Actor Tate Donovan poses on the red carpet at the gala for the movie "Argo" during the 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012. When TV star Donovan read the suspenseful script for his new series "Hostages," he felt the same vibe he got when he worked on the edge-of-your-set legal drama "Damages." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - When TV star Tate Donovan read the suspenseful script for his new series "Hostages," he felt the same vibe he got when he worked on the edge-of-your-set legal drama "Damages."

"I was like, 'Oh my God, this is a page-turner. This is so good,'" he said in a recent interview. "I was so curious, 'How are they going to turn this into a television show?'

"Because it doesn't feel like a television show to me. It seems pretty unusual for network television: It doesn't wrap things up nicely at the end, the characters are shades of grey, everyone is sort of not really what they seem."

Debuting Monday on CTV and CBS, "Hostages" stars Oscar-nominated Toni Collette as Dr. Ellen Sanders, a surgeon whose family is held captive in their home by rogue FBI agent Duncan Carlisle, played by Dylan McDermott.

Duncan wants Ellen to assassinate the president (James Naughton) when she operates on him, and she and her family have to go about their daily lives pretending everything is fine. Donovan plays Ellen's husband, while Quinn Shephard and Mateus Ward play their children.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose storied resume includes the "CSI" franchise and "The Amazing Race," is also behind the show that's based on an Israeli series.

"It's very unusual for a Bruckheimer television show," said Donovan, a New York native who played troubled dad Jimmy Cooper on "The O.C."

"It's not like your average Bruckheimer show where it's this procedural and things are wrapped up. This is kind of a departure for them, which is exciting."

The debut season will have 15 episodes, each of which will represent a day in the story that spans two weeks.

"That's one of the things that drew me to it, is that I don't know — and I think that even the producers and the writers aren't exactly sure — how they're going to get themselves out of this sort of hole that they've dug themselves into," Donovan said earlier this summer after shooting the pilot.

"But to me, that's very exciting, because I worked on the show 'Damages' for a long time and that's how every episode of 'Damages' was. They just wrote themselves into these holes and ... we were just like, 'How are you going to do this?' It was very exciting to be a part of it."

Donovan predicted Collette's character would suffer from Stockholm syndrome, and he revealed his character is "definitely not the best husband on the planet."

"But I think that everybody in the family sort of has a secret that the hostage situation sort of exposes and ... by the end of the series, this family, even though it's been through this traumatic, terrible experience, is actually healthier because of it."

Donovan has performed on TV since he was a teen and said he loves the medium, especially now that he's had a chance to direct on series including "Damages" and "The O.C."

"It's a great sense of family that you don't get when you're making a film."

Still, Donovan has done some big-screen projects, including last year's best-picture Oscar winner "Argo," which was produced by his old pals George Clooney and Grant Heslov.

The three go way back to their post-college days, when Donovan once rented Clooney's apartment while the now-two-time Oscar winner was off doing a play.

"I met George through Grant," said Donovan. "I went to college with Grant and then we became roommates after college. Grant used to play basketball with George, and so every weekend we'd all play basketball together, for years and years and years — until our bodies gave out. At least my body gave out."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2013