THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

(FEB. 19 ON ABC; STREAM ON HULU)

A conman named Charlie (Milo Ventimiglia) meets undercover CIA agent Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) in a bar and even though they spend a passionate night together, neither reveals their true identities—national security on her part, personal security on his.

The series, based on the Korean show My Fellow Citizens!, attracted Ventimiglia, because the role of Charlie was so different than that of Jack in This is Us. It was also appealing because the story is played out on the greater stage of D.C. politics, law enforcement, the CIA, international drug syndicates—and getting into bed with them and realizing you don’t want to be there, he has said. Ventimiglia began filming the pilot only two weeks after This is Us wrapped.

“It wasn’t so much getting away from Jack, as it was that it let me stretch into something new creatively,” said Ventimiglia, 45. “[Executive producer] Julia Cohen had developed this character that I understood, but I was also still very intrigued by. I knew how he moved. I knew how he talked. I knew how he had to fold into place as a conman. But at the same time, there was a lot that I needed to find in him through his romantic relationship with Emma and through his dynamic with his family. He was born into a family of grifters. This wasn’t the life that he chose. It chose him. And he’s really, really great at it.”

Even so, the two, who fall in love, are on a collision course as Emma closes in on the vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in hand—forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves from disastrous consequences.

“[Despite the collision course], when you have this undeniable connection and love and foundation of who they truly are and who they truly deserve to be with, there’s the complication where the honesty— which takes a while to get to—hopefully is something that will put them closer together,” Ventimiglia said.