Crossing Lines

I absolutely love this show. I love that it takes place in Europe with team members from different countries who speak languages other than English. I always love Donald Sutherland and hope that his presence in the series can be increased. I was a bit disappointed at hearing everything in English. As an American living in Europe I hear different languages all the time. However, for example, when a German person speaks with a German person, they do not speak in English. I know that Americans are not accustomed to reading sub-titles, but I would give this series a 10 if this had happened. It's an NBC production. Perhaps if it were a cable production, the extra time and expense for subtitling and speaking in like languages would have been permitted. Still, I love the show. Hoping for more of the same.

Like the other reviewer, I stumbled across this series by accident when I was looking through the ratings and didn't know what this show was about. Recognizing several actors I enjoy watching, I decided to look it up and found it buried on NBC's website. The synopsis looked interesting and follows similar crime dramas we also enjoy and felt to me like a Criminal Minds Europe type of show.

We watched the first two episodes and thoroughly enjoyed them. It had a Spooks feel (MI-5 to US folks), Criminal Minds and a bit of Law and Order mixed in with a lot of suspense, action and a few twists. It has a great cast and I'm not bothered by its size. It's a very cerebral show that gets you thinking and I do hope it lasts the 10 episodes its scheduled for to see how it plays out. Given the poor quality of shows available for viewing this summer, this is a breath of fresh air.

Shame on NBC though for keeping this jewel hidden... a little bit of marketing and it could be owning its time slot easily.

Crossing Lines is a smartly written, cleverly acted and well produced drama about an international crime fighting unit that investigates multi-national (hence the name: Crossing the "boundary" lines of EC countries) high end and highly sophisticated crimes. The characters are intriguing yet follow similar patterns found in shows like CSI and Criminal Minds: aloof male leader (king archetype), warrior, princess and magician (computer genius) archetype as well.

The show's writers and producers have created some interesting twists in the first several episodes in terms of the main character's back stories and developing relationships with in the ICC unit. In addition, the crimes themselves are fresh and do not follow typical "clean all wrapped up nicely endings" often associated with other high end crime dramas on television.

The dialog is smart and treats the audience as viewers with a brain and soul in that there is plenty of passion and cognitive material to digest in each episode.

The writer's plot twists are risky and make watching the show intense since you are never quit sure where the producers will take the characters and story lines.

This is one show worth watching in my opinion and I am surprised at the negative reviews that are rubbishing it. It is obviously not technical enough for those reviewers. I find William Fichtner character very likable and I also like the way he goes about his work. He is a really good detective who thinks outside the box. Nothing seems to get in his way and even if it is a bit unbelievable that he gets to solve every crime in record time, it is still entertaining. The supporting cast is also excellent,i For this show to be successful, I do believe it will need to take on more interesting dark themes or it runs the risk of becoming a run-of-the-mill forensics series like Law and Order or Kojack...no knock on these shows.....

Crossing Lines follows the cases of a special crime solving task force of police officers from all over the EU on loan to the ICC who specialize in cross boarder crimes in the EU. The show not only follows the cases but also the personal lives and inner turmoil of our group of characters.

Crossing Lines at first glance may seem like "just another" police procedural, but thanks to some solid acting and writing it manages to elevate itself and stand out from the crowded field. Former NYPD officer Carl Hickman played character actor William Fictner serves as an anchor for the team with his concealed inner pain from a case left unresolved serving as a great springboard for character scenes. The show also has other well developed characters such as Marc Lavoine's Louis Daniel, Tom Wlaschiha's Sebastian Berger, and Donald Southerlands' Mikael Dorn. Every character serves a purpose and thanks to its longer running time in comparison to American police procedural we learn a lot more about the characters.

And then season 3 happened. Not that season 3 was bad by any stretch, but the fact it cast away much of the cast with the exception Wlaschiha and Sutherland left me personally with a lack of investment as 70% of the team was comprised of characters who I didn't know and had no investment in.

Crossing Lines is an above average police procedural with some intriguing cases and good characters, I only wish they'd had better retention for their cast.