Parents' Guide to

Hostages

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Morally murky drama is compelling, tense; some violence.

TV CBS Drama 2013
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What's the Story?

Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette) has just been handed a plum task: she's the surgeon who will remove a mass from the president's lungs. However, the night before she's to operate, a mysterious group of masked kidnappers break into her house and hold her family at gunpoint, giving Sanders a terrible choice: give the president an untraceable poison and make it look like he died on the operating table, or be killed with her family. Even scarier, the kidnappers remove their masks and reveal that one of them is rogue FBI agent Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott). Now there's no turning back. They're all in this together.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1 ):

Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott are predictably great, and here they're given juicy, meaty drama to chew on. It's an intriguing premise: Given the choice between terrible treason that upends every principle you hold dear, and keeping one's family safe in the face of near-certain death, what would any of us choose?

Every character is complex and has his or her secrets. Sanders' daughter may be pregnant; her son is consorting with drug dealers; her husband (the marvelous Tate Donovan) isn't the strong patriarch he appears to be. Even Carlisle has his reasons for doing what he's done, and a comatose wife and small daughter depend on him to return from his awful mission. The stakes are high, the twists are realistic, and the acting is very, very fine. This one's worth a look.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what choices they would make if faced with this dilemma. Would it be permissible for Ellen Sanders to go ahead and do what the kidnappers say? Or should she figure out another option?

  • Compare this show to other tense dramas, such as Lost or Fringe. How is Hostages different from or similar to these shows?

  • Is the Sanders family supposed to be wealthy or poor? What gives you this idea? Are we supposed to like the family members? What about the way in which they're presented brings you to this conclusion?

TV Details

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