‘Parenthood’ Meets ‘Blue Bloods’ in Peter Krause’s Return to TV

Published Oct 7, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT

Taylor Vollman is a contributor at Collider. She has long quipped, “T.V. is my name, TV is my game.” Fortuitous initials aside, at the heart of a tired joke is a simple truth — she has a lifelong passion for television. And along with it, an affinity for movies, music and pop culture. 

In a childhood time capsule, she had listed Friends, PB&J Otter, and Days of Our Lives among her favorite shows. But her tastes have not narrowed with age. Her viewing habits span TV Land classics, network hits, buzzy reality shows and streamer critical darlings. 

Hoping to merge this passion with her love of writing, Taylor earned a bachelor’s in media arts and design with a minor in film studies from James Madison University. After working in marketing for years, she wanted to sharpen her skills and went on to graduate with a master’s in journalism from Georgetown University. Taylor has since pursued entertainment writing and reporting. 

Peter Krause has become one of the most reliable leading men on television, bouncing between critical darlings and long-running hits since the late ‘90s. He’s played sports anchors, dedicated family men, and con artists. The 61-year-old most recently starred as Bobby Nash, the beloved captain of the 118 firehouse on 9-1-1. His character’s tragic death after eight seasons sent shock waves through the Fox series.

After more than a decade, he has returned to NBC in its newest crime drama, Line of Fire. He plays the patriarch of the Hollingsworths, a family of federal agents. Krause last appeared on the network in Parenthood, which ended its six-season run in 2015. Line of Fire harkens back to Parenthood, appealing to fans of family dramas while mixing in the multi-generational call to duty seen in CBS’s Blue Bloods.

What Is ‘Line of Fire’ About?

Image: Courtesy of NBC

Line of Fire follows the Hollingsworths, a family of federal agents who find themselves caught in the crosshairs of an assassin. Krause stars as patriarch Mike, a Deputy Special Agent in Charge in the Secret Service who is on the brink of retirement. He and his estranged wife Jane (Hope Davis) share three children - Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Clare (Kat Cunning), Secret Service Agent Micah (Tommy O’Brien), and Department of Justice Analyst Russ (Taylor Bloom). As they’re warned in the premiere, “Someone’s been targeting high-ranking government agents,” with a member of the family believed to be an intended mark.

Krause praised showrunner Joshua Safran for his “tight” pilot script, telling TVInsider at the ATX TV festival, “There were a lot of twists and turns. I didn’t see a lot of the things coming.” Safran counts Quantico and Gossip Girl among his credits. Line of Fire premiered on September 21, earning 8.7 million viewers across platforms in its first week, according to The Wrap. Season 1 has earned an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Charlie Barnett also stars.

‘Line of Fire’ Is Essentially a Family Drama

Image via NBC

At its core, Line of Fire is a family drama — a genre with which Krause is all too familiar. Complicated family dynamics are well-tread territory for Krause, whose filmography includes Six Feet Under and Dirty Sexy Money. But it's Parenthood that’s most akin to Line of Fire. He starred as Adam, the oldest Braverman sibling and father of three, in NBC’s adaptation of the 1989 film. The series followed three generations of Bravermans as they balanced relationships, parenthood, careers, and health crises.

More than just the shared cast member, Line of Fire explores similar family dynamics as parents contend with their adult children. While the adult siblings in Line of Fire don’t have kids, they still fill similar archetypes — the workaholic, the loose cannon, and the golden child. In turn, Krause has stepped into the patriarch role held by Craig T. Nelson in Parenthood. And much like Nelson’s Zeek had relationship woes with his wife, Mike and Jane have a poorly defined relationship where they are separated but still maintain some affection.

Krause credits the relationships formed as part of the draw for a family drama. “Because you have these familial relationships of familiarity breeds contempt, right?” he told TVInsider. “I had a therapist who once said, because I was talking about my dad, ‘You know why your parents can push your button so well?’ And he said, ‘Because they installed it.’ But that is the fun of these kinds of shows is because then you can be open and be irritated and all that and feel sorry.”

The Hollingsworth Family Mix Their Personal and Professional Lives

Much of the Hollingsworth family’s tension comes from their inability to separate their personal and professional lives, like Clare and Jane clashing over a case’s jurisdiction, Micah squirming under Mike’s watchful eye, or Russ resisting the pressure to share Department of Justice files. This path has already been trod by the Reagans in CBS’s dynastic police procedural Blue Bloods and now its spinoff, Boston Blue. Though, set in Washington, D.C., they are more aptly spread throughout federal agencies rather than the New York Police Department.

And while Line of Fire is also a procedural, solving cases of the week in the face of an overarching mystery, it’s actually the series’ backstory that it borrows most liberally from. Frank Reagan’s (Tom Selleck) oldest son, Joe, dies in the line of duty ahead of the events in the series, with the Hollingsworths similarly marred by tragedy. Their family structure is also remarkably similar, down to only one daughter holding her own amid her brothers.

Line of Fire flips the script on life in the protective services, with the Hollingsworth family now facing a deadly threat. As executive producer Jenna Bush Hager asked on Today, “When you’re protecting other people, can you also protect the people that you love?” Borrowing from past hits like Parenthood and Blue Bloods, the series invites viewers who are fans of crime thrillers or domestic dramas. But it also invites them to question the safety of all involved when these genres collide. This marks Peter Krause’s return to television after leaving 9-1-1, with his Mike Hollingsworth following in the footsteps of other commanding patriarchs like Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan and Craig T. Nelson’s Zeek Braverman. Line of Fire airs Monday nights on NBC and is available to be streamed the next day on Peacock.