It’s simply one other day on location in Los Angeles for actor Jensen Ackles as he frantically weaves out and in of clusters of visitors on Wilshire’s Miracle Mile to cease some villainous happenings in his new Prime Video motion collection “Countdown,” which drops its first three episodes Wednesday. Locked into his valiant character, L.A. Det. Mark Meachum is the sort of one that will do something to catch the baddies, even when meaning driving up the sidewalk on Wilshire to get the place he must be.
For Ackles, an appearing veteran with practically 30 years of TV expertise that has ranged from portraying teen angst on “Days of Our Lives” to chasing demons for 15 seasons on “Supernatural,” to his most up-to-date flip as superhero Soldier Boy on “The Boys,” shutting down Wilshire isn’t the most important shock in his newest present. As a substitute, he’s extra blown away that the L.A.-set collection is taking pictures in, of all locations, Los Angeles.
“A lot of times, shows are shooting other places [as a stand-in] for other places, and it’s rare when you’re shooting in a place that is supposed to be that place,” he says.
And in “Countdown,” which follows a process pressure consisting of members from numerous legislation enforcement businesses which are introduced collectively after the homicide of a Division of Homeland Safety agent, it’s Los Angeles that’s in critical hazard. In reality, that preliminary crime is simply the tip of the iceberg as soon as a possible Chernobyl-like occasion in L.A. is uncovered.
“I would describe it as terrifying and with a potential to affect millions for years to come,” says government producer and showrunner Derek Haas. “I was thinking about smuggling channels into the United States and how these corridors have been used for both illegal narcotics and human trafficking. I thought it would be interesting if a bad player used these established channels to smuggle something much, much worse into the country.”
Jonathan Togo, left, and Eric Dane in a scene from “Countdown,” the place landmarks like Wilshire Grand Heart, the tallest skyscraper in L.A., make an look.
(Elizabeth Morris / Prime Video)
That risk is the throughline for the majority of the season, with Ackles’ Meachum working alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho), FBI agent Keyonte Bell (Elliot Knight), LAPD agent Luke Finau (Uli Latukefu), FBI agent Evan Shepherd (Violett Beane) and particular agent in cost Nathan Blythe (“Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria’s” Eric Dane). Collectively, Haas explains, the workforce makes an attempt to “identify the mastermind behind the threat while at the same time working to discover the delivery system for that threat. There are twists and turns and missteps and victories along the way as the plan grows into focus.”
All this motion makes L.A. a distinguished forged member, one thing Haas is aware of a factor or two about, having created NBC’s long-running “Chicago Fire” and serving to to develop spin-off collection “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med.” The Dallas-born producer has spent the final 26 years dwelling in Los Angeles (he’d journey to Chicago throughout his tenure on the Windy Metropolis exhibits) and knew town would lend itself properly to this mission at a time when L.A. isn’t the primary alternative for filming lately.
“The fact that you can go in any direction and there’s something different and interesting to see and to shoot in L.A. is appealing, but it feels like Hollywood has moved away from it,” he says.
In reality, in response to a report launched in April by the nonprofit group FilmLA, on-location manufacturing for movie, tv and commercials within the Los Angeles space was down 22% within the first quarter of 2025 in contrast with the identical interval a 12 months prior. Taking a look at simply tv manufacturing, the numbers dropped by 30.5% within the first quarter in contrast with 2024. Additionally, whereas some productions had been briefly halted through the fires in January, the report didn’t conclude that the fires had an enduring impact on general manufacturing. The proposed improve of state tax incentives to be extra aggressive with different states might assist the variety of productions develop. “I will make my pitch that we need more tax credits and rebates so we can get more production here because the ‘Countdown’ crew was nonstop excellent throughout,” Haas says.
He additionally made a degree of constructing certain the present was always shining a highlight on often-overlooked components of L.A.. “I didn’t want it to be guys in suits in mansions or walking around in Beverly Hills,” Haas says. As a substitute, he took the forged and crew to movie in areas like Koreatown, Reseda, Huntington Park and Chinatown. “Usually, you don’t see the L.A. that I know, going as far as way up in the Deep Valley and then all the way down to Orange County, so I wanted to show that and go this way and that way,” he provides.
The Port of L.A., left, and aerial views of town are seen in “Countdown.” (Elizabeth Morris/Prime Video) (Elizabeth Morris/Prime Video)
The present’s first season hit so many areas that it reminded Ackles, who lived in L.A. for 18 years earlier in his profession, simply how sprawling town really is. “We’re doing a massive shootout of the Port of Los Angeles down in Long Beach. I’m up in Palmdale at a decommissioned prison having a prison-yard brawl and a speed chase over 6th Street Bridge downtown,” he says. “I feel like if anybody really wants to get a sense of the city, film a television show there. That is the quickest way to learn your way around.”
Camacho, a Chicago native who moved to L.A. 15 years in the past, says filming the present shifted her perspective on not simply the myriad areas but in addition L.A. residents. “To have the viewpoint of just playing in the streets of L.A. and shooting, it was so magical,” she says. “There’s so much diversity in its people but also the landscape, the natural beauty in all the neighborhoods. It was so, so exciting.”
Haas deliberately zeroed in on L.A.’s eclectic neighborhoods within the scene locators glimpsed all through the collection, which let viewers know what a part of city the motion is going down. It’s a tool he feels is reflective of how longtime L.A. residents see their truthful metropolis. “If you meet somebody here, you’re like, ‘What part of L.A. do you live in?’ And they say a neighborhood like Pasadena or Echo Park, so I thought that would be an angle we hadn’t seen before on these shows,” Haas says.
That stated, Haas knew highlighting the Metropolis of Angels with automobile chases and shootouts for the sake of plot works with films however not doubtlessly long-running TV exhibits. “You have to give the audience reasons to care,” he says. In reality, storylines starting from well being points, parenting, household relationships and sexual stress between characters are what “gives you a second gear in every action sequence,” he says. That horny warmth could be seen between companions Meachum and Oliveros, for instance, since they butt heads initially however soften towards one another over time. “Their relationship definitely gets a little complicated, but we like complicated,” teases Camacho.
And just like the forceful and decided “Countdown” process pressure working in opposition to nefarious threats, the identical could be stated about Los Angeles, which confronted horrific fires earlier this 12 months and now’s battling an aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence. “Everybody thinks of L.A. as this glamorous town when you’re looking from the outside in, but it’s got character and salt and grit as well as any town,” Haas says.
And it might all the time be a metropolis of dreamers, however Camacho says there’s rather more to L.A. than that. “You see the insistence, you see the resilience and you see the love and there’s so much of that here,” she says. “It’s so inspiring and really beautiful to witness.”
