An elite squad chases criminals across borders in ‘Crossing Lines’

This hit show pairs a wounded NYPD cop with a French detective out for revenge. Memo to Europe’s worst criminals: look out!

Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS

A cop who can’t hold a gun isn’t much good to anyone. At least, that’s what former NYPD detective Carl Hickman (William Fichtner) thinks.

Three years ago, while chasing down a child snatcher, he was shot in his gun hand, leaving it ruined and bringing his crime-fighting career to an end. Now suffering constant nerve pain from a hand that’s close to useless, he’s moved to Amsterdam where he barely makes a living picking up garbage at a grubby amusement park in between slapping on morphine patches to dull the pain.

There’s a bleak noir series there waiting to happen, but Crossing Lines isn’t about wallowing in a broken cop’s pain.

Hickman might be at rock bottom, but his way back up is already at hand: Europol supercop Major Louis Daniel (Marc Lavoine) is putting together a pan-European crime-fighting team with the approval of International Criminal Court Inspector Michel Dorn (Donald Sutherland), and he wants Hickman – who he worked alongside years ago – to join the squad.

There’s a serial killer murdering women across Europe, and to stop him Daniel’s going to need the best.

Marc Lavoine (rear) and William Fichtner in ‘Crossing Lines’. Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS

This kind of crime procedural is built around a solid formula, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get right. Yes, Crossing Lines features a young, sexy team of crime-fighters, each an expert in their field, led by a grizzled legend while an even more grizzled, even more legendary figure occasionally checks in. But it’s what comes next that makes this series work when so many others stumble.

Donald Sutherland plays Michel Dorn, a man who has spent his adult life chasing war criminals, in ‘Crossing Lines’. Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS / Dusan Martincek

For starters, being a pan-European unit means there’s an energy to proceedings that always keeps things interesting. It’s not just the range of settings either, though this is a series that shows off a lot of scenery across Europe and beyond as they take the train to their latest case. Everyone might speak English, but the range of unashamed accents on offer (initially there’s Irish, posh British, French and German alongside American) not only underlines the series’ international nature, but makes every conversation just that little bit more fun to listen to.

Tom Wlaschiha is Sebastian, the team’s ‘techie’. Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS

The crimes themselves aren’t the usual grim investigations either. Beyond the serial killer in the opening episodes, the team investigates hi-tech kidnappings, art theft with a side serve of poisoning, a murder ring targeting long-haul truck drivers and their families, snipers, an online predator blackmailing victims into committing suicide, human trafficking, deadly diseases and numerous assassinations. They’re a busy team.

Then there are the agents, and you’d be forgiven for thinking having a tortured past was one of the entry requirements.

For Daniel, putting the team together was a way to take down criminals other organisations couldn’t touch – including the Russian mobster who murdered his son. Eva (Gabriella Pession) has a history haunted by the dark shadow of the Mafia; team tech-expert Sebastian (Tom Wlaschiha) is hiding a gambling addiction, while Tommy (Richard Flood) has a past with the IRA that goes some way towards explaining his expertise with explosives. Dorn’s passion for justice? It comes from a childhood fleeing the Nazi menace across Europe.

A very personal loss drives Louis Daniel (Marc Lavoine). Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS

The characters’ pasts play a major role in the series, and it turns out that not all their weaknesses can be overcome. Crossing Lines isn’t afraid to mix things up when it comes to the regular cast, and it doesn’t pay to get too attached to anyone. But there’s an upside to this volatility: Goran Visnjic joins season 3 as Italian police inspector Marco Constante, a top kidnapping expert who’s driven by his own personal demons (and his secret need to solve one particular kidnapping that’s very close to home).

Goran Visnjic joins ‘Crossing Lines’ in season 3. Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS

The gold standard here is Hickman, who’s been physically crippled by his failures. But there’s a wry humour to him that makes him much more likable than the standard wounded cop. There’s still plenty of guilt there – Hickman’s past is far from buried – but even in his darkest moments there’s still a spark that makes him compelling to watch.

It doesn’t hurt that Hickman is played by William Fichtner. A mainstay of American film and television for more than 20 years, he’s the kind of actor who effortlessly moves between comedy and drama, a performer who can’t help but improve everything he appears in. Usually he turns up in supporting roles, where he’s always a welcome sight: he’s been in everything from Heat and Blackhawk Down to Prison Break and the sitcom Mom.

William Fichtner in ‘Crossing Lines’. Source: Tandem Productions / TF1 Production SAS / Dusan Martincek

Crossing Lines is a procedural that gets the basics right. There’s solid chemistry between the team, the occasional moment of culture clash comedy, and a string of compelling cases. But it’s the performances that put it over the top. Fichtner is enough to justify watching Crossing Lines all on his own. Add in an equally gritty performance from Lavoine, plus the always watchable Sutherland? Case closed.

All three seasons of Crossing Lines are streaming now at SBS On Demand. Start with season 1: