NBC's 'Line of Fire' Is, Surprisingly, a Jaw-Dropper

Typically, I wouldn’t get too excited about an NBC police drama, because outside of Will Trent, it’s procedural cop shows as far as the eye can see. Line of Fire comes from Joshua Safran, one of the creators behind Quantico, Smash, and Gossip Girl — an interesting combination, but not necessarily a reason to seek out Line of Fire on its own.

I watched because Peter Krause was cast, and Krause has a tremendously good track record (notwithstanding the entertaining but wildly dumb 9-1-1) — and because Hope Davis gives it a little extra credibility. Still, I had my doubts, which were exacerbated by an otherwise fairly generic supporting cast.

But then they killed off Anna Chlumsky’s character in the cold open, and I thought, “OK. I’m listening.” It’s not exactly Drew Barrymore in Scream, but for network television? Killing off the star of My Girl and Veep in the first five minutes (and not bringing her back in flashbacks) is ballsy.

I was even more impressed by what followed. It’s not exactly The Pitt or Widow’s Bay, but it does deftly combine the high-stakes intrigue of Quantico with the soapy drama of Gossip Girl. It packages all of this as a family mystery, except the entire family is in law enforcement.

Krause plays Mike Hollingsworth, a Supervisory Special Agent in the Secret Service who is days away from retirement but still obsessed with a past assassination attempt on the President. His son, Russ (Taylor Bloom), is starting a new job as an analyst at the DOJ. Meanwhile, his other son, Micah, also works for the Secret Service and is assigned to the First Daughter, with whom he is sleeping. Mike’s estranged wife, Jane (Hope Davis), is a Deputy U.S. Marshal, and their daughter, Clare (Kat Cunning), is an FBI Special Agent brought in by Jane to investigate the murder of Chlumsky’s marshal character.

So, there’s clearly a procedural element — here, Clare steps in to help her mother solve the murder. But there’s also a compelling family dynamic: the sons live in Mike’s long shadow, the daughter’s form of rebellion is joining the FBI instead of the Marshals, and there’s a fourth son who supposedly took his own life after a traumatic tour in Afghanistan.

After a family dinner — where Clare introduces her new boyfriend and things go completely pear-shaped — there’s a surprise reveal whose full implications have yet to play out. But I am sold enough to stick around for a few more episodes to see if it lives up to the pilot, which works largely on the strength of its dysfunctional family dynamics. Everyone is a fed, everyone is obsessed with their job, and they all work in different divisions. Oh, and the estranged husband and wife — who no longer live together — are still sleeping together, despite Jane having a huzz played by Campbell Scott.

There’s a lot going on, a lot to unpack, and Peter Krause is still Peter Krause: the charming father figure whose slightest note of disapproval can sting, but whose approval can make your heart soar. He brings a distinct Coach Taylor energy — you definitely want to stay on his good side. But he might also be a little compromised, considering he’s willing to risk his own son’s brand-new job just to get intel on that assassination attempt.

The point is: for network television, it’s riveting. Against top-tier streaming fare, it might be mid-tier with real potential, depending on where that fourth-son storyline goes. Or maybe Joshua Safran just wrote a really good pilot and the wheels will fall off by episode three. But that final scene did make my jaw drop, so I’m definitely sticking around to find out because there’s more character development in the opening episode than an entire season of a Harlan Coben series.