On Call is the new cop drama on Prime Video, starring Troian Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente. The first season saw Harmon and Diaz track down a cop killer, but it left enough open for a second season. Will we get to see that second season?
While the first season did wrap up the cop killer storyline, there was still plenty open for On Call season 2. Harmon and Diaz will still work together, and there is the question of the dirty political things that Bishop did to get to lieutenant. There’s also the question of whether Lasman really does believe Harmon stopped him from getting a promotion or not.
We need a second season to be able to answer all of these questions. Will it happen, though? That’s hard to say.
On Call’s binge drop doesn’t work in its favor
Most people who know me know that I’m not a fan of the binge drop. It doesn’t do a TV show any favors. I get that people want to watch all episodes back-to-back, but there is a beauty in waiting for new episodes and playing out ways things could go in your head. The weekly release also helps to get more viewers, especially on a streaming platform.
Prime Video didn’t market this show as best as it could. I think it’s a problem a lot of streaming platforms have. They will market their biggest shows, but then forget about smaller ones that need the marketing attention.
With that in mind, I’m not sure On Call is going to find the audience that it needs. This isn’t a fault of the show, but a fault of the network and the binge model.
Sure, Cross succeeded with a binge drop, but that show was already renewed ahead of the first season release. It was also a highly anticipated series due to the book followers. On Call didn’t have that benefit.
On Call hasn’t reinvented the cop drama wheel
If a TV show can reinvent the wheel, then it stands a chance of success. On Call did bring 30-minute episodes, which isn’t done that much anymore, but that’s not really reinventing things in terms of storytelling.
The overall season was predictable for the most part. While some of the twists were fun to see, they weren’t all that shocking or unforeseeable. There’s nothing to get people sharing the show online and talking about how a particular storyline stood out.
Some of the big draws to the series are the cast members. Pretty Little Liars fans will be excited to see Troian Bellisario in another role, while Full House fans will be ready for more Lori Loughlin. Chicago Fire fans would tune in to see Monica Raymund. Having a great cast is important but so is having something unique that stands out to get people talking.
It is still early days at this point. I don’t see a lot of chatter about the series on social media, but let’s give it the weekend. Amazon will at least take a look at the weekend interest. However, I went into this series thinking it might only last a season, and that’s what I think now.
On Call is available to stream on Prime Video.
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