After '9-1-1,' Peter Krause's Newest NBC Action Thriller Is a Twisty, Soapy Blast | Review

Published Sep 21, 2026, 11:01 PM EDT

Therese Lacson is a Senior TV Editor who has been with Collider since 2021. She got started in this business over ten years ago working primarily as an interviewer and critic. At Collider, she works closely with the features team to support the writers and also ideates and develops content daily. She has covered major industry events including Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Toronto International Film Festival, and San Diego Comic-Con. Although she reviews and covers both film and television, her focus is in television and her expertise is in fantasy and sci-fi genre shows. Her favorite shows to cover include House of the Dragon, Bridgerton, Fallout, 9-1-1, and Rivals. 

Editor's Note: The following review contains some spoilers for the pilot of 'Line of Fire'.

When Peter Krause's Bobby Nash died in Season 8 of 9-1-1, it was a devastating blow for fans of the ABC hit procedural series. Not only did it mean that Krause would no longer be on the show, but the series fundamentally changed after that point. But now, a year later, Krause is back on our TV screens. This time, he's not suiting up in a firefighter's uniform but in a Secret Service suit and tie for Line of Fire. The family procedural drama also doubles as a bit of a spy thriller as it puts the Hollingsworths, a family of law enforcement agents, into the center of a conspiracy that will keep audiences locked in for the long haul.

'Line of Fire' Takes a Messy Family and Puts Them Into Law Enforcement

Image via NBC

Line of Fire kicks off on a momentous day in Mike Hollingsworth's (Krause) life, the day of his retirement. As he prepares for his last day at work, the rest of his family are chugging along at their own jobs. His wife, who he is separated from (kind of), Jane (Hope Davis), is a Deputy U.S. Marshal investigating the death of a fellow marshal alongside her daughter, FBI Special Agent Clare Hollingsworth (Kat Cunning). His youngest son Russ (Taylor Bloom) is headed to a new desk job at the Department of Justice, while his older son Micah (Tommy O'Brien) can't wait to be free of his dad as a special agent also working in the Secret Service. As wild as the concept is — and unrealistic given how often Clare and Jane seem to work together — it makes for an exciting TV series as we follow the Hollingsworths through the upper echelons of law enforcement.

Unlike some police procedurals which might drop you in the streets of New York City or Chicago with detectives working homicide cases, Line of Fire's focus is both narrower and more expansive. Due to their high positions in the various departments of the government, the types of cases that the Hollingsworths are privy to extend far beyond your run-of-the-mill crime. However, considering how much ground there is to cover when it comes to their jobs, the series really uses their occupations more as a vehicle for drama and a strong gimmick to sell the show. The Hollingsworths give the impression of the prototypical American family, a patriotic group of public servants working hard to protect their country. However, that often just feels like the glossy veneer that the show operates behind in order to fuel its more soapy drama.

Despite the Procedural Action, 'Line of Fire' Has Elements of a Soap Opera

Among all the plots and subplots, the one storyline that feels the most to only exists on TV is probably the secret romance between Micah and his protectee, the daughter of the president, Sydney (Savannah Lee Smith). While the rest of the family is seemingly dealing with secret agents and deep conspiracies, Micah's problems are decidedly more pedestrian. It feels slightly out of place but adds the type of romantic drama that is normally injected into a procedural to draw in part of its audience. At the same time, Jane and Mike also have a little bit of an affair bubbling between the two of them, despite the fact that they are separated and Jane is apparently dating someone on the side.

On top of all of that is the constant push and pull between the parents and the kids, specifically when it comes to Clare and her boyfriend Logan (Pico Alexander), who she's terrified of introducing to her judgmental family. The kids all have their own dysfunctional relationship with their parents. Clare thinks Jane would have preferred it if she followed in her mother's footsteps to go into the Marshals, while Micah can't wait to be freed from his father's watchful eye. Russ, who is already suspected at work because of his connection to his family, simply wants to be trusted and not considered a potential leak because of who his father is. While Line of Fire has the potential to be far larger than just a network show, the bones of a procedural are still there, and that's where the lion's share of the drama and family dynamic lies.

'Line of Fire' Kicks Off a Surprising Twist That Keeps Us Hooked

Image via NBC

What actually sets Line of Fire apart and makes it worth coming back to is the eleventh-hour plot twist at the end of the pilot episode. For much of the pilot episode, the scuttlebutt in the family revolves around the fact that Clare won't let her family meet Logan. The episode reaches a climax when Logan comes over for dinner, and it ends disastrously when the topic of Jack (Charlie Barnett) comes up. Jack was Mike's son from his first marriage. Clare, Micah, and Russ believe he killed himself five years ago after coming back from Afghanistan, haunted by the atrocities of war. Photos in the house have him removed from family pictures, the Hollingsworths barely mention him, and it seems to be a sore subject even years after his suicide.

However, the twist comes when we see Logan return to the Hollingsworth house and is met by his neighbor, Joel. Except it turns out Joel is actually Jack, and when Logan pulls back one of the family photos to reveal his neighbor BFF is the one hidden from view, Jack is quick to dispatch Logan, leaving him dead on the living room floor. The death shatters Clare, who got into a fight with Logan before he left the family dinner. But what's more shocking is the fact that Mike and Jane seemingly know that Jack is alive and working on a case deep undercover. Logan's death puts a pause on Mike's retirement as Homeland Security Detective Nia Wallace (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy) steps in to investigate the case of the murder. It's a twist on par with The Blacklist and makes the show worth tuning back into.

However, one potential problem remains. The fact is, Line of Fire is still a procedural. And anyone will tell you that a good procedural lives and dies on its ability to both maintain its case-of-the-week formula while balancing it with a greater overall season plot. It's a sweet spot that Line of Fire will have to find, but not an impossible one, as shows have done it before and gone on to prosper with multiple seasons. But there is a part of me that feels like it's a shame that this is a network procedural at all, as Line of Fire has all the makings of a serialized prestige miniseries, but perhaps that's what will make the show withstand the test of time.

Cast

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  Mike Thornhill

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  Joan

A family of law enforcement officials combine forces across their various departments, breaking necessary rules to investigate a growing conspiracy.

Pros & Cons

• The pilot delivers on a smashing twist that is intriguing enough to keep audiences coming back.
• The family dynamic has the potential to offer a lot of new storylines intermingling the multiple departments of the government.
• The Jack storyline adds an element of espionage that increases the tension of the episode.

• Some of the storylines, while juicy, dip too far into the land of soap for the main storyline, creating a bit of a dissonance.
• The family's foothold in the upper echelons of law enforcement feels deeply unrealistic considering how incestuous it can be at times.