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‘American Hostage’ Review: Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi in an MGM+ Kidnapping Thriller With Lots of Potential but Little Payoff
Confirmed
In Short: In the series, Jon Hamm plays Fred Heckman, a radio reporter in Indianapolis, who becomes entangled in a hostage situation when Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) demands to be interviewed on his radio show after kidnapping his mortgage broker.
American Hostage, a new series on MGM+, premiered with two episodes on September 20 and will stream through November 1st. The series, developed by Shawn Christensen and adapted by Shawn Ryan, is based on a podcast about Tony Kiritsis, who took his mortgage broker hostage in 1977.
Despite the strong cast, including William Jackson Harper and Kristoffer Polaha, the series has received mixed reviews. Critics note that while it has potential, it falls short of expectations.
The real-life hostage crisis involved Kiritsis taking mortgage broker Richard Hall hostage with a sawed-off shotgun, a fact that the series closely follows.
The adaptation of the podcast into a TV series was a bold move, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
Despite its shortcomings, American Hostage offers a glimpse into a unique moment in American history and the power of media in shaping public opinion.
What this adds
The series' adaptation from podcast to television has not fully captured the complexity of the real-life hostage situation.
What's confirmed
- Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) is a radio reporter in Indianapolis who gets thrust into the middle of a life-or-death situation when Tony Kiritsis ( Giovanni Ribisi ) demands to be interviewed on his popular radio news program after kidnapping his mortgage broker.
What's still developing
- Moments later, we follow Tony Kiritsis, who walks into the offices of Dick Hall and takes him hostage by gun.
- Shortly after taking him hostage, Kiritsis gets on the phone to call into the radio station to talk to Heckman.
- I truly believe that Jon Hamm is one of our greatest TV actors.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tony Kiritsis (Ribisi), a former used car salesman, has walked into a mortgage office and taken Dick Hall ( Kristoffer Polaha ) hostage, accusing Dick and his family of complicity in granting him a mortgage they knew he could never repay, in order to seize control of the 17-acre plot of land that Tony hoped to turn into a shopping destination anchored by a steakhouse.
- All Tony wants is an apology, immunity and the chance to resume his quest for the American dream.
- In a country pushed by the counterculture and Watergate into a pervasive distrust of authority, Tony briefly becomes as famous as his chosen mouthpiece, which won’t come as a surprise to anybody who has seen Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, one of several stories that America Hostage calls to mind.
- The eight episode thriller stars Jon Hamm as Fred Heckman, an Indianapolis radio newsman who becomes directly involved in a 1977 hostage standoff after Tony Kiritsis, played by Giovanni Ribisi, takes mortgage broker Richard “Dick” Hall hostage.
- Here is what really happened and what American Hostage changed for the screen.