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cover story ‘Lowe’n Star State New ‘9-1-1’ spinoff takes on Texas By Breanna Henry TV Media T he first-responder series “9- 1-1” is currently Fox’s high- est-rated drama, so it stands to reason that it should get its own spinoff. Set in Austin, Texas, “9-1-1: Lone Star” has all the makings of a majorly successful second installment: a talented, high-profile cast, fantastic source material, eye- catching artistic direction and a compelling jumping-off point for the storyline. The brand- new series premieres Sunday, Jan. 19, on Fox. “Lone Star” is centered around a character named Owen Strand, who is played by former Brat Packer Rob Lowe (“Code Black”). You can think of him as a variation of “9-1- 1’s” Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), only shorter, a little older and with a more chiselled jawline. Nearly 20 years before “9-1-1: Lone Star” opens, Owen worked as a firefighter in Manhattan during the harrowing events of 9/11, which took the lives of ev- ery member of his firehouse but him. The lone survivor, he spent the next decade rebuilding his team from the ground up, and this unenviable entry on Capt. Owen Strand’s resume makes him uniquely qualified for a job in Texas at Firehouse 126. Tragically, the 126 received a rescue call, and much like Strand’s Manhattan team, the result was the devastating loss of all of the responders but one. The parallel tragedies set the stage for “9-1-1: Lone Star,” and act as the catalyst for Strand’s move from the Big Apple to the Lone Star State. There is a stereotype about close-knit teams of first re- sponders, specifically police and firefighters: they don’t like outsiders. This is true in “9-1-1: Lone Star,” too, as Owen Strand is met with a prickly chief para- medic Michelle Watts (Liv Tyler, “Harlots”) and Firehouse 126’s 2 | Screentime sole survivor, Judd Ryder (Jim Parrack, “The Deuce”). Watts is a genius and Judd is a cowboy, but both of them seem to agree that the aforementioned ste- reotype holds true. The cast is rounded out by Strand’s troubled son, T.K. (Ronen Rubenstein, “Dead of Summer”), officer Carlos Reyes (Rafael Silva, “Fluidity” 2019) and the captain’s hand-picked team of firefighters. The “Fine ... but I get to pick my team” trope is a classic part of a mod- ern hero’s journey, and Owen uses it well, selecting devout Muslim Marjan Marwani (Na- tacha Karam, “The Brave”), the adrenaline junkie, Paul Strick- land (Brian Michael Smith, “The L Word: Generation Q”), a transgender firefighter with enough brains for the whole house, and Mateo Chavez (Ju- lian Works, “American Crime”), who has no known qualities yet, because no team is com- plete without someone every- one else can call “rookie.” Setting the series in Austin, and Texas in general, creates room for some distinctly south- ern emergencies that would seem out of place in Los Ange- les, where the parent series is set. The show’s trailer includes a rampaging rodeo bull, for ex- ample. Another small blessing “9-1-1: Lone Star” appears to be offering viewers is a lack of terrible Texas accents. In fact, the only team member (so far) who is meant to be from Texas is actually played by an actor from Texas (Parrack). Though the cast hails from all over — from Michigan to Rehovot, Israel — the series is set up so that the main character’s dic- tion and dialogue won’t leave you needing to suspend your disbelief when you hear a New Yorker like Tyler attempting a natural “y’all.” Part of what makes the 9-1-1 series special is the way it seamlessly weaves comedy into a drama that, on January 15, 2020 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald Liv Tyler as seen in “9-1-1: Lone Star” the surface, has absolutely These people risk their lives no business being light and for strangers on a daily basis, funny. However, everyone who often exhausting and some- knows (or is) a police officer, times traumatizing themselves firefighter, paramedic, nurse for the sake of people they or any one of the real-life don’t even know. If they want superhero professions knows to pretend to hit a hole-in-one that this kind of work has two with a recently amputated leg, hidden requirements: an iron then I say swing away (that stomach and a pitch-black particular story comes from my sense of humor. aunt, a psychiatric ER nurse who chuckled along with the paramedics when that quirky event played out). A bit of hu- mor goes a long way towards keeping the terrors at bay, and fun comraderie on the job can keep a first responder sane. In a sneak peek of the up- coming series, Lowe said, “To bring to life these characters, who are based on people who are actually out in the trenches saving lives every single day, is a profound honor for me.” You can catch Lowe and the rest of the “9-1-1: Lone Star” cast in the series premiere, which airs on Sunday, Jan. 19, on Fox. So far, everything points to the suc- cess of this new offering, and the first episode is sure to leave y’all commin’ back now, y’hear?
