSep 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: If you get past the large leap and buy into the premise, Hostages promises surprising switchbacks and character development ranking among the best of the season. Read full review
75
RedEyeCurt WagnerSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Like Spader, Collette is fascinating to watch; there's always so much happening just under the surface.... Show creators Alon Aranya, Omri Givon, Rotem Shamir and Jeffrey Nachmanoff pack the Hostages pilot with a ton of side plots. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Thanks in large part to the grounded, nuanced performance from Collette, tonight's introduction effectively establishes both the moral dilemma at the heart of the story and the chess match the show intends to follow between Sanders and Carlisle. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: Overstuffed though the pilot is, the show works because of the performances. Read full review
75
People WeeklyTom GliattoSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: The opener sets this all up smoothly, and Collette, combining a mother's protective instinct with type A pride, is great to watch. [23 Sep 2013]
70
HollywoodChicago.comBrian TallericoSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s well-paced and tightly constructed. Yes, some of it feels overdone and silly.... [But] it ends on a nice turn of events that make me really want to see what happens next. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: The many layers of feints and puzzles are compelling, but it’s hard to see how they can last more than a season or two. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian LowrySep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: Hostages has a polished feel to it, and the limited-series approach certainly makes the prospect of committing to the show more palatable, inasmuch as it won’t be able to explain away its central predicament forever. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: If the writing can bring invention to the thriller parts and smarts to the domestic parts, and invention, Hostages could have an indefinite hold on our imagination. Read full review
67
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 22, 2013
Season 1 Review: The twist in the final moments suggests the series already could be catching a case of the stupids, in which case, no cast, no matter how talented, will be able to save this show. Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: Despite all its unanswered questions, Hostages is appreciably easier to grasp than NBC’s competing new The Black List, which also gets underway Monday. So for now, it seems worth seeing where this is all going. Read full review
60
Under The RadarCody Ray ShaferSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: Other than a few other corny ideas (the whole Presidential assassination trope is a little cliché), Hostages delivers a compelling plot with enough tension to keep viewers interested for 45 minutes. Read full review
60
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Hostages unfolds with the crisp efficiency of a humorless event planner checking tasks off a list. Read full review
58
Newark Star-LedgerVicki HymanFeb 13, 2014
Season 1 Review: Sanders' husband (Tate Donovan) and teenaged kids are each shielding their own secrets, uncovered by Carlisle and his crew--and covered up by them as well. Unfortunately, they're fairly pedestrian. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubZack HandlenSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: While the pacing is solid and the direction is competent, nothing rises above the average. The pilot is too tasteful to be intense, and too silly to be affecting. It’s middlebrow to the bone. Read full review
58
Washington PostHank StueverSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Throughout the pilot, you’ll wonder why this couldn’t all be handled in a mediocre two-hour action movie. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: By pilot's end, the tension level is more "Parenthood" than "Homeland." Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierSep 22, 2013
Season 1 Review: Hostages feels as if it's impulsively running on autopilot, periodically checking off boxes on a laundry list of genre clichés. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: The series does hint at Carlisle's motivation, and maybe the show will get more interesting once his reasons for wanting the president dead are revealed, but the pilot doesn't exactly demand viewers tune in for episode two. Read full review
40
PopMattersChris ConatonSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: It is to say that this mimicking is just that, as if the creators here have watched those shows ["24" and "Homeland"], but have no original inspiration, and instead think that plot twists in and of themselves make a drama bracing. Read full review
30
New York PostRobert RorkeOct 3, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ain’t much [Collette] 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. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Too bad writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff seems blithely unaware of all the situations that tempt us to laugh at the show rather than with it. Read full review
25
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: The characters wander a spectrum from boring to irritating (guess which end the two teenage kids wind up on?), and the situation already feels unsustainable by the end of the first episode. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL