While the most high-profile ratings face-offs of the week are probably SHIELD VS NCIS and Robin Williams VS MJ Fox, Monday nights at 10pm are going to be pretty interesting to monitor, as the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced thriller Hostages goes up against James Spader in The Blacklist. Ratings-wise, Spader was the clear winner, coming out on top and leaving Hostages in a poor third place (behind ABC’s Castle). However, it was Dylan McDermott’s troubled terrorist and Toni Collette’s presidential surgeon that interested me the most.
Hostages begins with a hostage situation. McDermott is the negotiator, and uses his experience to suss out the kidnapper’s clever ruse and save the hostage. 10 minutes later, he himself has taken Collette and her family hostage in their home and making her kill the president. This concept was very engaging for the pilot, but it will be very interesting to see if it can continue into a full series. Of course, at one point in the episode the issue is raised that “people will wonder where we are”, meaning the kidnappers will be forced to let the family out of the house eventually. The performances were top-quality and the episode was impressively shot and edited, but the script was quite weak.
That said, The Blacklist was far worse. An even more interesting concept and a better lead at hand, this NBC drama managed to ruin all it’s assets with a desperate female lead in Megan Boone, underuse of Spader and terribly predictable and clichéd action scenes (where did we see a car being hit on a bridge before? Oh yeah, EVERYWHERE). If director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) had played up the SIlence of the Lambs-esque premise by eliminating the actionm Boone’s home storyline (did Homeland‘s Carrie not influence network TV at all?) and the annoying child, this could have been as gripping as it’s opening scene, but unfortunately, it was quite boring.
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