‘American Hostage’ Review: Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi in an MGM+ Kidnapping Thriller With Lots of Potential but Little Payoff

MGM+ ‘s American Hostage is a TV show based on a podcast about the power of radio, a chaotic media-hopping smorgasbord that feels oddly appropriate when you watch the eight-part series that flirts with a number of contemporary topics but ends up being mostly well-acted, over-extended nostalgia for landline telephones and manageable institutional corruption.

Created by the talented Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers ( The Night Agent ) and boasting an ensemble led by a likably understated Jon Hamm and a convincingly overstated Giovanni Ribisi , American Hostage starts off promisingly, peaks in the middle and overstays its welcome — in part because after initially focusing on what were apparently the wrong characters, few of its storylines end up being interestingly resolved. Related Stories Movies 'The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd' Review: Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy Bring Raw Intensity to Tim Blake Nelson's Death Row Drama TV Why Jon Hamm Says 'American Hostage' Feels "Very Relevant" to "Current Political Climate" American Hostage The Bottom Line Great story, great cast, squandered execution. Airdate: Sunday, September 20 (MGM+) Cast: Jon Hamm, Mireille Enos, Giovanni Ribisi, William Jackson Harper, Kristoffer Polaha Creators: Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers

The series is set in 1977, and if you’ve seen Gus Van Sant’s 2025 Dead Man’s Wire , you already know a somewhat fictionalized version of the story, which was the subject of the first season of the American Hostage podcast from Criminal Content.