Hostages

This is on my blog www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Jan. 10 Hostages: I saw the pilot of this TV show on Sept. 24, 2013 on ctv.ca.  The show is about a surgeon named Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette from TV show United States of Tara) and she has to perform surgery on the President of the USA.  She and her family are being held hostage by Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott).  Duncan wants her to kill the President on the surgery table or he will kill her and her family.

I then see that there is the season finale in Jan. after 15 episodes.  I was like: “What?  Why now?”  It turns out it was supposed to be a mini-series.

Here’s some more info:

http://www.examiner.com/article/hostages-big-season-finale-was-this-show-renewed-or-canceled

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2647258/

Here’s the pilot:

Cut to night time.  The Sanders family of Ellen, her husband Brian (Tate Donovan from The OC), teen daughter Morgan (Quinn Shephard), and teen son Jake (Mateus Ward) are sitting and watching TV.  4 masked gunmen surround them. 

Cut to 12 hrs earlier.

Ellen is the surgeon and she is talking at a press conference.  She is operating on the President.

In Washington:  There is a hostage negotiation of a bank robbery.

FBI Duncan Carlisle is saying: Release a dozen hostages and we’ll get the safe transport.

A Masked Man and a Business man comes out.

Duncan shoots the Business man.

The Masked Man has mouth taped.

Duncan: I can tell the business guy wasn’t really a business guy because of his shoes.

A maintenance guy walks past Ellen.

Ellen enters her office and sees a picture frame is missing.  There is a camera watching her.  Ellen calls her husband Brian.

There are two people watching the Sanders house.

Duncan visits his wife in a coma.

The two people are setting cameras in the house.

Brian is coaching lacrosse and confronts the team.

Brian: I found money.

His son Jake is there.

Jake: It’s for beer and fake IDs.

Duncan has a 10 yr old daughter.  The Grandpa comes to take care of her.

Brian and Jake tell Ellen about buying beer.

Teen daughter Morgan is crying.  I thought about The Simpsons where Bart and Lisa are watching the Smashing Pumpkins perform.

Bart: Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Morgan Skypes with her friend Amelia and Amelia says: “You have to tell him.”  She leaves the house.

Jake has a secret cell phone and calls his friend: “Nico is going to be so mad that $1200 is missing.”

Sandrine Renault (Sandrine Holt) is one of the hostage takers.  She is following Morgan who goes to meet her boyfriend.  Her boyfriend wants to meet her parents and Morgan says no and leaves.

Kramer (Rhys Coiro) grabs Jake who’s outside.

Morgan is holding a pregnancy test that explains why she was crying.

The hostage takers bring all the family members in the living room like in the beginning of the episode.  They take off their masks.

Morgan: They showed their face.  They’re going to kill us.

Duncan takes Ellen upstairs.

Duncan: You are going to operate on the President tomorrow, and he will during surgery.  If you don’t kill him, we will kill your family.

The family eats dinner as Duncan, Kramer, Archer (Billy Brown), and Sandrine watch them.  They drill the windows and learn that someone tripped the silent alarm.  The phone rings and Ellen picks up.

Security system woman: A security guy is coming, it’s protocol.

Security guy comes and delivers Ellen an envelope.

Ellen recognizes him as Maintenance guy who was in her office.

Duncan hits Brian.

Duncan: You are not the husband you pretend to be.

He shows tablet of Brian with another woman.

Duncan talks to Ellen:

Duncan: Inject this into the President, within 5 min. he’ll die.

He puts vial in lipstick.

Duncan: Don’t think of killing the President, think of saving your family.

Kramer is with Jake.

Kramer knows about the secret phone and drug dealer so he texts about “family emergency.”

Jake: Why did you kill my dog?

Kramer takes him downstairs and the dog is alive.

Duncan: You have to get them to fear us, to control them.

Duncan calls his dad, the Grandpa who is taking care of Duncan’s daughter.  Duncan then talks to the President’s assistant.

The next day.  Morgan is in the washroom and she’s throwing up.

 Duncan is outside and he kicks the door open when she doesn’t answer. 

Ellen is worried and runs up the stairs.

Duncan sees the pregnancy test.

Morgan: Don’t tell.

Duncan: I won’t.

Ellen asks if Morgan is okay, and Morgan says she is sick.

Brian tells Ellen to kill the President because the hostage takers threatened to expose his infidelity.

Ellen: I’m the one who has to live with it.

The TV news is on: “The surgery has been postponed for 2 weeks because the President has been given a blood federer.”  I’m not quite sure what she said, but the surgery is postponed.

My opinion: I thought the pilot was good, but I didn’t connect with it.  I didn’t watch it after the pilot.  Good story and acting.  I didn’t know it was a mini-series.  It was never advertised on CTV that way.

Comparisons:

The good guy in mask with the mouth taped: It has been done on the TV show CSI: NY.

A politician is going into surgery, and a medical professional in the surgery room has to kill the politician: It was done on ep of The Listener called “Fatal Vision.”