Gina Torres

Young hostage negotiators in love on ‘Standoff’

They’re hostage negotiators! They’re partners! They’re in love! They always want to talk it out with the crazy criminals, while their buddies on the SWAT team want to shoot first, ask questions later. That’s pretty much all you need to know about FOX’s new Tuesday-night drama, “Standoff.” About the best thing the show has going for it is that it leads into “House.”

Depending on what shows you’ve been into before, some of the cast may look familiar. Male lead Ron Livingston is better known as Carrie’s boyfriend Jack Berger on “Sex and the City”; Gina Torres was Zoe in “Firefly” and “Serenity”; Michael Cudlitz’s credits include “Prison Break,” “Band of Brothers,” and “90210.”

Creator/producer Craig Silverstein was asked how he’ll differentiate the many hostage dramas his show hopes to tackle. Not all will be straightforward, some will be “quirkier” situations, he said. “This unit also negotiates kidnappings, high-risk suicides. They put down prison riots,” he said. And when asked if the hostages and negotiating team staff will always be saved, he denied it, saying “there will be some losses.” Critics’ questions seemed to indicate that I’m about the only one who didn’t see chemistry with romantic leads Livingston and Rosemarie Dewitt, so perhaps the show has an appeal that I’m just missing. Story continues below ↓ advertisement

‘Standoff’ extras:

* Female lead Rosemarie Dewitt is the granddaughter of the fighter James J. Braddock, on whose life “Cinderella Man” was based.

* Asked if she misses her “Firefly” role, Gina Torres allowed “occasionally I miss the spaceship,” but noted that like Zoe, her character in “Standoff” still carries a gun.

* Ron Livingston compared his “Sex and the City” role to being a nude centerfold, saying “If you take pretty much any girl in America, and if you stick a Miss October sash on her, she’s not buying drinks for the rest of her life. I think being one of Carrie Bradshaw’s boyfriends is sort of like the romantic lead stamp of approval.”