TV Corner: “APB” on FOX Network

The premise of the FOX network new drama “APB” is that a hard-charging tech billionaire turns a high-crime urban police precinct into a revamped, privately-financed police force armed with the best technology money can buy.

Of course, this being television, you would expect this new police procedural to be a product of wildly speculative fiction.  Surprisingly, it is inspired by events that occurred in New Orleans.

Producer Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”) told the winter gathering of the nation’s TV critics that “APB” was fact-based by what happened when “a wealthy individual paid for a small police force to help patrol the streets of New Orleans and actually did end up solving a problem there.”

Even more interesting than the TV show is the New York Times Magazine article “Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans?” authored by David Amsden, which recounts how rich entrepreneur Sidney Torres persuaded the city to let him create his own high-tech police force.

The article hones in on the New Orleans police department’s inability to protect an upscale neighborhood less than a square mile in size. As a result, the entrepreneur’s private patrol of the French Quarter Task Force came into existence.

“APB” is set in the fictional 13th District of Chicago. The parallels between the authentic New Orleans and the fictional Chicago are stark and foreboding. Today’s Chicago is reeling under a homicide rate that is wildly out of control.

It’s no longer a stretch of fiction to suggest that sky-high crime, officer-involved shootings, cover-ups and corruption have rendered the over-extended and under-funded Chicago Police Department into an institution under siege.

Enter the brash, confident billionaire engineer Gideon Reeves (Justin Kirk) to confront intransigent Mayor Michael Salgado (Nestor Serrano) and clueless aldermen about the sad state of policing affairs after witnessing his best friend being gunned down in a drugstore.

Reeves makes an offer to the city that only deep pockets can buy and that a police union may be too impotent to stop.

He takes charge of the troubled 13th District and reboots it as a technically innovative police force, with everything from drones and fancy tasers to supercharged police cruisers and crime apps. 

Naturally, it’s not all smooth sailing for this super-rich interloper who meets resistance from beat cops and old timers.

But he does find his match in street-smart cop Theresa Murphy (Natalie Martinez) who’s willing to give him a chance, even as she educates him on real police work.

“APB” seems to lack the gritty toughness of NBC’S “Chicago P.D.” and the more brutal aspects of a few police shows on CBS, but the FOX concept is at least worthy of giving a chance if for no other reason than Justin Kirk’s Gideon Reeves is fascinating to watch in action.

TV Corner: ‘24: Legacy’ on FOX Network

Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is no longer around to step into a new “24” franchise, but that’s not stopping FOX from returning to familiar ground in the new drama series “24: Legacy,” with the clock once again ticking in real time hourly increments.

The Jack Bauer role of a terrorist fighter now falls to Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), a former member of an elite squad of Army Rangers first seen as living in federal witness protection with his wife Nicole (Anna Diop).

Having been the leader of the team that killed terrorist mastermind Sheik Ibrahim Bin-Khalid in Yemen, Carter and his squad are targeted for assassination. An attempt on his life suggests that there is a mole within the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) once in the capable hands of Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto).

Former CTU director Ingram has been sidelined because she’s helping her husband, Sen. John Donovan (Jimmy Smits) in his presidential campaign. But now, Carter needs her help to thwart further attacks that seem so likely from the Sheik’s radical Middle Eastern cohorts.

Carter discovers that he and Ben Grimes (Charlie Hofheimer), an unstable drifter coping with addictions, are the only members of the elite squad still alive and being pursued by attackers apparently more interested in retrieving a stolen strong box.

Much like its predecessor “24,” which had a long run, “24: Legacy” thrives on running several story threads, often overlapping or seeping into auxiliary plot lines, to the point that the show commands your attention to details.

Former CTU director Ingraham, who had guided Carter and his fellow Rangers on the Yemen mission, is now juggling politics while trying to keep Carter out of harm’s way and at the same time to keep her successor (Teddy Sears), an officious bureaucrat, from mucking up covert actions.

Another story touches upon a high school girl from Chechnya who just might be the link to a sleeper cell. The least compelling storyline might be how Carter had to leave his wife in the temporary care of his drug lord older brother (Ashley Thomas).

What matters most to fans of the “24” franchise, if indeed “Legacy” is a continuation of it, is that Corey Hawkins’ soldier has the smarts and tenacity to carry on the Bauer tradition of hunting down bad guys. You may have to tune in for a few episodes to see for sure.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.