Today, a large portion of CBS’s viewership success can be attributed to Mark Harmon and Tom Selleck.NCIS and Blue Bloods remain two of the network’s most enduring cr1me-oriented procedurals.
NCIS, led by Mark Harmon, is in its 18th season, and Blue Bloods was recently renewed for an 11th season. One show is about naval cr1minal investigations, while the other is about a cop family, with papa bear (Selleck) as the NYPD Police Commissioner. Both Tom Selleck and Mark Harmon are important pieces of the CBS puzzle, but before they competed for viewers on the same network, they faced off in a TV movie flop.
Thank you for being part of our #BlueBloods family these past 10 Seasons. We’re officially returning for Season 11! 💙 pic.twitter.com/QN35a3ZBs1
— Blue Bloods (@BlueBloods_CBS) May 6, 2020
Mark Harmon and Tom Selleck co-starred in the 2001 film ‘Crossfire Trail.’
Crossfire Trail, a TV movie starring Tom Selleck and Mark Harmon, premiered in 2001. The plot revolved around Rafe Convington (Tom Selleck), who promised a dying friend that he would look after his wife and ranch after he d1ed.
When Rafe arrives at his recently deceased friend’s ranch, he meets Barkow (Mark Harmon), the town’s local power who wants both the ranch and the widowed woman.
Barkow hires a gang of gunfighters to make sure he gets the ranch and the girl. There’s a battle for property and a damsel in distress, in typical western fashion. While the plot description for the TV movie isn’t bad, the film was panned by critics.
What did critics think of ‘Crossfire Trail’?
On Rotten Tomatoes, Crossfire Trail has a dismal 40% critics consensus. “Not a horse opera cliche goes unused in this picture,” one TV Guide critic explained, while another complained that the film failed due to a lack of chemistry between Selleck and Virginia Madsen.
The film failed to impress film and television critics alike, thanks to a predictable narrative trajectory, two-dimensional characters, and a lack of on-screen chemistry. Not to mention that the majority of the supporting characters were peripheral, with no reason to exist other than to aid a trope storyline and a familiar protagonist.
However, most general audiences enjoyed the film because Selleck is an enjoyable western actor and Mark Harmon managed to give his character a little more depth than would be expected of a typical Western bad guy.
If you want to watch Selleck and Harmon spar, and you’re a fan of both actors, this is a must-see for a movie night in. However, if you’re looking for a well-developed film with distinct characters and an unpredictable plot, you should keep scrolling through Netflix and Amazon.