Channel 4 hopes new drama Hostages will fill gap left by Homeland

Series based on Israeli drama stars Toni Collette as surgeon due to operate on US president when her family are taken captive

Channel 4 viewers looking to fill the gap left by the end of the third series of Homeland may take comfort this weekend with the arrival of the new US political conspiracy thriller Hostages.

Like Homeland, Hostages is based on an Israeli drama and features government secrets and a high-achieving woman as the lead character – top surgeon Dr Ellen Sanders, played by the Muriel's Wedding and Sixth Sense star Toni Collette.

Also, like Homeland, the show, which debuts on Saturday at 9pm, involves a conspiracy and moral dilemmas about work and family. Sanders is due to operate on the US president but her family is held hostage and will only be freed if she kills him. To add to the tension, there is a rogue FBI agent with an agenda and Sanders's husband has secrets of his own.

The premise may sound as dramatic as Homeland's but the Radio Times critic David Butcher says there are key differences. "It's faster and more direct than Homeland. It's straight-down-the-line energy that you would expect from a Jerry Bruckheimer show, who also produced CSI."

Butcher thinks Hostages is less sophisticated than Homeland but "great fun", and "very pacey and gripping in a way that not much TV is … The first episode grabs you and won't let go, in a good, satisfying way."

However, he says it has less ambiguity than Homeland, so some viewers looking for a replacement for the intrigue that surrounded the CIA agent Carrie Mathison and former US marine Nicholas Brody might be disappointed.

"It is not a bad show at all but … there is not a lot of ambiguity. For instance, one of the characters explains things after they have happened so everybody gets the point.

"If Homeland is the haute cuisine then this is very much the fast-food version but it's very flavoursome and zingy."

Channel 4's chief creative officer, Jay Hunt, says Hostages is "not a Homeland wannabe". She adds: "While it too is an Israeli format, it's got a different tone entirely. But I think the audience will enjoy watching another complex show which has all the twists and turns of a great Hollywood movie."

Hunt says what makes Hostages unique is its "intriguing mix of political thriller and high-octane action. It has moments of heart-stopping tension and a really compelling central performance from Toni Collette. It feels like must-watch TV on a Saturday night."

Butcher says the faster pace of Hostages is partly to do with the fact that it was made by Warner Bros for the US network CBS. US networks tend to have a wider, more mainstream audience, while cable stations such as Showtime, which airs Homeland, and AMC – the home of Breaking Bad and Mad Men – can be more nuanced and, sometimes, more original.

Such is the reputation of Bruckheimer that CBS fought off competition from its rival Fox to secure Hostages.

When it premiered in the US last September, the Washington-based drama was one of the most eagerly anticipated new dramas of the autumn.

The New York Times called it "suspenseful and artfully layered" and said Homeland had paved the way for the show.

Around 7.5 million people watched the first episode and CBS figures showed that over the first month 15.5 million people had seen the premiere via catch-up or video on demand.

However, by the end of the 15-episode run this week, Hostages appeared to have lost something of its grip on audiences as ratings fell to 4.8 million.

At its peak in 2012, Homeland pulled in around 2.6 million viewers for Channel 4 but by the end of its third series, audiences fell to 1.7 million.

CBS only ordered 15 episodes of Hostages and while the jury is out on whether any more will be made, US commentators say the ratings suggest it is unlikely – pointing to the fact that another CBS drama, Vegas, was axed after audiences fell to around 7 million.

But by edging into the Homeland niche drama territory CBS may have made Hostages a hostage to fortune.

Homeland's highest-ever rating in the US for Showtime was 2.4 million, making it the cable station's No 1 show, whereas CBS regularly expects to pull in an average of around 9 million viewers a night.

Contributor

Tara Conlan

The GuardianTramp

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