Jon Hamm Extends 26-Year Rotten Tomatoes Streak With New Crime Thriller Debut

Published Sep 15, 2026, 5:17 PM EDT Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. Jon Hamm's 26-year Rotten Tomatoes streak remains unbroken. Some of Jon Hamm's best shows and his roles in them include Don Draper in AMC's Mad Men, Sheriff Roy Tillman in FX's Fargo, Archangel Gabriel in Prime Video's Good Omens, Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne in Netflix's The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Paul Marks in Apple TV's The Morning Show, Andrew "Coop" Cooper in Apple TV's Your Friends & Neighbors, and Monty Miller in Paramount+'s Landman. All of these series have a "Fresh" score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and several of them have received extensive acclaim. Hamm's newest series, MGM+'s American Hostage, has now debuted to an 83% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. The average will likely fluctuate since it is only based on six reviews as of this writing, and more will likely be added following the September 20 two-episode premiere. For now, though, the crime thriller's debut continues the actor's impressive streak of not having a show with a "Rotten" score in 26 years. His last show with a "Rotten" score was 2000's The Trouble with Normal, on which he was a guest star, and it has a 0% critics' score. Since then, Hamm has only starred in shows with "Fresh" scores, including Mad Men's 94%, Fargo's 93%, Good Omens' 78%, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's 98%, The Morning Show's 69%, Your Friends & Neighbors' 84%, and Landman's 80%. Per the aggregation site's metrics, the minimum score that American Hostage needs to remain "Fresh" is 60%. Hamm's new series is based on a true story, featuring him as real-life Indianapolis radio broadcaster Fred Heckman during a hostage crisis in 1977. When mortgage broker Richard "Dick" Hall (Kristoffer Polaha) becomes the captive of Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi), Tony is adamant about being interviewed by Fred live and on the air so justice can be served for the wrongs committed against him. What ensues is a 63-hour ordeal that gains national attention and pushes all involved to their limits. In ScreenRant's American Hostage review, I gave it a rating of seven out of 10 stars and wrote that "while there is plenty to dig into with the characters, and the plot is engaging, the series particularly excels with the questions it raises, even when there are no clear answers." FandomWire's review by M.N. Miller praises Hamm and Ribisi's performances and gives the series a rating of six out of 10 stars, explaining that "Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi turn a 63-hour standoff Into thrilling, darkly absurd television." Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com commends the show for being entertaining while noting that it does not live up to its full potential: "The final result is never dull, which can’t be said about a lot of modern streaming mini-series. But it’s also never as satisfying as it could or should have been." In the sole "Rotten" review thus far, The Playlist's Rodrigo Perez takes issue with the series trying to do too much while simultaneously feeling as though the story is being stretched without something meaningful to say over the course of eight episodes: "Overstuffed, intermittently ambitious, and frustratingly dull, American Hostage has plenty of plot. What it lacks is enough insight to justify spending eight hours getting through 63." American Hostage was created by The Night Agent's Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers. Hamm, Ribisi, and Polaha's co-stars include Mireille Enos as Barbara Heckman, William Jackson Harper as Ben Hairston, Jonathan Tucker as FBI Special Agent Cormac McNally, Kat Cunning as Ibby Hall, June Laporte as Ginny, Mark McKinney as Police Chief Gallagher, and Joe Cobden as Jerry Morris. The story was previously adapted in Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire movie starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, Cary Elwes, and Al Pacino. The first two episodes of American Hostage arrive on September 20 on MGM+, followed by weekly episode releases through November 1. Release Date September 20, 2026 Network MGM+ Directors Adam Arkin Cast Kristoffer Polaha Dick Hall William Jackson Harper Ben Hairston Writers Abby St. Clair, Eileen Myers, Shawn Ryan Creator(s) Shawn Ryan, Eileen Myers