TV Heartbeat Review! NBC’s Crisis premieres on Sunday 3/16! Gillian Anderson! Dermot Mulroney! Protect your kids!

What happens when the children of some of the most powerful people in the country are kidnapped? That’s the crux of NBC’s new action drama starring Gillian Anderson, Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Taylor.

Terrorists take a busload of students hostage, but this isn’t an ordinary busload of kids. These are the kids of some of the most influential people in the country including the President of the United States, CEOs, diplomats, etc… Since the kidnappers circumvented the Secret Service to nab the kids, it looks like this may be an inside job.

(Cue the dramatic music!)

Under considerable pressure, the FBI assigns Agent Susie Dunn (Rachel Taylor of 666 Park Avenue and Transformers) and rookie Secret Service agent Marcus Finley (Lance Gross of House of Payne) to the case. This unusual cross-agency collaboration is because Finley is the only witness to the incident since he was on the President’s son security detail when he was nabbed. (Whoops!)

Instead of asking for a gigantic ransom for the kids, the bad guys use the kids as leverage against their powerful parents. Each episode tends to focus on one of the parents and whether or not they will comply with terrorists’ demands. Each demand results in another step forward for the kidnapper’s ultimate master plan.

As highly influential people, the parents themselves have secrets to hide as well. The kidnappers are particularly focused on Meg Fitch (Gillian Anderson), the CEO of a billion dollar corporation and the estranged sister of Agent Dunn. While the sisters haven’t spoken in some time, they will have to work together to help the FBI manage the alpha group of distressed parents and to bring home Meg’s daughter, Amber.

Gillian Anderson may be setting a record by starring in three current running TV shows: Hannibal (as Hannibal’s therapist Dr. Bedelia du Maurier), the British series The Fall (as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson in pursuit of a serial killer) and now Crisis. This time her character is a victim in the incident, so it’s great to see her playing a different sort of role. But she’s far from helpless as the CEO of a billion dollar corporation which attracts special interest from the kidnappers.

Eventually we may see the kidnapper’s plans for blackmailing POTUS, but for now they start with some of the other parents. Arnold Vosloo is another one of the parents, presumably the daddy and not The Mummy.

The kids also struggle to survive the ordeal and, perhaps, find their own way out of the mess. The terrorists, led by Koz (played by Max Martini of Pacific Rim), hold the hostages in an opulent old mansion. The two adult chaperons for the trip are also taken with the kids including Thomas Gibson (Dermot Mulroney) a mousy, former CIA desk jockey. Gibson isn’t a field guy so he’s not going to pull a John McClane and pull the kids out of the building. Also, he’s distracted since he’s trying to make amends with his rather petulant, fellow kidnappee daughter, Beth Ann (Stevie Lynn Jones). Beth Ann comes off as rather bratty since she is insecure about her value compared to other kids with more influential parents and we don’t know why she is so angry with her father.

Thankfully the other kids seems to be more level headed (so far), including Amber Fitch (Halston Sage) and First Son Kyle Devore (Adam Scott Miller).

Crisis is full of twist and turns, and you should *ahem* Trust No One. The first couple of episodes are well-paced by veteran director Philip Noyce (Revenge, Salt and Patriot Games) with a balance between the action and the complicated relationships. The key for this show is to make sure the twist and turns still make sense (and we don’t go into territory like CBS’ cancelled Hostages which made no sense after a few episodes) or that the kids don’t get super bratty (hello Revolution).

Crisis begins Sunday on NBC.