The first season of On Call had Us on the edge of our seats — but where does the Wolf Entertainment police procedural go from here?
On Call, which premiered on Thursday, January 9, centered around veteran training officer Traci Harmon (Troian Bellisario) and her rookie partner Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente) as they responded to emergency calls on the streets of Long Beach, California. Their partnership came on the heels of a major loss for Harmon and it took an entire season for her and Diaz to start to trust each other.
The Prime Video series found a way to click restart on the dynamic when Harmon ultimately didn’t recommend that Diaz progress. Instead, she caused him to restart rookie training — with her. Viewers also learned more about Sergeant Lasman (Eriq LaSalle) and Lieutenant Bishop (Lori Loughlin) after initially questioning whether they were friends or foes.
“We want so many different kinds of people — who have many different views about the police — to come to this show. And we want them to take away what they take away,” Bellisario exclusively told Us Weekly. [“Executive producer] Elliot [Wolf] put it really well. He’s like, ‘We want to create a buffet and we want everybody to come to the table and eat together.’ That’s the thing. We’re not going to say, ‘Oh, you have that idea, so you’re not welcome here.’ You have that idea so you won’t like this show.’ You will see people make incredible decisions [on screen]. You’ll see us make mistakes. Nobody is a hero. And these are human beings — they just so happen to be doing this job.”
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Larracuente, meanwhile, was left just as intrigued about the future of the show as fans will be.
“At least from my own experience, the show left me with more questions than real answers. I hope that that’s what audiences experience as well,” he noted. “By the end of it, we’re not really trying to paint any narrative. … Hopefully audience members can relate to one of the characters [on the show] in some way, shape or form.”
The cast and creator Tim Walsh answered some burning questions about season 1 — and where the story would go from here:
Where Do Harmon and Diaz Go From Here?
During the season 1 finale, Harmon recommended that Diaz be put on probation, which reunited them as partners. The decision shook up their dynamic — but it is a step in the right direction in the long term.
“Harmon made that choice because first and foremost, she doesn’t want to lose him. She’s starting to feel — there’s nothing romantic between them — but she is like a mama bear and this is her cub. So over the course of season 1, they’ve just grown closer,” Walsh explained to Us. “She did that because in her heart of hearts, she does believe Diaz is not ready to move on because he has a hero complex. She does not want to see him get hurt like Officer Delgado. Her feelings are genuine but it also feels like a mother that does not want to be separated from her child just yet.”
Larracuente had a similar thought process about how Harmon chose to “protect” Diaz.
“She cares about him and that’s what makes her different than maybe somebody else that he would’ve been paired with. The fact that after just losing somebody in the very first episode, she chooses to work with Diaz who is a rookie is a testament to her character,” he noted. “Before Diaz steps back into that vehicle at the very end of the episode, I think he has a real question.”
Larracuente continued: “The question that runs through his mind is, ‘Can I trust this person?’ He finally realizes, ‘Holy s—, this entire time she’s cared about me. Everything she’s done has just been to protect me and I see it now.’”
Meanwhile for Bellisario, the point of the twist was showing how much Harmon still has left to teach.
“Any good teacher knows when they haven’t done their job — and that’s actually not a failing on Diaz’s part. He takes it as his own failing. But actually Harmon sees it as a shortcoming on her part. She didn’t do enough or she didn’t set him up and she still has more work to do,” she told Us. “She obviously believes in him. She cares deeply and she wants to see him through into his career.”
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Could Things Turn Romantic Between Harmon and Diaz?
There were no hints that Harmon and Diaz could become a couple in the future — but what is the plan behind the scenes?
“The romantic thing complicates it and lends itself to maybe a little bit more predictability. Whereas here we don’t have to fall into any of those traps or tropes,” Walsh teased to Us. “They can just be literally two coworkers. They are two coworkers who are bound by the idea that they have to look out for each other and have to survive this next shift. I think adding a romance would just complicate it more. The other way allows us to be more free and deepen the two characters.”
Who Is a Dream Guest Star?
Notable guest stars in season 1 included Chicago Fire‘s Monica Raymund, Ryan Dorsey and Bart Johnson. Walsh named Kurt Russell as his dream cameo in the future, joking, “If I could get Kurt Russell in this, I could die very, very happy.”
Will Other Characters Take the Lead in Season 2?
Despite On Call largely staying focused on Diaz and Harmon, there is room to expand — starting with LaSalle and Loughlin’s characters.
“They are firmly a big part of it,” Walsh confirmed. “The short of it is 100 percent. We’ve [already] been cooking on season 2 and ideas and what it’s going to be about [while we wait for an official renewal].”
Loughlin and La Salle, meanwhile, expressed their excitement to Us.
“We certainly have some runway to see more of the two of us. The interesting thing is all of us fitting in together. How do all these characters come together?” she noted. “They focus a lot on Harmon and Diaz on screen but I think our approach is like, ‘What’s the total picture look like for all of us as characters?’ … There’s so much to explore. But we’re in good hands with good writers so hopefully we’ll move forward.”
La Salle praised On Call for not making Lasman and Bishop “one dimensional,” adding, “By the time you get to the end of this season, there’s some dynamics that have truly changed. That is a great way to set up some great storytelling — should we be so fortunate to get additional seasons.”
He continued: “Lori and I have been just talking and we are interested as actors to see if there’s more interaction between the two of us. We are in sync on a lot of things but we also want to see what we are not in sync on? How do they really feel about each other?”
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Could There Be One Chicago Crossovers — Or a Spinoff of ‘On Call’?
Before cocreating On Call with Elliot Wolf, Walsh worked on Chicago P.D. but that doesn’t mean the universes will intersect.
“I do not want to do a crossover with any of the existing shows. I do believe we are in our own universe and they’re in their own universe,” he told Us. “However, expanding our universe into other first responders, we’re all very game to doing that. There are paramedics in Long Beach. It depends on how well we can get the message out for people to watch the show.”
