Critical response Season 1 The first season of the series eventually received mixed response from critics. Archika Khurana, writing for
The Times of India, gave three out of five stars and stated "The series tries too hard to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller by relying solely on performances, instead, the makers should have worked on coming up with a tighter script."
Bloomberg Quint's Karishma Upadhyay, rated the same and wrote "A riveting home-invasion drama at its core,
Hostages keeps you rooted to your seat with its twists and turns, but also leaves you a little baffled with the unreal lives of its characters." Shweta Kesari of
India Today, commented "Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra starrer is intriguing in parts but fails to hold the interest of its viewers." Sonali Kokra of
Firstpost gave two out of five and summarised "
Hostages is honest to a fault about sticking to its mandate of being the official Hindi adaptation of a hit Israeli show by the same name. Like the original, the first season of the Hindi iteration is exactly 10 episodes long, each one recreated almost scene for scene, with scarcely any alterations in the dialogue or the screenplay. But while the original was saved from drowning in the absurdities of its script by stellar acting and a determined cast, the Hindi version offers no such respite." Sowmya Srivatsava of
Hindustan Times rated the series, one-and-a-half out of five and summarised "Hostages is a generic thriller that offers nothing new in terms of the story it tells, the characters it introduces, the way it is shot or even the themes it plays with."
Season 2 The second season received mixed response. Archika Khuaran of
The Times of India, gave three out of five stars and stated "The series has no dull moments owing to the ample twists-and-turns that keep the momentum going. The show is engaging and keeps its audience hooked while the battle between the both sides are on." Pradeep Menon of
Firstpost gave three out of five and stated "Hostages is the sort of show that takes generous liberties with logic and possibilities, but that hardly comes in the way of you moving to the next episode." Udita Jhunjhunwala, writing for
Scroll.in commented "A bunch of guest appearances, some unexpected returning characters and a lot of going round in circles later, the season ends with a dramatic climax, which should satisfy fans of
Hostages." Gaurang Chauhan of
Zoom TV, gave three-and-a-half out of five stars and commented "
Hostages season 2 is a worthy sequel to the thrilling season 1." In contrast, Ektaa Malik of
The Indian Express gave one-and-a-half out of five and summarised "Hostages Season 2 is a wasted effort. There are plenty of twists of turns, and if done well, the show could have been a binge-worthy, edge-of-the-seat thriller." Saraswati Datar of
The News Minute commented "
Hostages Season 2 has too many distractions and plot entanglements to keep us invested in the ‘hostages’ and their safety for 12 long episodes." Gauthaman Bhaskaran of
News18 gave two out of five and stated "
Hostages 2 seems stretched, with the rest of the story in not only as predictable, but has incidents that are uncomfortably distracting." Namrata Thakkar of
Rediff gave two-and-a-half out of five and commented "
Hostages 2 is not as crisp and engaging as season one. But the show is still worth watching once because of Ronit Roy and a few other fine performances."
Awards and nominations == See also ==