New series is thoughtful but veers towards procedural
SHOTS Fired isn’t the first television show to examine our conversations about police violence and racial division, but it might be the small screen’s most deliberate effort.
The 10-hour limited series, which premièred yesterday on Fox in the US, follows the aftermath of two racially charged police shootings in a small North Carolina town. Created by husband-wife team Gina PrinceBythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood, Shots Fired demands a delicate balance between serious subject matter and entertaining twists that keep viewers tuning in every week.
The drama begins when Joshua Beck (Tristan Wilds), a baby-faced sheriff ’s deputy, fatally shoots a white unarmed college student. Beck, the only black officer in the Gate Station police department, had been on patrol in an impoverished, predominantly black neighbourhood and says the student, Jesse Carr, reached for his firearm after he stopped him on suspicion of dealing or buying drugs.
The Department of Justice sends in special prosecutor Preston Terry (Stephan James) and cop-turned-investigator Ashe Akino (Sanaa Lathan) to scrutinise the shooting. Both Terry and Akino are black.
As they navigate their new surroundings, they discover that a black teenager named Joey Campbell had been killed weeks earlier, but his death has drawn little attention outside his community, where people believe he was killed by the cops.
Their investigation – and the mystery at the centre of the show – deepens when Akino and Terry identify a possible link between the two cases.
Shots Fired is thoughtful and ambitious, but dutiful in a way that renders its social commentary less compelling than, say, that of American Crime. For three seasons, ABC’s anthology series has tackled various facets of social injustice, and its success lies in its ability to explore the aspirations, fears and internal conflicts of the people involved. Shots Fired has tender, complex moments but too often veers toward the procedural, with a dash of soap suds thrown in.
Lathan, who starred in PrinceBythewood’s 2000 film Love & Basketball, and James lead a talented ensemble cast that features Helen Hunt, Richard Dreyfuss, Stephen Moyer, Jill Hennessy and Dennis Haysbert. The acting is top-notch.
Akino has anger issues that exacerbate a custody war with her ex. Terry can’t compete with his NFL star brother when it comes to their sports-obsessed father (Haysbert). He also begins a questionable relationship. The show unnecessarily establishes a will-they-won’t-they tension between Akino and Terry.
Shots Fired is well versed in the Black Lives Matter movement and the legacy of injustice that inspired it. The series invokes the deaths of unarmed black men, women and children – Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and so many others – but also asks us to consider the implications of private prisons, mass incarceration, poverty, inequality in education and lack of diversity in police departments.
How heavy the show’s hand feels probably depends on where you stand on the issues. Shots Fired reflects an increasingly relevant question faced by television viewers: How much do we want our entertainment to resemble real life? How much is too much?
The answer is different for everyone. Shots Fired opens with a stirring theme song that asks: “Where do we go from here?” Six episodes in, I’m not sure the show can answer that question. But it may be a start. – The Washington Post