Testemunha Ocular

With the addition of In Plain Sight, it's official...the summer cable shows like The Closer, Saving Grace, Burn Notice and Damages are so much better than anything the major networks have to offer during the "regular" season. Love the chemistry between Mary and Marshall. Love the quick quips and the realistic dialog. And the addition of a fine looking black detective with the unlikely name of Dershowitz for Mary to butt heads and crack wise with is pure gold.

I do agree that the mother and sister are best in small doses, but they do provide a nice slightly off-balance counterpoint to the thoroughly professional handle Mary has on her work life. One line describes the relationship beautifully: in replying to her n'er-do-well sister's question about why Mary won't just get rid of her defective car, she says "because, like my family, I love it a little more than I want to kill it." The people she's protecting have been getting better and better with each successive show. The most recent, David Foley, was a real hoot as an assassin's middleman.

All in all, I don't care if it's not exactly as law enforcement would do it. I'm not looking for authenticity in a summer show. I'm looking for fun, and In Plain Sight has it in spades.

This is a great show, despite being predictable now and again. I love the characters and I love the soundtrack. Both Mary and Marshall are complicated and interesting people. Mary's family is as crazy as any family can be, but as the saying goes, every crazy family is crazy in it's own way. I wish we knew more about Marshall's life because he's easily one of the most interesting men on television, despite having no personal life whatsoever. He's well read and wry and very patient and insightful. Only drawback: I miss Robert Dershowitz!

My husband and I blew a rainy Saturday watching one episode after the next on Netflix. As rainy Saturdays go, it was a good one.

I have to catch up with the beginning of the first episode, but what I saw tells me USA has a winner on its hands with IN PLAIN SIGHT. The main character, a rather fetching but ball-busting federal marshal played by Mary McCormack, is a swipe of Karen Sisco from Elmore Leonard's OUT OF SIGHT, crossed with Jordan Cavanaugh of CROSSING JORDAN and even Adrian Monk of MONK, to name just a few influences. McCormack racks them and stacks them with the best of her male counterparts. Predictably, she has a troubled personal life and a ditzy mother, played winningly by Leslie Ann Warren, 62, but not looking a day over 50. In the opener, it's her birthday and she just knows Mom has planned a surprise party. She also has a murder to solve and some people to put into witness protection. By the end, all is well, of course. And so on to the next episode. McCormack, a TV and movie veteran, is the whole show. The majority of the supporting cast is made up of your basic generic TV actors, looking a little too young and too clean cut and too thin. Sounds like WITHOUT A TRACE, don't it? McCormack does a post-coital nude scene in the opener, clearly to keep the guys watching. My theory is that we will never see her naked again. But that's OK. She's just fun to watch.

This is one of those shows that if given enough time will develop a loyal following. I have watched 5 episodes so far. I talked my girlfriend into sitting down for the pilot and she was hooked. Mary McCormack does an excellent job of showing a flawed character struggling with a dysfunctional family and the evils of her job(protecting and hiding criminals in Witness Protection). Fred Weller is excellent as her laconic partner. Paul Ben-Victor is dead on as the not-quite-aware section chief of the U.S. Marshall's Service. The shows are well-crafted and allow Ms. McCormack ample opportunity to zing her co-stars with great one-liners. The developing back-stories on her family show great promise. Lesley Anne Warren is an over the top version of the mother no one wants to claim as their own. She's a hard-drinking "good-time" girl who likes men, a LOT. Nichole Hiltz is her sexy, ditzy sister who is attracted to trouble. The cast is a lot of fun to watch and I am going to be rooting for them to be renewed for a second season.

Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) is a U.S. Marshal who spends her time relocating and working with federal witnesses in the witness protection program. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mary works with her partner Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller). She is a tough fast-talking agent who won't back down, but her family life is a mess. Her father is a criminal. Her overly dependent mother Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren), and younger sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) are even more of a mess.

Mary McCormack is amazing and has great platonic chemistry with Frederick Weller. It's a simple, fun cop procedural and everything works. The dysfunctional family and love life are all great.