Synopsis: An investigator and a special prosecutor investigate a series of racially charged shootings in a Tennessee town.
What You Need To Know: Aside from the occasional blip — “American Crime,” for instance — network TV mostly shies away from hot-button issues or bold ambition in their shows, but with ratings continuing to plummet, that’s starting to change, and Fox’s “Shots Fired” is the kind of show that even a big cable network would deem risky. Created, and set to be in part directed by, the great Gina Prince-Bythewood, writer-director of “Love & Basketball” and the wonderful, woefully underseen “Beyond The Lights,” it’s a highly topical thriller engaging with the issues that have reached a peak in the last few years involving violence towards African-Americans at the hands of police. “Ferguson: The TV Show,” essentially, and few filmmakers have shown such capacity for nuanced and whip-smart looks at racial issues identity in a commercial way as Prince-Bythewood. It’s already picked up to series by Fox, and has found a lead in the shape of the director’s “Love & Basketball” lead Sanaa Lathan.
Airdate: Network schedules are nebulous, but with the show being commissioned last month and being described as an “event series,” we imagine it’ll arrive in the summer.
