Every day, I miss Scandal.
Shonda Rhimes perfected the complex blend of classy and certifiably bats--t television with that show, and then poured it into one of Olivia Pope’s bathtub-sized wine glasses for us to savor alongside Kerry Washington.
The highest compliment I can give the new NBC drama Line of Fire is that it joins Netflix’s The Diplomat—returning soon!—as the closest series to delivering those Scandal vibes that I’ve so missed. Let’s say, to continue the labored wine metaphor, it’s got a sensationalist Scandal body with Gossip Girl-forward notes on the nose. (I don’t know. I don’t describe wines. I just drink them.)
Line of Fire is a juicy entry in the world of broadcast dramas, which have seen this genre of pulpy family thrillers cede the way to network schedules more overflowing with procedurals than most city precincts have cases.
It has my favorite kind of premise: laughably ridiculous, yet somehow so believable that it’s surprising this plot hasn’t existed on TV before.
All of the Hollingsworths are in the family business. It just so happens that they’re all in territorial, often warring branches of the family business.
Mike (Peter Krause) is a Deputy Special Agent in Charge in the Secret Service. Jane (Hope Davis) is a U.S. Marshall. They’ve been estranged for years but never divorced—and, as the series quickly reveals, still sleep together.
Their daughter, Clare (Kat Cunning), is a special agent in the FBI, which puts her in repeated turf wars with her mom as their agencies battle over jurisdiction and strategy. The oldest son, Micah (Tommy O’Brien), is a Secret Service agent assigned to the president’s daughter, so he begrudgingly works under his father’s watchful eye. And the youngest, Russ (Taylor Bloom), just started a new job as an analyst for the Department of Justice after finishing service in the Marines.
The show does quick work establishing this tangled knot of federal responsibilities and ensuing familial resentment/ribbing; the exasperation and teasing happen simultaneously.
There are cases that “you know I can’t talk about,” just as often as there are favors called in from other family members’ departments to skirt bureaucratic red tape and expedite each person’s own triumph. (That’s the thing about the Hollingsworths: Each one is incredible at their jobs.)
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