‘Snag’ faces down death daily

In his new action-comedy series Whiskey Cavalier, Scott Foley (Scandal )isabitofaSnag–a sensitive, new-age guy. He’s a man who isn’t afraid to express his feelings but as an FBI agent also isn’t afraid of facing down death daily.

Foley plays Will Chase, codename Whiskey Cavalier. Will’s ‘‘high emotional intelligence’’ and intuition is what makes him so good at his job but can also make him a liability.

Traditionally, Foley says, ‘‘the male action lead hero is always played as sort of devoid of emotion, very stoic and staid and for me it’s just not relatable. I wanted him to wear his heart on his sleeve.’’

If you think a sensitive government agent crying into a box of tissues while listening to the music of Bonnie Tyler sounds far-fetched, it might be closer to the truth than the portrayals we’re more familiar with. Foley’s character is loosely based on a real-life FBI agent, who is a friend of showrunner David Hemingson.

As a man with a gun who is always on the run, Foley’s job is very physical but he says playing such an active role is ‘‘a ton of fun for me’’.

While a stunt man is on hand, there are some scenes where Foley has no choice but to take one for the team or to the face.

‘‘There’s only so many things a stunt person can do because at a certain point you want to see my face, you want to see the character’s face get beat up,’’ he laughs.

The show has been described as ‘‘Moonlighting meets Cheers’’, and with good reason. Foley, who is also a producer, says that while the show has a modern setting it is inspired by TV from the 1980s.

‘‘We referenced a lot of influences when we were talking about this, from Moonlighting to Simon & Simon, Hart To Hart and Remington Steele and all those shows from the 80s that for whatever reason, network television stopped making.’’

And like so many of those 80s shows, a huge part of the appeal is the love/hate relationship between the leads. When Will runs into hard-nosed CIA agent Frankie Trowbridge, codename Fiery Tribune (Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead ) on assignment, the pair engage in a battle of wills and sparks soon fly between the rival bureaus.

That tension means romance feels inevitable but the question is – will they kiss or kill each other first?

But as history has shown, once lead characters come together it can often mean an end to that magical chemistry that kept audiences guessing. ‘‘That’s a concern,’’ admits Foley, who says they still haven’t decided just what form the relationship will take. ‘‘You don’t want to blow it too early so we are being very careful with that.’’ – TV Guide

Whiskey Cavalier is now screening on TVNZ OnDemand. New episodes drop at 10pm on Thursdays.