Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe address criticism that 911: Lone Star underuses minority characters

While many TV shows are focused on straight, white characters, 911: Lone Star made it clear that there would be more minority characters. Even when it comes to the straight, white men, there are elements to their characters that we wouldn’t usually see on the screen.

Despite this, fans have complained about how these minority characters have been underused. In a way, I see it. There is a lot of focus on Rob Lowe’s Owen Strand in every single episode. His son TK gets a lot of attention as well—although, it’s worth pointing out that as a gay man, TK is a minority character!

The show has certainly underused Carlos. Out of all the characters, he’s usually there for TK’s personal storyline or he was there for Liv Tyler’s Michelle’s storyline in the first season. His work wasn’t really the focus, but hopefully, that is about to change.

John Owen Lowe doesn’t think the minority characters are underused in 911: Lone Star

Lowe’s son, John Owen, is one of the writers on the series. He shares that he doesn’t think the minority characters are underused.

He used his first episode as an example of this in an interview with Variety. He has a moment where Mateo (Julian Works) and Marjan (Natacha Karam) are in a scene together. Marjan is helping Mateo study for his firefighter exams, something that he has failed multiple times up to this point. If he doesn’t pass, he can’t become a firefighter.

This was early in the series. The writers had to learn who their characters were and figure out their strengths and weaknesses. From there, they could lean into the characters when needed.

John Owen does say that he understands why people may be frustrated. They want to see more of their favorite characters, and that’s not happening. However, he points out that people need to be left wanting more. That’s a sign of good writing.

"I think in any case where a show has a strong ensemble, people always are going to be frustrated with maybe not seeing as much of their favorite characters as they’d like — and I think that’s a good thing. You always want to leave people wanting more."

The original plan for 911: Lone Star

Rob went on to talk more about how the series was pitched to him. Rob is an executive producer on the series, and Ryan Murphy and Tim Minear came to him with the idea. The show’s focus is on a lone survivor of 9/11. He is there to tell the story of a man rebuilding a firehouse and rebuilding his own family.

"I don’t think there is another show on television with as diverse a cast as we had, telling the kind of diverse stories that we did. Owen was there as a way to tell those kinds of stories and I’m really proud of how we were able to do it."

Rob does point out that very few network TV shows have a diverse cast, and we can all certainly agree with that. Look, I’m still extremely salty that NCIS: Hawaii and Station 19 have been canceled.

Does 911: Lone Star use the diverse characters in the best way? No, I do personally think that there is more the show can do. It’s time to take the focus off Owen so much and put the focus on Paul, Marjan, and Mateo. 911 has managed to give each character fair time and growth. We don’t seem to have the same with 911: Lone Star, especially when it comes to Carlos and Paul.