Have you started watching
In Plain Sight yet? Well, what are you waiting for?
USA Network’s newest crime drama airs Sunday nights at 10/9C and has proven in two short weeks to be a worthy addition to the cable channel’s stable of high quality, yet quirky television shows. I know I’ve said this before, but USA consistently puts out the best shows on cable and comes very close to challenging the big four networks in overall programming. With
Monk,
Psych,
Law & Order: Criminal Intent,
Burn Notice (one of The Blot’s favorite shows on television) and now
In Plain Sight, the USA Network lineup of shows should be destination television for any real fan of TV. I mean come on, the USA Network IS where characters happen.
If you have missed
In Plain Sight’s first two episodes, don’t worry you haven’t missed anything that you can’t catch up on in about five minutes flat. The show doesn’t have an ongoing story line, so watching the episodes out of order shouldn’t be a problem. To give you a quick rundown, Mary McCormack (
The West Wing) stars as Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshal who works in “the highly secretive Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC). While her friends and family believe she's a glorified courier, she is busy managing relocated federal witnesses who are career criminals and those who had the misfortune of witnessing a crime or falling victim to one. These people all have one thing in common, someone wants them dead and it's Mary’s job to see that doesn't happen.” (
link)
Strangely enough, the show takes place “in the greater Albuquerque/Santa Fe area,” which has to be a first for a prime time show. (
link) The drama has some really great writing and is both suspenseful and witty. It also has a great cast, which includes Frederick Weller as Mary’s partner
Marshall Mann and Paul Ben-Victor (
Entourage,
John From Cincinnati) as
Stan McQueen, Mary’s boss and the chief inspector for WITSEC’s Southwest region. I’m also glad to see Cristian de la Fuente (
The Class) return to television as
Raphael Ramirez, Mary’s on-again, off-again boyfriend.
I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen so far and expect further character development as the series moves along. McCormack plays the emotionally withdrawn U.S. Marshal perfectly, and you can really empathize with how the character struggles to balance doing her job and doing the right thing. With most shows on hiatus over the summer, the USA Network is bringing back all of its big hits with new original programming to entertain us during this extremely slow time on TV. And since there is nothing else new on Sunday nights, you really have no excuses not to be watching this great new show.
