Synopsis:
Who can you trust when you can’t trust yourself?

Jamie Collins. 33 years old. A drug squad cop with a taste for Irish whiskey and good cocaine, Jamie’s been riding the coattails of his extended family his entire life in the force. He’s a ladies’ man, a reprobate, a child. He’s a mess.

When – bent on revenge – Jamie drunkenly crashes his squad car into a dealer who’s done him wrong, his cousin and boss, clean-cut Patrick Lehane, steps in to his rescue. It’s time for Jamie to clean up his act. Time to sit it out someplace safe, someplace calm. Someplace no one will look for him. Jamie Collins gets transferred. To Internal Affairs.

While Jamie takes advantage of his new-found powers in IA, Patrick uses his power as head of the drug squad to clean up other messes, including a crystal meth operation run out of a biker bar. Desperate for a large scale bust that might lead to a promotion, Patrick begins a relationship with a notorious mobster and makes a series of bad choices that eventually leads to the death of one of his undercover cops – Jamie’s former partner.

Jamie vows to solve his friend’s murder, but Patrick is desperate enough to do whatever it takes to stop his cousin from uncovering the truth…Wives, children and morality be damned.

A four-part, one-hour mini-series, WOULD BE KINGS tracks the fall – and rise – of Jamie Collins, a bad cop who turns out to be very good at his job. And it tracks the rise – and fall – of Patrick Lehane, a good cop and a family man who’s drawn into a terrifying criminal compromise.

It’s the story of a family – a son, a cousin, an uncle, their wives, their lovers, and their children – set within the larger family of a big, dirty, urban police force. It’s a story of crystal methamphetamine: speed, power, money and dealers. It’s a story of undercover officers who risk everything. It’s a story of bikers and of mobsters, and the ambitious cops who make blood-soaked deals with them. It’s a story of greed, truth, corruption and betrayal, set in suburban backyards and daughters’ birthday parties; downtown streets and backroom bars.

It’s the story of a reluctant hero. And a good guy who makes a fatal mistake.