NBC's 'Line of Fire' is what happens when you combine a procedural TV show with a soap opera

NEW YORK (AP) — If you like crime procedurals, TV creator Joshua Safran suggests you catch the new NBC show “Line of Fire.” If you’re more of a soap opera person, Safran urges you watch the new NBC show “Line of Fire.” The hybrid series features a family of law enforcement officers — one an FBI agent, one a U.S. marshal, two in the Secret Service and one in the Department of Justice — whose work and home life overlap dramatically. It sounds like what you get when “Quantico” is mixed with “Gossip Girl” and that’s not too far from what Safran has concocted.

He worked on both those series and has channeled them into a heady network mix. Plus, he’s added a little French farce. “You’re going to watch a case unfold every week by very capable people who are in an area or areas of law enforcement that you may have seen before, but you’re also going to go home with them and see how they take that work home with them, how it impacts their family life, how it impacts their relationships,” he says.

“Line of Fire,” debuting Monday, stars Peter Krause and Hope Davis as the on-again, off-again couple at the heart of the high-achieving, slightly dysfunctional Hollingsworth family. The fundamentals are not dissimilar to CBS’s long-running series “Blue Bloods,” about a multi-generational family of New York City cops and their assistant district attorney sister. But while the fictional Reagan family would do seemingly anything for one another, one of the Hollingsworth family’s three children describes them as “a family full of people who will stop at nothing to protect literal strangers but are unable to stop hurting each other.” An early scene in the pilot episodes shows mom demanding that her daughter introduce the family to her new boyfriend — while both women stand over a fresh crime scene with two corpses.

“I think it’s really hard these days to set boundaries, even when we do set aside time,” says Safran. “If you’re out with your partner, or you’re out with friends, the conversation really often tends to center around work because we’ve lost the art of going out and seeing where the night takes you or where the day takes you.” Each week will have its own case — pulling in two or more family members — while there are also long-term arcs, like questions around an old assassination attempt on the president and which killer is leaving little … Plus, he's added a little French farce.“You’re going to watch a case unfold every week by very capable people who are in an area or areas of law enforcement that you may have seen before, but you’re also going to go home with them and see how they take that work home with them, how it impacts their family life, how it impacts their relationships,” he says.Who stars and how does it work?“Line of Fire,” debuting Monday, stars Peter Krause and Hope Davis as the on-again, off-again couple at the heart of the high-achieving, slightly dysfunctional Hollingsworth family.The fundamentals are not dissimilar to CBS's long-running series “Blue Bloods,” about a multi-generational family of New York City cops and their assistant district attorney sister.