Spoilers ahead for Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot.”
NBC’s new crime drama Line of Fire wastes little time establishing that this isn’t going to be a conventional procedural.
Yes, there’s a murder investigation. Yes, there are federal agents, surveillance, weapons and a growing conspiracy. But the real hook is the Hollingsworth family itself — a complicated collection of law-enforcement professionals whose personal relationships are just as volatile as the cases they investigate.
The September 21 premiere introduces that family while simultaneously dropping a mystery involving a double homicide, a missing family member and a secret that threatens to blow apart everything the Hollingsworths thought they knew.
It’s ambitious, occasionally overstuffed television, but there’s enough here to make the series worth watching.
Peter Krause Finds a Very Different Role
Peter Krause leads the series as Mike Hollingsworth, a veteran Secret Service agent and the patriarch of the family.
Mike is methodical, intimidating and deeply invested in his work. Unlike Krause’s previous network role on 9-1-1, Mike isn’t defined primarily by his compassion. He’s a man who has spent years operating in environments where hesitation can get people killed.
That mentality carries over into his family life.
Mike doesn’t always know how to separate being a federal agent from being a father.
Krause plays that contradiction well. There is an unmistakable authority to Mike, but there is also an emotional distance that suggests his professional instincts have come at a personal cost.
The premiere doesn’t try to make Mike immediately likable.
Instead, it makes him interesting.
And that’s the better choice.
Hope Davis Is Equally Strong
Hope Davis gives the premiere another strong anchor as Jane Hollingsworth, Mike’s estranged wife and a U.S. Marshal.
Jane and Mike may no longer be together in the traditional sense, but the emotional connection between them clearly hasn’t disappeared.
Their relationship is complicated, sometimes awkward and occasionally surprisingly intimate.
Davis gives Jane a toughness that never overwhelms her vulnerability. She’s an accomplished law-enforcement officer, but she’s also a mother trying to navigate a family where nearly everyone seems to be carrying a secret.
The dynamic between Jane and Mike may ultimately become one of the show’s most important relationships.
They understand each other professionally.
Personally, they’re a mess.
That’s good television.
The Hollingsworth Children Give the Series Its Emotional Core
The premiere succeeds because the younger Hollingsworths don’t feel like extensions of their parents.
Clare, Micah and Russ each have their own problems, ambitions and secrets.
Kat Cunning’s Clare is particularly compelling.
She’s an FBI agent who is clearly comfortable working a case but less comfortable dealing with the expectations surrounding her family. Her professional relationship with Jane also creates an interesting mother-daughter rivalry.
Clare isn’t simply trying to prove that she’s capable.
She’s trying to establish an identity that belongs to her.
Micah, meanwhile, finds himself involved in a potentially dangerous relationship with the president’s daughter. That storyline immediately creates a conflict between his personal life and the security responsibilities surrounding his family.
And then there’s Russ, the youngest sibling, who appears to have something to prove.
The premiere doesn’t fully develop every character, but it gives each one enough personality to make their future storylines worth following.
The Murder Mystery Keeps Getting Darker
The central investigation begins with a double homicide involving a U.S. Marshal.
At first, it looks like another dangerous case for the Hollingsworth family.
Then the connections begin to pile up.
The investigation brings Jane and Clare into conflict as the FBI and U.S. Marshals approach the case from different directions. Their professional competition adds tension without completely overwhelming the family story.
But the real mystery is what happened to Jack.
The show gradually reveals that Jack isn’t simply another name in the Hollingsworth family’s history.
He’s connected to the family in a much more significant way.
And the revelation near the end of the episode changes the entire context of what we’ve been watching.
The Pilot’s Biggest Twist
The episode’s final act is where Line of Fire makes its biggest gamble.
Jack — played by Charlie Barnett — turns out to be the Hollingsworth son everyone believed was dead.
That revelation is followed by an even more shocking development involving Clare’s boyfriend, Logan.
What initially looks like a romantic subplot suddenly becomes part of the larger conspiracy.
Jack confronts Logan, and Logan is killed.
The sequence raises far more questions than it answers.
Why was Jack believed to be dead?
Why has he been operating in secret?
What does he know about the murders?
And why was Logan involved?
These questions give the show a serialized mystery that extends beyond the individual cases.
The twist is undeniably dramatic, although some viewers may find it a little too convenient. The pilot is already juggling several storylines, and the Jack reveal pushes the series firmly into conspiracy-thriller territory.
Where Line of Fire Works Best
The strongest aspect of the premiere is the family dynamic.
The procedural elements are solid, but the show becomes more interesting when the Hollingsworths are simply talking to one another.
Their family dinner scenes are particularly effective because everyone seems to be operating with a different agenda.
They love each other.
They frustrate each other.
They compete with each other.
And, most importantly, they know exactly which buttons to push.
That gives the show a natural rhythm that separates it from a standard law-enforcement procedural.
The series is essentially asking what happens when an entire family has chosen careers built around secrecy, danger and control.
The answer is: family gatherings become another battlefield.
Where the Premiere Struggles
The biggest weakness is also the show’s biggest ambition.
There is a lot going on.
The double homicide, the federal-agency rivalry, Mike and Jane’s relationship, Micah’s romance, Clare’s personal life, the mystery surrounding Jack and the larger conspiracy are all introduced within the first hour.
Some of these threads work better than others.
The procedural investigation occasionally feels secondary to the family drama, while the family drama sometimes gets interrupted by another plot development.
And the Jack twist is intentionally huge, but it risks making the series feel more melodramatic than grounded.
That said, the pilot clearly wants to be a hybrid rather than a traditional procedural. Reviews have similarly noted that the series combines a conspiracy thriller, episodic crime cases and dysfunctional-family drama.
Final Verdict
The first episode of Line of Fire is an ambitious introduction to a series that clearly wants to be more than another crime procedural.
Peter Krause and Hope Davis immediately give the show credibility, while the younger cast provides enough personality to keep the family drama from becoming background noise.
The murder investigation is intriguing, but the real reason to come back is the Hollingsworth family.
They’re professionally trained to uncover secrets.
Unfortunately for them, they’re also very good at keeping secrets from each other.
The Jack revelation gives the series a strong serialized hook heading into Episode 2, even if the twist pushes the show toward soapier territory than some viewers may expect.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Episode Scorecard
- Best Performance: Peter Krause
- Best Supporting Performance: Hope Davis
- Best Character: Clare Hollingsworth
- Best Storyline: The Hollingsworth family mystery
- Biggest Twist: Jack’s return
- Most Intriguing Relationship: Mike and Jane
- Biggest Question: Why did the Hollingsworth family believe Jack was dead?
- Best Reason to Watch Episode 2: The fallout from Jack’s return and Logan’s death
