''Crisis'' is an American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

thriller

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series that was aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from March 16 to June 22, 2014 as part of the

2013–14 United States network television schedule The 2013–14 network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial List of United States over-the-air television networks, broadcast networks in the United States covers primetime hours from September 2013 to August 2014. Th ...

and the mid-season entry. The series was created by

Rand Ravich Rand Ravich is a film and television director, writer, and producer. He wrote and directed the 1999 science fiction thriller ''The Astronaut's Wife'', starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron. He was a producer on the film '' Confessions of a D ...

for

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. The series stars Dermot Mulroney, Rachael Taylor, Lance Gross, James Lafferty, Max Martini, Michael Beach, Stevie Lynn Jones, Halston Sage, Max Schneider, Joshua Erenberg, and Gillian Anderson. ''Crisis'' premiered on March 16, 2014. On May 9, 2014, midway through its first season, NBC canceled ''Crisis''. The network broadcast the remaining episodes starting May 25, with the two-hour series finale airing on June 22.

Premise

During a school trip, students of Ballard High School, attended by the children of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

's elite, including the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

's son, are the victims of an ambush. A national crisis begins and

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

agent Marcus Finley finds himself at the center of it on his first day on the job.

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

agent Susie Dunn also discovers her "niece", the daughter of CEO Meg Fitch, is among the kidnapped children.

Cast

Main

Dermot Mulroney Dermot Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in romantic comedy, western, and drama films. Appearing on screen since 1986, he is known for his work in various films such as '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' Stay ...

as Francis Gibson, an ex-CIA analyst who was betrayed by the government *

Rachael Taylor Rachael May Taylor (born 11 July 1984) is an Australian actress and model. Her first lead role was in the Australian series ''headLand'' (2005–2006). She then made the transition to Hollywood, appearing in films including ''Man-Thing'' (2005 ...

Special Agent Susie Dunn *

Lance Gross Lance Darnell Kwaku Gross (born July 8, 1981) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Calvin Payne on the TBS sitcom '' Tyler Perry's House of Payne'' and OWN sitcom '' Tyler Perry's The Paynes''., as well as appearing in other Ty ...

Special Agent Marcus Finley, a rookie who was betrayed by his partner *

James Lafferty James Martin Lafferty (born July 25, 1985) is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Nathan Scott on The WB/ CW teen drama television series ''One Tree Hill'' (2003–2012). Early life Lafferty was born ...

as Mr. Nash, teacher at Ballard High School *

Max Martini Maximilian Carlo Martini (born December 11, 1969) is an American actor, writer, and director known for his roles as Corporal Fred Henderson in ''Saving Private Ryan'', Wiley in '' Level 9'', First Sergeant Sid Wojo in ''The Great Raid'', and as ...

as Koz, a mercenary hired by Gibson *

Michael Beach Michael Anthony Beach (born October 30, 1963) is an American actor. He has appeared in films '' Lean on Me'' (1989), ''One False Move'' (1992), ''Short Cuts'' (1993), ''Waiting to Exhale'' (1995), ''A Family Thing'' (1996), ''Soul Food'' (1997), ...

as William Olsen,

Director of the FBI The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States' federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a singl ...

* Stevie Lynn Jones as Beth Ann Gibson, the daughter of Francis, with whom she has a strained relationship *

Halston Sage Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s. His minimalist, clean designs, often made of cashmere or ultrasuede, were ...

as Amber Fitch, Susie's biological daughter but raised by Meg as her own *

Max Schneider Maxwell George Schneider (born June 21, 1992), also known by his mononym MAX, is an American singer-songwriter, actor and model, signed to Arista and Sony RED. In 2018, MAX's single " Lights Down Low" went double platinum in the US, Platinum i ...

as Ian Martinez, Beth's best friend *

Gillian Anderson Gillian Leigh Anderson ( ; born August 9, 1968) is an American actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series ''The X-Files'', ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies's film ''The House of Mirth'' ...

as Meg Fitch, the CEO of an international IT company and Susie's older sister

Recurring

* David Andrews as

Special Agent Hurst, head of the White House protective detail. He was working for Gibson under duress, until being shot and killed by Kyle DeVore, who believed that Hurst had betrayed him. *

John Allen Nelson John Allen Nelson is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles on television as Warren Lockridge on '' Santa Barbara'', John D. Cort on '' Baywatch'', Walt Cummings in '' 24'' and Silas Bunch in ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''. ...

DeVore *

David Chisum David Chisum (born February 5, 1970) is an American actor. He portrayed Miles Laurence on the ABC Daytime soap opera ''One Life to Live'' from February 9, 2007, to April 22, 2008. Chisum and Rebecca Staab starred in eight 35-second webisodes airing ...

as Noah Fitch, husband of Meg Fitch * Adam Scott Miller as Kyle DeVore, the president's teenage son * Brandon Ruiter as Luke Putnam, one of the teenagers abducted and Kyle's friend * Shavon Kirksey as Sloan Yarrow, another of the abducted teenagers and Amber's best friend * Rammel Chan as Jin Liao, one of the teenagers who believes Kyle is the reason for everyone being kidnapped * Jessica Dean Turner as Dutton, a Communications Gunwoman and

Maryland State Police The Maryland State Police (MSP), officially the Maryland Department of State Police (MDSP), is the official state police force of the U.S. state of Maryland. The Maryland State Police is headquartered at 1201 Reisterstown Road in the Pikesville ...

officer working for Gibson * Mark Valley as Gabe Widener,

Director of the CIA The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office () that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community. Beginning February 2017, the D ...

* Rod Hallett as Dr. Jonas Clarenbach, a scientist who once worked in the pharmaceuticals division at Meg's company, and is also Meg's former lover * Joshua Erenberg as Anton Roth, an advanced student from the school who is saved from the initial ambush by Agent Finley * John Henry Canavan as Morgan Roth, a scientist and father to Anton Roth

Development and production

bought

's script with a

put pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

commitment in August 2012. In January 2013, NBC

green-lit To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...

the production of a pilot episode. Scenes of Ballard High School were filmed at

Northside College Prep Northside College Preparatory High School (commonly referred to as Northside College Prep, Northside Prep, NCP, or simply Northside) is a public 4-year selective enrollment high school located in the North Park neighborhood on the north side of ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. On May 12, 2013, the series was placed on the network's 2013–14 schedule. It premiered on March 16, 2014. On November 1, 2013, after filming was completed for the sixth episode, production of the series was put on an unscheduled, week-long hiatus. The pause in production was attributed to fears that subsequent episodes were veering too far away from the tone of the pilot, which received very positive early reviews. The break was supposed to be used to give writers time to re-work scripts and to re-shoot certain scenes for previously finished episodes. Filming later resumed.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

''Crisis'' scored 63 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

based on 28 "generally favorable" reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it was given a score of 61% based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. Alessandra Stanley of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

gave it a positive review. Stanley wrote: "The pilot is terrific" and suggested that the series could be a new " 24" but that "a series centered on a busload of kidnapped students and their fate, dragged out week after week, could easily try viewers' patience." Tim Goodman of

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

gave it a negative review, calling it "as flat as any recent thriller on network television--actually more so. There’s barely an ounce of believability in it. The casting seems woeful and the acting isn’t going to get you to the second hour."

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crisis (Tv Series) 2014 American television series debuts 2010s American drama television series 2014 American television series endings American action television series 2010s American mystery television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television shows set in Chicago Television shows set in Washington, D.C. Television shows set in Maryland Television shows set in Virginia Terrorism in television American thriller television series