Take a busload of overprivileged high school kids – including the son of the president of the United States – their powerful and entitled parents, a heroic rookie Secret Service agent, an FBI agent with a dark secret and a shadowy terrorist organization, and you have the makings of NBC’s “Crisis,” premiering Sunday night at 10 p.m.
If it sounds a little bit like the premise of CBS’s “Hostages,” well, this one has a much better chance of making it.
What gives the new drama even more gravitas is Gillian Anderson, in her first US television role since “The X-Files” wrapped in 2002. Anderson plays a CEO of a high tech company whose daughter is on the bus. She’s also the estranged sister of the FBI agent, played by Rachael Taylor.
Anderson has been busy on the other side of the pond, appearing in the acclaimed BBC series “The Fall,” in which she plays a detective brought in to solve a series of murders in Belfast.
But back to Washington DC, where “Crisis” is set. The story opens with a nervous parent being forced to take an action that looks like it will put the kidnapped students in further danger. As they are held in captivity, loyalties fray and new alliances are formed as these private school overachievers are held captive.
The endgame is not clear, the kidnappers’ motives are fuzzy as well. What we do know is that one of the girl’s dads, played by Dermot Mulroney, was a chaperone on what was to be a field trip for the students. No spoilers here, but his character veers off in a completely different direction than he first portrays.
Another plot twist comes between Anderson and Taylor, who both need each other to cooperate in order to save the students. Both seem to have oversized egos, both have different realms of power that intersect in the personage of one of the students.
The action moves back and forth between the captives and the world outside where the crisis has almost immediately garnered wall-to-wall media coverage.
Oh, and did we mention that one of the kids gets away, with the help of the Secret Service agent? Without giving too much else away, seeing Anderson in action in again is more than enough reason to watch.
(“Crisis” airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on NBC.)
