NBC’s Line of Fire Turns a Family of Federal Agents Into Its Biggest Conflict

What happens when the people who are trained to protect everyone else cannot protect their own family? That is the question behind NBC’s new drama Line of Fire, which premiered on September 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Created by Joshua Safran, the series follows the Hollingsworths, a family whose members work across the FBI, US Marshals, Secret Service, and Department of Justice while their personal relationships continue to fall apart around them. 

Peter Krause and Hope Davis lead the cast, with the action set around Washington, D.C. The series streams on Peacock the day after its NBC broadcast. But beneath the assassins and federal cases, Line of Fire is really interested in a much more ordinary problem: what happens when your job follows you through the front door?

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A Family Where Everyone Knows How to Keep Secrets

Mike Hollingsworth, played by Krause, is a Secret Service agent approaching retirement. His estranged wife Jane, played by Davis, is a senior US Marshal. Their three adult children have followed similar paths. Clare works for the FBI, Micah is in the Secret Service, and Russ works for the Department of Justice.

That arrangement creates an unusual family problem. These are people professionally trained to observe, investigate, and withhold information, yet they are expected to maintain normal relationships with one another.

Krause described the show as “a family show with procedural elements”, rather than simply a crime drama. He said the Hollingsworths have unresolved issues that will pull them together and apart. The cases are not the only thing keeping the family together; their jobs are also the reason they struggle to communicate.

Why Joshua Safran Wanted the Family Behind the Badges

Safran, whose previous television work includes Gossip Girl and Quantico, has spent much of his career crafting dramas centred on complicated relationships. With Line of Fire, he wanted to take that idea into a world usually dominated by investigations.

The creator told The Independent that he had always been interested in what happens to procedural characters when they go home. In shows such as Law & Order or the Chicago franchise, audiences mostly see investigators doing their jobs. Safran wanted to explore what those characters are like away from the office.

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