General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Hostages (2022 TV series)

Hostages is a four-part American documentary television series that examines the Iran hostage crisis of 1979–1981, produced for HBO Documentary Films by the production company Show of Force. It premiered on HBO on September 28, 2022, with the first two episodes airing back to back that night and the final two on September 29; all four episodes were made available on HBO Max on September 28.¹ The series combines never-before-seen archival footage with new interviews with former American hostages, Iranian student hostage-takers, diplomats, and journalists from both countries.¹

Key fact	Detail
Format	Four-part documentary series, about 60 minutes per episode¹^•²
Network and premiere	HBO, September 28, 2022 (two episodes), September 29, 2022 (two episodes); all four on HBO Max from September 28¹
Subject	The Iran hostage crisis: the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and the 444-day ordeal that followed¹
Directors	Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, Abbas Motlagh, and Sam Pollard¹
Episode titles	"The Peacock Throne", "Den of Spies", "The Sand Storm", "The Transaction"²
Reception	100% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (5 reviews); 7.9/10 on IMDb³^•⁴
Recognition	Nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary at the 44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards⁵

Spoilers

Subject and approach

The series covers the crisis that began on November 4, 1979, when Iranian student activists stormed the United States embassy in Tehran. According to HBO's press release, they took more than 60 Americans hostage; what was planned as a 48-hour sit-in protesting American imperialism became an international crisis and round-the-clock media event lasting 444 days.¹ Other accounts give the number of embassy personnel taken as 52: Realscreen describes 52 members of the embassy staff being held,⁶ and PBS's companion documentary Taken Hostage likewise states that 52 American diplomats, Marines, and civilians were held at the embassy.⁷

The series operates on two parallel timelines. One is a thriller-style account of the embassy occupation built from archival material and new interviews with the hostages, their captors, and former officials of both governments. The other is a historical chronicle of United States–Iran relations in the decades before the Iranian Revolution, including the CIA-sponsored 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and the American-backed reinstallation of the Shah's regime.⁶ HBO's description adds covert operations, oil deals, deposed leaders, revolutionary idealism, a lost presidency, and backdoor arms sales among the threads the series traces.¹

Episodes

The four episodes, each listed at 60 minutes, aired as follows:²

"The Peacock Throne" (September 28, 2022) traces how America and Iran moved from close allies to adversaries, as the American-backed Shah fled the revolution against his regime, Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power, and an Islamic theocracy was established; the U.S. embassy, seen by many as a symbol of American interference, came under threat.⁸
"Den of Spies" (September 28, 2022) covers the chaos of the crisis's first days and the motivations of the young revolutionaries who breached the embassy walls, a takeover that became a watershed of Khomeini's regime once he sanctioned it.⁸
"The Sand Storm" (September 29, 2022) follows the Carter administration's failed diplomacy and the initiation of Operation Eagle Claw, the rescue attempt that ended in disaster with eight American service members dead.⁸ RogerEbert.com's review adds that the April 1980 operation also cost the life of one Iranian civilian.⁹
"The Transaction" (September 29, 2022) depicts the stalemate a year into the siege as the 1980 presidential election approached; the hostages were released on the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration, and the episode raises lingering questions about the crisis's role in the election.¹

Interview subjects and production

The interviewees span both sides of the crisis. Former hostages include Al Golacinski, Kathryn Koob, Paul Lewis, John Limbert, Michael Metrinko, and Victor Tomseth. On the Iranian side, the series interviews student revolutionary hostage-takers Ebrahim Asgharzadeh and Massoumeh Ebtekar, who was the public face of the student group and later became the first female vice president of Iran since the revolution.¹^•¹⁰ Other subjects include Gary Sick of the National Security Council, Carter speechwriter Chris Matthews, former Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mansour Farhang, former Iranian government official Mohsen Sazegara, CBS White House correspondent Lesley Stahl, Shah spokesman Robert Armao, and former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr.¹

The series was directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, Abbas Motlagh, and Sam Pollard, with Saralena Weinfield as series producer and Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist, as consulting producer. Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Sara Rodriguez served as executive producers for HBO.¹

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the series holds a 100% Tomatometer from five professional reviews, with an audience score of 75%.³ Critics singled out its balance and comprehensiveness. Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter called it "thorough, balanced and provocative," and Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com, rating it 3 of 4 stars, described it as "a remarkably comprehensive study of the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979–1981" with revealing interviews from people on all sides; he noted that no project as comprehensive on the subject had preceded it, while observing that four hours was not quite enough to dig into the cultural, human rights, and political issues involved.⁸^•⁹ Brian Lowry of CNN highlighted how the crisis's ripples remained evident more than 40 years later.⁸

The series was nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary at the 44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards, credited to HBO Max and Show of Force.⁵

Availability and other series of the same name

In the United States the series streams on HBO Max and through the HBO Max Amazon Channel.⁴ The title Hostages has been used by several unrelated television works, including a 2013 American CBS drama starring Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott,¹¹ a 2024 Israeli documentary series directed by Duki Dror about five decades of Israeli hostage negotiations,¹² and the 2025 Netflix political thriller Hostage starring Suranne Jones.¹³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026