# Shots Fired (2017)

> After a black police officer kills a white teenager in a small North Carolina town, a media storm and a cover-up force the community to confront race and justice.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/59678

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Reggie Rock Bythewood, Gina Prince-Bythewood
- Network: FOX
- Cast: Sanaa Lathan, Stephan James, Stephen Moyer, Will Patton, Tristan Mack Wilds, Aisha Hinds, DeWanda Wise, Clare-Hope Ashitey
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5093452/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, sober, emotionally charged, gritty, urgent

## Synopsis

Shots Fired (2017) is an American limited series created by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood for FOX. Across ten episodes of roughly forty-five minutes each, the story follows Ashe Akino (Sanaa Lathan) and Preston Terry (Stephan James) as a police shooting in a small North Carolina town ignites a media storm. Stephen Moyer plays Lieutenant Breeland, and Will Patton plays Sheriff Daniel Platt, both pressed to contain the fallout. Richard Dreyfuss, Aisha Hinds and Tristan Mack Wilds fill out the ensemble of townspeople, officers and clergy whose loyalties are tested. Each episode layers investigation, public confrontation and private grief, as the town's old racial fault lines reopen under national scrutiny. The tone is tense, sober and emotionally charged, with a focus on the pressures of institutional self-protection and the human cost of silence. It is a one-season, serialized drama with a procedural spine, in the vein of The Wire and Confederate for viewers drawn to socially engaged crime storytelling about race, policing and justice.

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