On Call – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

Episode 1 of On Call begins with Officer Maria Delgado driving the streets of Long Beach, California when she sees a car with expired tags. She confronts the driver who turns out to be a man known for drug abuse. Along with him are a man and a woman, the latter is passed out.

Delgado suspects she is a minor and seems cautious of the tattooed man in the back seat as well. When she asks them to get out of the car, the tattooed man shoots her and they drive off. Delgado is left bleeding in the street.

We then shift to the Long Beach police department where two officers look at a tribute to the late Officer Delgado. One of them is Officer Alex Diaz, a rookie who is soon paired with the more experienced Officer Traci Harmon.

Lieutenant Bishop arrives and tells the police department about the suspects in Delgado’s death — Eddie Watson (a gang member known as Maniac) and Juan Cortez (the driver). Bishop then asks Harmon if she’s up to working with a rookie or if she wants a few days alone. Harmon says she’s fine working with Diaz.

They go on their rounds and make some small talk. Harmon gives Diaz a small get-out-of-jail-free card which she usually gives her trainees. They soon get called in for a disturbance where a woman has been beaten up by her son. Other policemen take the son away but the mother argues with Harmon, saying she doesn’t want her son in a lock-up.

Harmon then gives the son a piece of her mind but Diaz accidentally captures her threatening the man on his body camera, which he should have switched off earlier and Harmon tells him as much. The mother then locks herself in the bathroom and the officers break the door down to find she’s injected herself with some drugs.

Later, the officers are on their rounds when they come across a car with an expired license. The man driving it is the owner’s brother but while his license is fine, he is clearly a drug user. They don’t find drugs on him and Harmon orders to let him go but Diaz wants to try talking to him first. Diaz convinces the man to call his father for help with his drug addiction. Diaz hopes the man will get clean but Harmon is more sceptical about it.

While having dinner, Harmon tells Diaz to report her for the threat she made earlier that day to the man who attacked his mother. Diaz says he’s not a snitch and refuses to do so. They then get a call about a green car with Eddie Watson in it that has been observed nearby.

The officers find the car and give chase, with the green car ultimately crashing on the side of the road. Harmon has one of the men at gunpoint but Watson runs away. Despite Harmon telling him to stand down, Diaz runs after Watson.

He loses him anyway and gets an earful from Harmon for not listening to her. She suspects he wasn’t listening because of a conversation he had with Sergeant Lasman, someone Harmon doesn’t get along with. But Diaz reveals that Lasman simply told him that Delgado was Harmon’s trainee and she would have taken her death quite hard.

Harmon’s reaction shows that she still feels quite guilty about it. Diaz tries to return the get-out-of-jail card but she refuses it, saying he’ll need it later. They return to patrolling at the end of On Call Episode 1.

The Episode Review

Episode 1 of On Call sets the tone for this police procedural — a high-octane series with fast dialogues, quick cuts, and an evocative sense of constantly chasing the bad guys. It kicks off with the death of Officer Delgado, a short but impactful sequence that conveys the stakes and the realistic setting of the series.

Harmon and Diaz make the classic veteran-trainee pairing and both actors do a good job of portraying the awkwardness that such relationships start out with. Their dynamic is off to a rocky start which leaves plenty of potential for growth for both of them. The bad guys here do seem to be reflective of larger problems like drug abuse and human trafficking.

It will be interesting to see how the Amazon Prime show continues to explore real but sensitive issues like this.