USA Network premiered a brand new crime drama last night called In Plain Sight, a series starring Mary McCormack as a U.S. Marshall named Mary Shannon who is in charge of Witness Protection in the city of Albuquerque.
In the first episode, she deals with a brand new woman from Russia who was promised breast implants, and some mob guys who all talk like the dudes from The Sopranos.
There was another story too, but I lost track of what was going on admist the confusion of three different cases going on at once. Not to mention the stuff about her birthday and Mary’s messed up family and relationships.
It might not have been that bad had I gotten more into what was going on, but the writing wasn’t amazing and the acting was so very over the top.
Perhaps I’ve just seen this type of thing before, but it just didn’t feel fresh or new to me. McCormack tries to play a cop with an attitude, but it didn’t work for me. I never laughed at her “tough guy” jokes that just felt horribly forced.
Now, pilots are notorious for not being that great, so I may give it one more try. The thing is, I like the idea of the main plot. I can’t remember any previous crime drama focusing on Witness Protection as it’s sole area of law enforcement.
But the relationships she has with her sister, her mother and Raphael just never felt real to me. There was a whole lot of yelling and banter that felt very contrived.
Did anyone else watch it? Did I totally miss the boat on this one?
3 cases? Didn’t they get the memo? 2 cases per episode, so you can split characters up and hopefully the viewers will stick through it if 1 of the cases turns out boring.
I liked Mary, I really liked her partner Marshall. I truly, deeply despised how her sister gave her the magic totem to solve the case in the nick of time.
I’ve heard that future episodes focus much more on the normal, witness protection aspects of her job and are more focused and better. I’ll give it a few more tries to see whether it improves for me.
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Mary acted fine, but the writing and her attitude just didn’t seem authentic. I dunno…it felt like attitude for attitude’s sake
I’ll give it one more episode.
“future episodes focus much more on the normal, witness protection aspects of her job”
Cool. I’d really like a show about watching TV and eating takeout food while nothing happens.
LOL
I think the main problem was that all of the acting was really over-done! They can change the story-telling, but I don’t know if that will fix the acting, Mary included.
See, I’m not with you guys on that. Take out Leslie Ann Warren (who has been playing the same over-the-top drunken floozy for 20 years) and I thought the acting was fine. I particularly liked the way Mary McCormack seemed uncomfortable in her own skin. Confident one minute, frustrated and bumbling the next.
I thought the whole sequence in the bar summed her up pretty well. From acting tough with the bartender and being shown up for her ignorance all the way through her final “I hope he calls,” McCormack told me who Mary Shannon is and wants to be.
Richards last blog post..FSW: Rachael Ray, Terrorist!
See, that bar scene just seemed hokey to me. Like you said, it showed who she is, but it just really, REALLY didn’t make me laugh. That kind of thing should be funny, but it was almost embarrassing in the way it was over-the-top.
I only saw the preview (800 times, thanks USA), but yet had the same review. Weird.
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[...] I first reviewed In Plain Sight, the new series from the USA Network, I wasn’t too impressed. I didn’t get the humor right away, I thought some of the acting seemed unrealistic and the [...]
I would definitely recommend giving it another shot! I think it has worked out some of the bugs you brought up and it has amazing story-lines. It is one to be tuning into in my opinion. Mary has a depth lacking with a lot of characters these days. There is a lot left to explore.
And I apologize for not reading your updated post. I wish I could delete previous comment. Oh well.
No problem Sam, but thanks for taking the time to persuade me
It is a good show, I like it a lot more now.
Very nice and useful post I really appreciate you posting