Too Close To Real

Have you ever watched a scripted tv show or movie and found yourself thinking "this is really close to how this really would be!" There are some stories that need to be like that. One series I recently saw was too close to real. That is exactly why it had to be aired. It shakes you to your core. I found myself saying "of course that happened, that's how it always happens for real!" multiple times. Maybe this is what we need to decrease these events from happening for real.

I had been really looking forward to a new show on CBS. The Red Line was about a white cop who kills an unarmed black man in a convenient store. It was as close to real stories I have read in the Washington Post and New York Times as possible! It follows the story of the police officer (Paul Evans) who killed the innocent man (Harrison Brennan). It also follows Harrison's husband and daughter, and Tia, the woman who is their daughter's birth mom. It's like a behind the scenes, "what happens after".

It takes place in Chicago and was named after the transit line that runs through Chicago. It was an eight episode series that aired two hours on Sunday nights for four weeks. It's now on demand and on CBS All Access.

CBS
https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-red-line/

IMDb for actor info
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9564862/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Line_(TV_series)


I spent most of the series experiencing various emotions. It was so powerful. Noah Wyle played Harrison's husband, Daniel Calder. He deserves multiple awards for that character! Throughout the series I just kept thinking "Paul Evans IS Darren Wilson!" Wilson was the police officer who killed Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. I don't know how accurate that comparison is. But, clearly the actor, Noel Fisher, was using him for inspiration.

Disclaimer:

In purple I am going to go into detail about the show. If you want to be surprised, skip the purple part.

In blue will be less revealing summaries. There is some overlap so pick a color and enjoy! 

Paul Evans spends the series imploding. He is surrounded by people telling him he didn't do anything wrong. Yet he questions that. His father is highly respected in the Chicago police force and his brother was shot in the line of duty. His long-time partner stole the security tape from the store that night. Because Paul shot without saying what police are supposed to say. His boss assigns him a new, latino partner for PR purposes. Diego Carranza is played by Sebastian Sozzi. He finds the tape of the security camera footage at the precinct and eventually decides to send it to Daniel. Daniel's teenage daughter records it and posts in online. His lowest point comes after that video goes viral. His dad is yelling at him and has a heart attack. Paul just lets him die. The grand jury doesn't convict and Paul is surprised. He realizes he is racist when he finally admits that he saw Harrison in the window and just knew he had the right guy because Harrison was black. So, he turns in his badge. He tells his brother he has to. He shouldn't be a cop because he is racist. It's the first smart decision he makes throughout the series. After, all the emotions from the year pour out of him. All of that could have been avoided, if he wasn't racist.

 The process Evans goes through is real. Denial of his racism. Those around him keep telling him he didn't do anything wrong. That's real. He implodes and just wants everything to be over. That's real. I have no idea if Noel Fisher is racist or not. But, even as I hate the character, you can't help but think "I wonder if he took this role because he wanted to teach cops about what happens when they are racist". Evans doesn't realize he is racist. It's not like if he had a black waiter he would assume they are a criminal. But, there was a call about a robbery and he assumed the black man he saw did it. It was just so real.

Harrison leaves behind his husband and his teenage daughter, Jira, played by Aliyah Royale. Daniel is in so much pain. He is also fighting the town. The thing he wants most is Paul Evans' badge. After the grand jury refuses to indict Evans, the city offers him a second settlement. He takes it. Daniel and Jira then go about using that to help those they have become close to. Daniel is close to a colleague named Liam. Vinny Chhibber plays Liam. I liked that after everything, Daniel moves on a year later and starts a romantic relationship with Liam. It had been a year. It was nice to see what happens after. Because you still have to put the pieces back together and figure out a future.

 Jira is struggling. This could be her someday. She leans on her two best friends, Riley and Matthew to get through it. When she decides she needs more family, she searches for her birth mother, Tia, who is running for alderman in a different part of Chicago. Jira is strong, vocal, intelligent, and searching for a role model who understands what it means to be black in a racist world.

Daniel and Jira fight the city as they mourn. They want Evans' badge. Why is that the one thing the city isn't offering? Because it's always what the family wants and it almost never happens. There are so many emotions. So much support from close friends. I am glad the show ends with showing where they are a year later. Through all of that Jira units with her birth mother, Tia, who is running for alderman in a different Chicago district, Slowly they become an unexpected family.

Tia, played by Emayatzy Corinealdi, was 15 when she had Jira. They originally say she met Harrison once, the day Jira was born. But, while we await the grand jury's decision, they show clips of Harrison's life. One of them is him meeting Tia when she was pregnant. To help her decide to choose him. He tells her she can do great things with her life. On the night he is killed, he sees her campaign announcement in the paper. She brings up what happened to Harrison many times in her speeches and uses it as an example why they have to train the Chicago police better.

It's a long uphill battle. She has the loving support of her husband, son, and sister. When Jira first reaches out, Tia isn't interested. As her husband and sister remind her, that could ruin her campaign. What it led to was popping celebratory champagne. She wins with a lot of help. She is one of the people Daniel and Jira donate to. After seeing Jira at a GLBTQ gala, she emails Jira with the news, I am your birth mother. They slowly meet a few times and eventually, the news breaks. But, the comfortable incumbent she is running against has used some dirty Chicago politics to get another kid to take the fall for something big an illegal his son did. With the donation from Daniel and Jira, she is able to get the evidence to prove that. Jira clearly inherited Tia's strength, intelligence, confidence, and fighting spirit.

Tia has an uphill campaign against a comfortable incumbent. What happens when news gets out that she is Jira's birth mother? She finds a way to win back support. Harrison is killed the day she announces her campaign. She carries that with her throughout the series. She brings it up all of the time an stresses the need to better train the police in how to not be racist. With the support of her family, she fights for those she feels are forgotten in the district with a long-time comfortable incumbent.  

When I read yet another article about an unarmed black guy getting shot and killed by a cop I always have one thought. "If he was a white guy, the officer would have aimed for a non-fatal part like the shoulder or knee caps." The argument they always use is "I thought my life was in danger so I did as I was trained and shot him." That is a giant load of elephant dung. Multiple times witnesses and sometimes videos show the black guy with his hands up. You aren't in danger then. Admit it, if that guy was white, you either wouldn't have shot him. Or, you would have aimed to wound not aimed to kill.

Most cops aren't racists. But, racist cops exist and we can't deny that. It is a good idea to better train officers to not be racist. The incident the show focuses on isn't black and white simple either. Like reality, there is more to it. A different black man does hold up the convenient store. Harrison is a doctor and was trying to help the employee after the real villain ran away.

Evans was responding to a robbery in progress. Because there had been a robbery in progress before he arrived. But, he didn't say "Stop, Police". He didn't give Harrison a chance to lift his hands and turn around. If he did, Evans would have searched Harrison, not found a gun, and everyone would have left that store alive.

Too close to real. It's too close to what really happens. Cops forgetting to vocalize "stop, police" or "police, freeze". Cops not giving the black guy time to lift their hands and turn around. Racist cops look for an excuse to shoot black guys. When they do, they aren't shooting the shoulder or knees which would hurt like the devil but leave the other guy alive. They shoot to kill. Assuming there is a threat without confirming first.

This show was too close to real to deny racist cops exist. It's not obvious Evans is racist. It's little things. That is true for most racist cops. It's why they don't realize they are racist. I would imagine the aftermath of a shooting like this looks a lot like this series. It was so powerful. It was so important. It was what this country badly needs right now.

It was too close to real to ignore.