Entertainment

Jon Hamm’s New True Crime Series Officially Defeats Titus Welliver’s ‘Bosch’ Replacement

Published

2 hours ago

on

It’s the season of crime on streaming, with the recently released Unabomber movie jumping to the top of the Netflix viewership charts. Meanwhile, the latest seasons of Guy Ritchie‘s The Gentlemen and MobLand are enjoying continued success on their respective platforms, while another face-off unfolds on MGM+. The Westies, a crime drama series headlined by J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver, had been enjoying relative freedom for the past several weeks, facing competition only in the form of the sci-fi series From. More recently, however, a new crime series has offered a fresh challenge to The Westies, replacing it as the number-one series domestically on MGM+.

The new show is a limited series based on a popular podcast; both the source material and the TV spin-off are fronted by Jon Hamm. The show appears to be following in the footsteps of Ryan Murphy‘s popular anthology series American Crime Story, American Horror Story, and American Sports Story. Based on a real incident from the 1970s, the new series follows the standoff between a disgruntled man and the authorities after he takes a mortgage broker hostage following a dispute. The hostage taker, played by Giovanni Ribisi, demands to be interviewed by a radio host played by Hamm.











Advertisement









Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz
Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis?
Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Advertisement

Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.

🍷Lecter

🃏Joker

♟️Moriarty

🪙Chigurh

Advertisement

01

Advertisement

What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first?
Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.




02

Advertisement

How do they make first contact?
The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.




03

Advertisement

What do you actually believe about right and wrong?
Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.




04

Advertisement

What finally gets under your skin?
Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.




05

Advertisement

They have made their move. How do you fight back?
This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.




06

Advertisement

What would they use against you?
A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.




07

Advertisement

What do they actually want from you?
The money is never the point. Something else always is.




08

Advertisement

How does it end between the two of you?
Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.




The Case File Is Complete
Your Nemesis Is…
Advertisement

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.


The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002

Advertisement
Hannibal Lecter

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.

  • Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
    never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
  • You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
    is exactly the door he would knock on.
  • The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
    It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
  • He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.


Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019

Advertisement
The Joker

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

  • The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
    against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
  • He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
    you would normally reach for.
  • His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
    the rest of your life proving him wrong.
  • He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.


Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893

Advertisement
Moriarty

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

  • Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
    a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
  • You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
    has already built the room.
  • This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
    the game to be worth playing.
  • It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.


No Country for Old Men · 2007

Advertisement
Anton Chigurh

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

  • Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
    answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
  • You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
    interest in how capable you are.
  • No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
    quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
  • Call it. He will wait.

Advertisement

Titus Welliver and Jon Hamm Worked Together on a Crime Classic

The series in question is American Hostage, and according to FlixPatrol, it’s now the most-watched title on the MGM+ charts. Also featuring Mireille Enos, the series has aired three episodes so far, and has pushed The Westies down the leaderboard. American Hostage now holds a stellar 93% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with Collider’s Meredith Loftus describing it in her review as “a crime thriller you don’t want to sleep on.” Meanwhile, The Westies appears to have settled at a 78% score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “What The Westies lacks in originality, it makes up for with a sturdy crime story, compelling characters, and a cast that knows how to handle the genre.” Incidentally, Hamm and Welliver played pivotal supporting roles in Ben Affleck‘s critically acclaimed heist movie The Town, which was released in 2010. Recently, Hamm has been acclaimed for his central performance in Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors, while Welliver has become a household name thanks to Prime Video’s Bosch, which could be eyeing a return. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


Advertisement


Advertisement

Release Date

September 20, 2026

Network

MGM+

Advertisement

Directors

Adam Arkin

Advertisement

Writers

Abby St. Clair, Eileen Myers, Shawn Ryan

Advertisement

Advertisement


Advertisement

Source link

Advertisement
Related Topics:

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Trending

Exit mobile version