In Plain Sight

I’ve been trying to think of something worth blogging about, but I’m afraid I’ve been delinquent in my movie/tv-watching lately. So, I figured I’d talk about the one show that I have been watching. And since this one is a new one, and one that I really would recommend to just about anyone, I’ll try to avoid major spoilers.

USA, the network that brings us the uber-fun Monk and Psych, now brings us In Plain Sight. It’s about a US Marshal working for the Witness Protection Program, and her assorted friends, family, and co-workers. Now, one of the really fun things about this show…you can watch full episodes online. Yep, I think I’ve gotten spoiled by online TV viewing. It’s only increased my inherent independence and dislike of being told what to do (something I share with a great many other 25-year-olds), because dang it, I don’t want to be told when to watch something and I don’t want to have to watch commercials, either. Even the total of maybe 2-3 minutes of commercials you get with your typical streaming drama tries my patience (especially when they’re the same commercials, for the same products). So, even though I get cable and am actually home when it’s on (Sunday night…I wanna say 10:00), I still wait for it to show up online (which seems to happen some time around 11:30). So, to watch this show at your leisure, go here: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/inplainsight/video/fullep/ (Fair warning: most networks don’t keep all the episodes on their website at once. Many will only keep the last three or so. I don’t know USA’s policy on this, but it might be better to watch sooner rather than later, as early episodes may disappear as the season progresses.)

There’s only been four episodes aired so far, and already I see great improvement. The (double-length) first episode left me with a positive, if not wildly exciting impression, but the third one had me rolling more than once. The show provides the same sort of mix of comedy and drama that you get with Monk, but with, of course, its own personal mood and vibe.

And now, before I get to the episodes so far, how about some words on the characters…

Mary McCormack as Mary Shannon — As a main character, Mary’s pretty cool. She’s tough, but funny. I like that she’s very ungirly. Actually, she’s about as ungirly as it is possible to get. Which is cool, but it also makes weird the fact that she has already been forced to use her sexuality to solve a case more than once. When she does, she’s not the most convincing at it, but that makes perfect sense for someone who’s supposedly a law enforcement officer (one annoying thing about movies/shows is that whenever a character has to act, because they’re caught in a situation or whatever, they’re usually very good actors; why do most actors/directors/writers/whoever not seem to realize that just because a character is being played by an actor doesn’t mean they are themself a good actor?)…although I honestly am not sure whether Mary’s poor acting (I’m particularly thinking of an instance in the third episode) is intentional or not. Let’s go with the former. But anyway, she’s a very enjoyable character and I think she holds her own as the lead.

Marshall Mann — Yep, Marshall Mann the marshal man. I like it. I think it’s funny. And see that serious little frowny face he’s got there. That’s how he looks through the first three episodes, no matter what he’s saying or doing (except for when he’s flummoxed by breasts). It’s part of what makes him so hysterical. He does branch out into other expressions in the fourth episode, though. Really, he’s just a fun, fun guy. Deadpan humor, moments of kickassity, and a great relationship between him and his partner-slash-only-friend Mary. There’s a definite sort of attraction/chemistry there, along with the friendship, which becomes blatantly obvious by the third episode. Personally, I hope they don’t actually have them become a couple, because I really feel that would screw with the great dynamic they’ve got now. But the teasing is fun.

Paul Ben-Victor as Stan McQueen — Yes, it’s the same guy from the first show I reviewed. I can’t help it if he works a lot. Now, I’d like to avoid the obvious Invisible Man reference (particularly since I already made it in my earlier JFC post), and so salvage some of my coolness, but I realize that I have long ago relinquished any claim I may ever have had to such a thing, so I may as well go ahead. Especially since the guest-starring of Vincent Ventresca (a.k.a. the star of I-Man) in the second episode makes not mentioning it rather like ignoring the giant squid at the dinner table (well, coming from me, anyway). So, here I go, referencing away. In an interview, Paul Ben-Victor has even likened his character in IPS, Stan McQueen, to an older Bobby Hobbes. From what I’ve seen so far (which, granted, is only the first four episodes and so not a full picture), that doesn’t seem entirely accurate. Hobbes was a lot more neurotic, for one. Edgier, too. But this Stan character is fun. I particularly like the relationships between him and the two leads, the whole “he’s the boss, but he’s not really in charge” vibe. He’s sort of parental, but in a very nice, pleasant way, rather than your typical gruff, overbearing cop boss, which is very refreshing. You get the feeling that he’s actually on Mary and Marshall’s side, rather than working against them as so many TV bosses do. And funny, too. There was one hilarious scene in the third ep…well, I don’t want to give anything away, so let’s just say it involves the declaration, “The peacock struts.”

Lesley Ann Warren as Jinx Shannon — Jinx is Mary’s mother.  She’s…well, she’s pretty darn annoying.  Despite being the age she is, she has no job and lives off her daughter.  Nor does she have any discernable ambitions or desire for responsibility.  And she’s kind of a ditz.  I suppose some would find her amusing, but I mostly find her irritating.  Still, it is nice to see how Mary puts up with her and takes care of her, even if she is a total leech.  And Jinx can be somewhat endearing at times, when she’s not being a dumb brunette.  I hope as the series progresses we get to see her try a bit harder to become a better person, maybe take up a hobby or something.

Nichole Hiltz as Brandi Shannon — Brandi is Mary’s younger, slackier sister.  She takes after her mom in most ways.  She does seem a bit brighter than Jinx, and maybe a touch more motivated, but she still spends most of her time lounging by the pool and otherwise being entirely no use to anyone.  She’s got a boyfriend back where she normally lives, but there’s something fishy about him.  It’s not really been cleared up what all that’s about, but I’m fairly sure it involves drugs.  And like her mom, Brandi causes nothing but problems for Mary, but Mary still loves her anyway and wants to help her.  So I suppose Brandi and Jinx bring out the softer side of Mary, in some strange way.

Cristian de la Fuente as Raphael Ramirez — Raph is…well, he seems to think he’s Mary’s boyfriend, but Mary disagrees.  She seems to see him more as a…I believe the term is f**k buddy.  He can’t help but get his feelings all hurt over this and generally play the woman in the relationship while Mary freaks out about commitment.  Now, it’s not that I don’t like him.  I like him well enough, for what he is.  It just seems like the writers didn’t really know what to do with him.  I don’t want to say much here, so I don’t spoil it, but…I don’t know, maybe when a character gets a drastic haircut after one episode that’s a bad sign.  Kinda seems like they changed their minds about him.  Or maybe they’ve got some grand master plan they’ve yet to reveal.  If not, Raph kinda got a shoddy deal. 

Todd Williams as Bobby D — Bobby D’s not actually in the show all that much, so it’s hard to say much about him.  He’s a homocide detective that shows up at a lot of the same crime scenes as Mary and Marshall and he seems to sort of grudgingly help her.  He’s also very, very cool, as evidenced in a scene at the end of epsidoe three. 

So, episode one sets us up, introduces us to Mary and all her various life-accessories.  There’s also a case, of course.  I suppose it could be called a fairly standard case, but the nice thing about this is that there isn’t really a set, standard case formula.  It also introduces us to location, being Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Now, as someone who doesn’t know much more about Albuquerque beyond the fact that Bugs Bunny should have taken a left turn there, it’s very nice to see a show set somewhere other than LA or Vancouver.  Not just set, but actually filmed.  New Mexico is probably not a place I’d like to spend a lot of time myself, judging by the amount of sun there appears to be, but it’s nice as a change of venue on my computer screen.  The story in the first one is good, but the character interaction just isn’t quite as interesting, generally, as it is in the other episodes.  Probably because there’s so much to be done in setting the scene for the show.

The second one was very enjoyable.  Mary got to show she’s not good with kids, Marshall got to show how he’s kinda badass, and it all wrapped up in a very satisfying way.  As to that guest appearance by Vincent Ventresca…I have to say, while I thought the episode was very good in just about all respects, there is one thing that did irk me like an unscratched itch. Now, you’d think that when you just happen to end up having an episode featuring two actors who played partners and best friends for two years in another show, you might have them at least, I don’t know, interact once.   Some shows even go a step beyond that and contrive some little moment, such as I-Man itself did in a completely throw-away scene involving Adam Storke, one of the stars from a show called Prey, which also starred Vince and now-way-too-famous-to-ever-do-a-sci-fi-series-again Debra Messing. A moment which, I’m sure, was enormously satisfying to the five people who watched Prey. But I digress. The point is, Paul and Vince appear in all of one scene together, and don’t so much as make eye contact. What a waste. And frankly, a bit of a distraction. (Okay, it’s not like, given the plot of the episode, it was out of place for the characters, so I’m sure people who never heard of I-Man wouldn’t notice anything odd. Which was perhaps the problem. I think it’s funnier to leave casual viewers going, “What was that?” while those in the know go, “Ah-ha *wink*wink*.” Boy, I am really rambling now.)

The third episode was the most hilarious so far.  Mary shows once again that she’s not your typical woman while Marshall shows that ultimately, he’s just a guy.  And Brandi shows that she is of some use…if you need to dress like a skank and don’t know how.  There were just too many funny things to mention, most of them involving Mary and Marshall.  There seems to be a bit of a shift as far as how their relationship is being handled in this one, but I think it’s a fun direction they’re going.  This ep guest-starred Missi Pyle, who has done a heck of a lot of stuff.  You may remember her as Mrs. Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or (my personal favorite) Laliari the alien on Galaxy Quest.  She’s a fine actress, able to be charming, creepy, or conniving at any given moment.  And she’s got a wonderfully expressive and memorable face.

The fourth episode guest-starred the strangely-adorable Dave Foley.  He was the boss-man on Newsradio, as well as having been in the popular Canadian sketch comedy show Kids in the Hall.  He’s quite a funny guy, but it turns out he can do some good drama, as well.  This ep also provides us with some delicious Marshall whump.  We get to see more of what Mary and Marshall mean to each other, but from quite a different angle than the third episode.  It almost seems odd that they’re delving so deeply so early in the series.  Used to be shows wouldn’t even bother with any kind of in-depth character development until they’d established themself and were in the second or third season.  Sadly, shows can’t afford to dawdle like that any more.  As Journeyman and Moonlight proved, a show’s got to make those first thirteen (or fewer) episodes count, because they may be all that it gets (they also proved that even when they do make them count, there’s still every possibility that they’ll get canned).  Though it does make me wonder if it’s not somewhat tying their hands as far as future stories.  If the show does go on for several seasons, how will the relationship between these two characters progress?  Or will it simply reach a comfort level and not change for some time?  I don’t know, but I hope we get the chance to find out.

In summary: In Plain Sight.  Watch it.  It’s good.