Shots Fired

It's a fine drama, and Fox should be applauded for commissioning and airing this project.

A worthy and excellent new series that works as both a television drama and an interlocking array of engagements with some of the most thorny issues of our time. Shots Fired resists easy villains and simple answers, even as it knits its many pointed questions into an accessible narrative that is laudably brisk and generally efficient.

The focus just widens as the story goes on, which works in the short term because it gives us more of intriguing characters like Aisha Hinds’ Pastor Janae--but it also has the potential to end up with too many disparate storylines or just a tangled mess. Still, it’ll be worth sticking it out, because when it does manage to stay on course, Shots Fired is a pertinent and riveting drama.

Ambitious and intelligent, but also a sprawl that can’t quite master all the big themes and ideas.

More than halfway through, Shots Fired is still without any indictments while bobbing and weaving through various subplots. Still, it’s drama of a fairly high order.

Shots Fired tends to get preachy--watch for James’ speech in front of news TV cameras in the pilot that really sets the show in motion--but it sheds a bright light on what’s been playing across newspaper pages.

Fast-paced and trenchant, Shots Fired is a cynical snapshot of the American justice system in freefall.

Ham-fisted exposition and familiar melodrama abound, yet the excellent cast carries a story that slowly deepens, escalates, and truly explodes at midseason. [17/24 Mar 2017, p.90]

The strength of Shots Fired is in its willingness to pause the often dizzying pace of Preston and Terry’s investigation to let the more emotional human moments simmer. ... We only wish that naturalism was as evident in the writing, which, as the episodes unfold, introduces an unwieldy number of characters, witnesses, conspiracies, theories, and cover-ups.

Shots Fired is admirably ambitious and impeccably cast, if occasionally hampered by some overly conventional narrative choices.

The cast is great, the production values are high, the mysteries at its core are interesting, the social messages it’s playing with are important. If one wishes the overall picture was a little better, it’s only because of how much of this actually works.

Shots Fired is thoughtful and ambitious, but dutiful in a way that renders its social commentary less compelling than, say, that of “American Crime.”

The political story lines are weaker and a lot of the exposition is ham-handed. As racial tensions build in the town halfway through the season, the story becomes grand in scale but teeters with some of its provocative twists. Still, this is a drama with a broad curiosity, one that hears every character out but doesn’t confuse empathy with excuse-making.

The personal and the policy stuff don't always mesh perfectly, but if adding soap gets a few more people to open their minds, it will be worth it.

Shots Fired may lack the precision of its auteur-driven predecessors, but it’s taking its own path to starting a similar, vital discussion. That distinction alone is worth admiring.