UPDATED with first-look teaser: While many of the new shows coming through TCA are tackling the nation’s divisive, divided vibe, Michael Chiklis says his upcoming Paramount Network border-action-drama Coyote “isn’t about this side or that side, it’s about people.”
Watch the first-look teaser for the series below.
Most closely associated with might-makes-right characters, like his Emmy-winning role on FX’s The Shield, Chiklis here plays Ben Clemens, a former border patrol agent whose balance of right and wrong gets shaken up. After policing the border for 32 years, Ben is forced to work with the very people he spent his career trying to keep out of America.
“To play someone whose point of view is galvanized, who looked through a certain prism, and to be thrust into a complete different set of circumstances, to have his preconceived notions of the world broken down, fascinated me,” said Chiklis.
“There’s something to be said about accomplished people really learning and growing when they come out of their comfort zone,” added Chiklis about his character.
Breaking down Season One still further, showrunner, EP and scribe David Graziano says that Ben “gets embroiled in a very human drama that’s about a young girl who is looking for a better life…she prevails upon him and he makes the choice to help her cross the border, which has its ramifications, a ripple effect.”
Coyote will premiere this summer on Paramount Network. The series is currently shooting in northern Baja, Mexico. Chiklis is also an EP on the series with Michelle MacLaren, who directs the pilot.
Here is the Coyote teaser:
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