# On Call (TV series)

On Call is an American police procedural and serial drama streaming television series created by Tim Walsh and Elliot Wolf that premiered on Prime Video on January 9, 2025. Originally set up at IMDb TV, eight episodes of the series were officially ordered in April 2023. It is the first series from producer Dick Wolf to be set in a half-hour format, with the running time being 24 minutes per episode.

## Premise

The series follows Long Beach Police Department veteran training officer Traci Harmon and her rookie partner Alex Diaz as they respond to emergency calls on the streets of Long Beach, California while also navigating the fallout of the loss of a fellow officer.

## Cast
### Main

* Troian Bellisario as Officer Traci Harmon
* Brandon Larracuente as Officer Alex Diaz

### Recurring

* Eriq LaSalle as Sergeant Lasman
* Lori Loughlin as Lieutenant Bishop
* Rich Ting as Detective Sergeant Tyson Koyama
* Lobo Sebastian as Smokey

### Notable guest

* Monica Raymund as Officer Maria Delgado

## Production

The series was announced by IMDB TV (now known as Amazon Freevee) in May 2021, with Dick Wolf said to be executive producing the series and with digital company ATTN: producing the show. The production companies come on board are Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television. This would mark Dick Wolf's first-ever streaming order. The following month, it was announced Ben Watkins would serve as showrunner and an executive producer on the series alongside Elliot Wolf. In April 2023, It was announced that Troian Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente had been cast as the leads. It was also announced in the same month that Eriq LaSalle who also directed episodes 1, 2, 5 and 6 of the series, and Peter Jankowski joined as executive producers. In October 2024, it was announced that Eriq LaSalle, Lori Loughlin and Rich Ting had been cast in the series. Additionally, the series was announced to be moving from Amazon Freevee to Amazon Prime Video and given a season order of eight half-hour episodes.
Production of the series was put on a hiatus in May 2023 due to picketing during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
| 1 | "Pilot" | Eriq LaSalle | Tim Walsh & Elliot Wolf | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| In Long Beach, Officer Maria Delgado is shot while performing a traffic stop. The car flees and Delgado dies in the street. Rookies Holt and Alex Diaz report for their first day as patrol officers. Diaz is paired with Officer Traci Harmon. Lieutenant Bishop informs Harmon, Diaz, Holt, Sergeant Lasman, and other officers that Eddie Watson has been identified as Delgado's shooter and that Juan Cortez was driving the vehicle. Bishop also says Watson uses the alias "Maniac" and that they are part of a street gang called East Barrio. It is believed they fled because they were trafficking drugs. Harmon gives Diaz a Get Out of Jail Free card. When the two respond to a domestic dispute; Harmon threatens the abuser, which is captured on Diaz's body cam. They receive a radio call that a Mustang with ties to East Barrio has been spotted. Harmon locates the vehicle and gets into a high-speed pursuit. After it crashes, Maniac runs on foot and Diaz disobeys an order by pursuing him. Diaz loses him and is reprimanded by Harmon. Harmon is also chastised by Bishop. Harmon admits to Diaz that Delgado was one of her trainees. |||||
| 2 | "Laws of the Universe" | Eriq LaSalle | Tim Walsh & Elliot Wolf | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| Harmon and Diaz are dispatched to a street takeover where Officer Rolland is assaulted. Lasman and Harmon disagree on the best way to handle the situation. Diaz is irritated that he wasn't permitted to chase the instigator; Harmon takes him to where Delgado was murdered as a lesson over safety. The two are called to a homicide at a homeless encampment where a decapitated head was found. One of the residents tells Harmon that "the Sherriff" was recently spotted there and is looking for her. Diaz and Holt search a backpack two residents were fighting over, finding a hand that has a tattoo associated with East Barrio. Harmon and Diaz back up Detective Sergeant Tyson Koyama, who found a rival gang vehicle transporting drugs. One of the occupants says that East Barrio has vanished after Delgado's murder. At the end of shift, Harmon tells Diaz that he is better than his brother, who is in prison for armed robbery. Bishop informs Harmon that the hand was identified as belonging to Cortez, but that Maniac is still missing. Lasman asks Diaz if he witnessed Harmon threaten a suspect, showing him body cam footage from the domestic dispute; Diaz refuses to answer. |||||
| 3 | "South of Heaven" | Brenna Malloy | Molly Manning | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| Harmon, Diaz, Holt, and Barlowe, Holt's training officer, pursue a suspect accused of robbing a 7-Eleven with a hatchet. Diaz rescues a bystander who was pushed over the edge of an elevated walkway but his service weapon falls to the ground below. Holt later returns Diaz's weapon and suggests he leaves it out of his report; warning him that Harmon can't be trusted because several officers, including Lasman's former partner, were fired because of her actions. Diaz questions Harmon about this allegation but she gets defensive. Harmon later believes that this conversation with Diaz is affecting his training. Koyama tells Harmon that he wants her to take an open spot in his unit, but she doubts her transfer will get approved. He also says that detectives believe Maniac has fled to Mexico. Harmon visits Smokey, a local bar owner with ties to East Barrio. Their conversation leads her to believe that Maniac is still in Long Beach. Harmon and Diaz return to the homeless encampment when a woman is accused of torching area vehicles. While Diaz and Holt search the camp, Holt accidentally gets stabbed with a needle and overdoses, causing Diaz to give him Narcan. |||||
| 4 | "Unsung" | Brenna Malloy | Bryan Gracia | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| Holt takes an extended leave after receiving medical treatment. As Harmon and Diaz get to know each other, she tells him that her sister used to be a cop, but moved to Los Angeles after an injury on the job. Following Delgado's funeral, Harmon and Diaz respond to a dispute at a motel. One of the suspects tells Harmon that members of East Barrio had been partying there the night before. She uses this information to flip the other suspect and gain a confidential informant, who tells Harmon that Maniac will be at a second motel later that evening. She and Diaz perform a stakeout; Harmon acquires Maniac's room number from the motel employee before calling for backup. When performing a tactical raid, several members of East Barrio are found, and Maniac flees. Harmon follows him to an abandoned Walmart where the two get into an altercation. She gains the upper hand and holds him at gunpoint until Lasman arrives as backup and arrests him. Bishop questions Harmon on how she managed to single-handedly find Maniac, when an entire team of detectives were unable to. Harmon confides in Bishop, believing they are talking as friends rather than colleagues. |||||
| 5 | "Not Your Savior" | Eriq LaSalle | Tiffany Bratcher | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| While on patrol, Diaz visits his mother who tells him that East Barrio has put a hit on his brother as retribution for Diaz arresting Maniac. Harmon and Diaz respond to an ex-couple fighting over custody of their child. Afterwards, Diaz asks Harmon if they can visit Smokey as an attempt take the hit off of his brother, but she insists that it's a lost cause. Harmon suggests protective custody, but Diaz says his brother won't accept it. The two witness an erratic vehicle and discover that the impaired driver left an area hospital without being discharged. Harmon and Diaz get into a heated argument when he asks about seeing Smokey once more, causing friction between them. They are interrupted by a couple arguing at a nearby gas station. The husband douses himself in gasoline before setting himself on fire, nearly killing their young son. After shift, Harmon explains to Diaz that she intervened when Lasman's former partner assaulted a suspect. She says she did not report it to internal affairs, but that several other officers believed she did and blame her for their firing. As a result, Lasman lost a promotion to lieutenant that Bishop received instead. |||||
| 6 | "L.A. Woman" | Eriq LaSalle | Molly Manning | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| 7 | "War Machine" | Brenna Malloy | Bryan Gracia & John Conley | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |
| 8 | "How the West Was Won" | Brenna Malloy | Tim Walsh & Elliot Wolf | January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) |

## Release

The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 9, 2025.

## Reception
### Viewing figures

Within a week of the series' release, On Call ranked as the most-watched show on Prime Video in the United States.

### Critical response

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 56% |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 48/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| But Why Tho? | 7.5/10 |
| Collider | 6/10 |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Comic Book Resources | 9/10 |
| Looper | 3/10 |
| Ready Steady Cut | |
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "On Call is an undemanding patrol thanks to its half-hour format, but the shorter runtime is about the only new novelty it brings to the cop drama genre." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 48 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Writing a review for Comic Book Resources, Brittany Frederick opined that the program established itself by avoiding the overused elements typical for the genre and that the shorter runtime allowed it to avoid filler scenes. Jonathan Wilson from Ready Steady Cut described the series as "a new kind of cop drama, blending serialized drama with a procedural, and while not all of it works, the result is mostly lean, mean entertainment."
Isabella Soares with Collider praised the chemistry between Belisario and Larraccuente's characters, writing that it "sets the tone for the show's more humane approach to the procedural." But Why Though critic Kate Sánchez penned a more mixed review and said the program "lacks catharsis but attempts complexity". She explained that the focus on patrol officers rather than detectives allows the audience to see more danger, but criticized the copaganda and portrayal of gangs. Sánchez concluded her review by adding that it "doesn’t reinvent the genre but it does thrive in it", believing that a longer episode count would work better for the series.
Looper's Ryder Alistair condemned On Call's format, saying that it was "awkwardly divided" between its overarching story and case of the week, stating "the continuing storyline ensures it can't be enjoyed as an episodic cop show like its broadcast counterparts, and is too generic and reliant on cliché to hold interest by itself." Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Nina Metz wrote that the series "so intent on selling audiences on the idea that police are unfairly maligned and in danger every moment, of every day, that it forgets to tell a coherent or even fitfully entertaining story." Metz later criticized the practicality of the show, comparing the number of shootouts it had to those at the O.K. Corral.