IF 14 seasons of Blue Bloods and its fledgling spin-off Boston Blue have left you craving more shows about law-enforcement families, Line Of Fire fits the bill nicely.
Not two, not three, but four different US federal agencies are involved in this sudsy and convoluted procedural-family drama hybrid: the Secret Service, the US Marshals, the FBI and the Justice Department.
Dad Mike Hollingsworth (Peter Krause, 9-1-1) is a senior Secret Service agent on the verge of retirement; his estranged wife Jane (Hope Davis, Your Honor, Wayward Pines) is a US Marshal; one son Mike Jr ((Tommy O'Brien) is also with the Secret Service; daughter Clare (Kat Cunning) is with the FBI; and rounding out the family is Russ (Taylor Bloom), an ex-Marine now with the Justice Dept.
By some quirk of fate (or maybe just sticky notes and different-coloured threads on the writers' room whiteboard), various family members and their agencies happen to get embroiled in the same cases almost each week.
Favours are called in, lines (and bosses) are crossed for the sake of family, we are treated time and again to examples of just how fractured the Hollingsworths are, and how (cue violins) their familial bonds get them over the rough spots week after week.
When they're not butting heads over whose case it is or fretting over kinfolk in peril, the Hollingsworths have a slew of overarching troubles to sort out. (It works best when there is less jurisdictional tussling, as in the sixth episode's hijacking plot that mostly involves just Jane and gives us Davis' standout moment thus far.)
First, a murder occurs in the family home (gasp) in the very first episode. It could be linked to a deep, dark secret that Mike and Jane have been keeping from the kids, and could wreck the family if it comes to light.
It also puts the whole family in the crosshairs of Nia Wallace (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy), a Homeland Security agent looking into the murders of federal agents.
There's also Clare's anguish over a former boyfriend and the lies he told, Mike Jr's trouble-courting romps with First Daughter Sydney (Savannah Lee Smith), Mike Sr's obsession with a failed assassination attempt on now ex-president Thomas Barnes (Sam Waterston, Law & Order), and Jane's uncertain relationship with US Senator Terry Cross (Campbell Scott).
Crowded house, packed agenda. It would be a bit too much to handle if not for the virtuoso orchestrations of creator/co-showrunner Joshua Safran and his crew.
Safran, a veteran of Gossip Girl (both iterations) and Quantico, puts his experience from those two seemingly disparate shows to effective use here, with Line Of Fire exhibiting a keen, near-unwavering balance between crime thriller and soapy drama, between the entertaining and the downright improbable (the less generous might say "ludicrous").
With just six episodes of the first season's planned 18 out at the time of writing, the show has more going for it than against.
It winks knowingly at current events, from the motive for the Barnes near-assassination to federal budget cuts that leave law enforcement high and dry at times – including placing Agent Wallace's team in a pretty dismal base of operations that leaves them vulnerable to the abovementioned dark secret.
Speaking of which, this is probably the most intriguing/confounding aspect of Line Of Fire so far. As played by Chicago Fire alumnus Charlie Barnett, Mr Long-Buried Secret keeps the viewer guessing as to his motives, regard for the Hollingsworths, and his readiness to murder.
Is he that evil? Or just well-intentioned but misunderstood, like the principal characters in The Acolyte, another show Barnett was in? Or are Safran and Co. just leading us down the garden path?
At least they're taking the scenic route, and the tour is ably led by Davis and Krause, the latter bringing eight years of goodwill as 9-1-1 team leader/wise leader Bobby Nash to bear on the audience.
If the kids do seem to be taking a while hitting their stride as characters, at least they haven't been write-offs from the start, and half the fun is watching them frequently dig themselves out from situations of their own making.
With the help of family, of course, and that's where Line Of Fire starts to help us recapture that Blue Bloods spark – in depicting the strengths of the ties that bind, even if they do stretch credibility. And in this ohana, no stone, however sappy or silly, is left unturned.
New episodes of Line Of Fire arrive on Tuesdays on HBO Max.
Summary:
And we thought Vision's house was messed up.
