At first glance, the new CBS series Instinct will seem like any other cop show where an officer or agent teams up with someone else in another field, but Instinct will actually be a history-making series.
Based on the novel by James Patterson, Instinct sees a former CIA operative who is lured back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer. Dr. Dylan Reinhart is a gifted author and university professor living a quiet life teaching psychopathic behavior to packed classes of adoring students. But when tenacious top NYPD detective Lizzie Needham appeals to him to help her catch a serial murderer who is using Dylan’s first book as a tutorial, Dylan is compelled by the case and comes out of retirement.
Helping them is Julian Cousins, Dylan’s invaluable CIA comrade who rivals Dylan in brilliance and wit, and can get top-secret dirt on anyone, anywhere, anytime. Lizzie’s boss, Lt. Jasmine Gooden, is glad to see her best detective finally agree to work with someone on a case, since Lizzie has refused any partner since a tragic event one year ago. But as Dylan feels reenergized tapping into his old skill set, his husband, Andy, is concerned that Dylan’s breaking their pact about putting away his cloak and dagger for good. Though Dylan and Lizzie initially clash, when it comes to catching killers, they realise they will make an ideal team if they both trust their instincts.
Did you catch the history-making tidbit? Dr. Dylan Reinhart will be the first American network television drama to act as the lead and be a gay character. And what does this mean for the genre? In comparison to its predecessors, such as Castle, Chuck and Bones, the main characters may still have that love-hate relationship at first, but it won’t turn into a constant will they or won’t they with a poorly timed first kiss when someone’s life is at stake and resulting in them being together.
Instead, his character is devoutly married to another man when he teams up with Lizzie, thus removing that clichéd romantic tension that has plagued male-female crime fighting partners since the dawn of the procedural. By removing this factor from the show, our NYPD officer Lizzie will get to stay focused on her job as Dylan and Lizzie will be seen more as equals since one won’t be pursuing the other. Instead, we will see how two different people function as a team.
Executive producers on Instinct include Michael Rauch, Marc Webb, Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, James Patterson, Bill Robinson, Leopoldo Gout and Alan Cumming.
The series stars Alan Cumming (The Good Wife), Bojana Novakovic (Satisfaction), Michael B. Silver (Suits), Naveen Andrews (Sense8) and Whoopi Goldberg.
Instinct premieres Sunday, March 18 at 9/8c on CBS.
