'The Red Line' Trailer: Ava DuVernay And Greg Berlanti Team Up For A Police Shooting CBS Drama

Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti are teaming up for a special event series following the lives of three Chicago families in the wake of a police shooting of an unarmed black man. CBS has released an extended The Red Line trailer for this eight-episode series, which stars Noah Wyle and more.

DuVernay brings her profound social commentary while Berlanti provides his talent for harnessing human emotion that he's shown in his feature film Love, Simon and in his TV series like The Flash and Arrow. The Red Line follows Wyle's Daniel Calder, whose husband is fatally shot by a white cop. While he and their adopted daughter grieve his death, the series branches out to two other families affected by this tragedy, including a woman running for city alderman and the police officer behind the shooting.

The emotional and socially relevant series presents a huge departure for the network of NCIS spin-offs and procedurals. The series will be delivered in two-hour blocks, essentially turning each episode into its own mini-movie that will air over four consecutive Sundays, beginning in late April of this year.

Here is the synopsis for The Red Line:

"THE RED LINE is an eight-episode event series that follows three very different Chicago families as they journey toward hope and healing after a tragedy connects them all. On the north side of Chicago, Daniel Calder is a high school history teacher mourning the death of his husband, an African American doctor who was shot by a white cop. As Daniel tries to comfort their grieving daughter, Jira Calder-Brennan, the two butt heads when she decides to search for her birth mother against his wishes. Daniel seeks comfort in his colleague – and Jira's teacher – Liam Bhatt. On the south side, Tia Young scours news of the shooting, torn between her political ambition of running for alderman and risking it all to comfort the daughter she gave up for adoption as a teen. Tia's husband, Ethan Young, a red line train operator and devoted father to their 6-year-old son, champions her running for office, but cautions her about connecting with Jira. On the west side, police officer Paul Evans is horrified that he shot an innocent man, conflicted about the circumstances around how it happened and worried about the public and legal fallout. His police partner, Victoria "Vic" Renna, whose loyalty may have driven her to go too far to protect him, and his brother, Jim Evans, a volatile former cop confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the line of duty, may cause more harm than good in their attempts to help him. As the stories of the Calder, Young and Evans families converge, a positive message surfaces: it's possible to emerge from tragedy stronger than before, and it's important to come together with others, not just to survive, but to thrive."

The Red Line premieres Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 10 p.m. on CBS.