New series FBI the latest venture by uber producer Dick Wolf,
TV producer Dick Wolf takes us into agency to ‘change some perceptions’
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is in crisis.
The vaunted agency has been called an “embarrassment to the country” by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Over the course of Trump’s term, the former director of the agency James Comey and its deputy director Andrew McCabe have been ousted. Distractions such as texts between agents who turned out to be lovers have not burnished the reputation of the bureau’s 14,000 agents. Now comes CBS and uber producer Dick Wolf with a new series FBI, to belatedly attempt to bring back the halo to the U.S.’s domestic intelligence service.
“I think that people will realize once again that these people wake up every morning to protect us, no matter what the political climate is out there,” says Zeeko Zaki (a veteran of
NCIS: Los Angeles) who stars along with Canadian Missy Peregrym ( Rookie Blue) as special agents in the FBI’s New York office. “I think this show will make kids want to be FBI agents again. I think people of colour will see themselves in the show.”
The new show by Wolf, the prolific creator of the Law &
Order ( Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury, LA, True Crime and the upcoming Hate
Crimes) and Chicago television franchises ( Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Justice), is not a reboot of the old FBI series that aired from 1965 to 1974, was produced by Quinn Martin and starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The new series airs Sept. 25 on Global.
“It’s almost impossible to do a remake. Because the FBI today is nothing like the FBI back then,” says Zaki. “And I think that’s the point.”
The difference starts with the casting. Zaki’s character Omar Adom Zidan is, like Zaki, an American Egyptian. Zidan grew up in Queens, N.Y., andjust happens to be an FBI agent during a time when Muslim Americans have been under greater scrutiny ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “He’s just a guy trying to do good by his people, his family, his culture, his colleagues,” says Zaki. “We’re also trying to show the climate of what’s going on in the world today. That stuff exists in my life and it exists in the world outside and hopefully we get to change some perceptions.”
There is one cutting scene in the first episode in which a white nationalist treats Zidan with utter contempt and disdain that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s reality.
“That’s the climate that is going on in the world today. That’s the dark reality of how a white nationalist would probably be treating me,” says Zaki. “And that’s exactly the point.”
The show starts off literally, with a bang, as an apartment building is eliminated in the first scene with some impressive special effects.
“The rest of the series takes place in a car because we’ve literally blown the budget,” jokes Zaki, crediting the show with “trying to make an impression.”
Apart from the first half, the premiere is a slow-moving, at times uninvolving affair. There isn’t a lot of chemistry between Zaki and Peregrym, a Montreal native perhaps best known as the star of Rookie Blue, the Toronto-filmed series that ran for six seasons on Global and ABC.
In the first episode, you’ll also see Connie Nielsen (whom you’ll remember from the films Wonder Woman and Gladiator) who appears as a “special agent in charge.” She has been replaced with TV veteran Sela Ward ( CSI:NY).
One thing that was important for Zaki: He managed to visit the actual New York office of the FBI and talk with some of the agents, which he says gave him a new understanding.
“It was a big eye-opener for me. The agency does reflect the diversity of the country. Before I started I thought the FBI was just a bunch of white guys, but the reality is that it’s people of many colours and races and they are changing. And hopefully we will show that onscreen.”