“When ‘ER’ was done, I felt like I’d really accomplished something. It was an amazing eight years and I was ready for a new adventure, which included my family and taking time and moving… and it really, it took a while to recover from that,” the actor, who played Dr. Mark Greene on the long-running NBC primetime drama, said as he promoted his new show at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour 2013 in Pasadena, Calif.

“I also know that if I was going to come back to television, having done that, it would have to be something that was as exciting to me as [what] was going in there,” he continued. “And like all things in life, it was the surprise – [the executive producer] sent me the script and I could not put it down.”

The drama follows Hank Galliston (Anthony), a man who is quickly prompted to act after his wife is abducted not long after she buys a mysterious clock at a flea market. The show also has a backstory that involves, priests, Nazis, world-saving secrets and a baby – with white eyes.

“This is gonna really challenge and excite people, because they’re not laying it out simply,” Anthony continued of the show, which also stars Carmen Ejogo, as an FBI agent attempting to help him on his quest to find his wife, Laila Galliston (Jacinda Barrett). “It’s a complicated story.”

Anthony hopes viewers will be able to enjoy the show – and get into it – because his character comes in with no expert knowledge.

“Hank Galliston, what’s great about him is that he gets to be you, he gets to be the audience in a lot of ways. He gets to go on this journey, without knowing at all what’s going on,” the actor said. “He’s as bewildered at the beginning as I think the audience is.

“Every script has been a surprise and the journey that Hank’s going on is – he has no preconception of where he’s going to go,” Anthony added. “So where he ends up, hopefully, will be as fun for you as [it is for me] playing it.”

“Zero Hour” premieres on February 14 at 8 ET/PT on ABC.