Line of Fire Runs the Risk of Giving 1 Character No Consistent Growth

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I want to like Line of Fire. There is a lot going on throughout the show to keep me intrigued, but three episodes in, I’m already spotting a glaring problem.

It’s a lack of consistent character growth for one particular character — and arguably, this character is the reason many people are tuning in to see. So, he needs to have growth from one episode to the next, rather than doing the yo-yo we’re seeing so far.

Mike Needs to Remember the Lessons on Line of Fire

During the pilot episode of Line of Fire*, Mike realized that his son was better at his job than Mike had ever given him credit for. Then, in the second episode, he went straight back to suspecting Micah of something. Then at the end of that episode, Mike gave Micah credit, only to go straight back to being hardest on Micah out of all of his children.

Clare took out files under Russell’s name, and then Russell joined in to help figure out clues in the case that he wasn’t supposed to be working on. What did Mike do? He helped!

Micah pointed out later that this is the father he wants. The man who can do the right thing and trust his children when it comes to it. And so, Mike, once again, gave his son credit where it was due.

Now, yes, Micah is hiding something from his father, but that’s got nothing to do with Mike not learning the lessons from one episode to the next. Why has he started all three episodes pushing Micah harder than his other three children? Why does he start off each of the episodes trying to teach Micah a lesson, only to realize that he’s schooling himself?

Line of Fire Threatens to Lose Viewers with the Annoying Character Trait

There are times when Mike is going to be right. However, character growth is one of the most important things in a TV show. We need to see that the characters are learning from their mistakes, and that means having an episode where Mike is completely behind his son from the start. It shouldn’t need some big speech from Micah about what he wants from his dad, and it shouldn’t take some threat against the President of the United States for Mike to see the work ethic his son has.

I could see him falling into old tricks later in the season, especially as he finds out that Micah has been dating the President’s daughter — whenever that comes out! However, there need to be a few episodes of consistent growth before that happens again. Otherwise, Mike might as well show that he’s an old dog who can’t be taught new tricks, and that makes you wonder how he rose so high up in the Secret Service.

Annoying character traits can be just as deadly for a show as poor writing and mystery development. Sure, an evil character is going to be unlikable, and the idea is for that villain to be written out after a season. That’s not the case with a character like Mike. It gets frustrating to watch, and it’s frustrating to see the other main characters deal with the same situation over and over again — and that does lead to bad writing.

Many 9-1-1 fans have tuned in because Peter Krause is the lead, but if he shows no sign of development, they’re going to tune out. Mike is nothing like Bobby Nash, and he never promised to be. However, Bobby was able to grow from the very first episode, and that’s what we need to see for Mike on Line of Fire.

Line of Fire* airs on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock.