Jane Doe, miss détective: La pièce manquante

The previous poster commented on JANE DOE: TILL DEATH DO US PART. This is the one that aired last night 3/11/05 and I think the entire cast was superb. I'm so looking forward to yet another season of JANE DOE. Love the chemistry between the adults. I think Lea, Joe, and Billy all were just wonderful in TILL DEATH DO US PART. Cathy and Jack have this wonderful marriage. I would however like to see Jack continue to be wiser than he had been in the previous 2 movies. It seemed he was too trusting and unsuspecting. I'm a big fan of Billy Moses who plays Jack and I think he's extremely talented and unfortunately his talents aren't used as much as I'd love to see them used. I'm hoping to see him get more airtime in the future movies. :)

In "Jane Doe: The Wrong Face," prosecutor Phil Rafelson's wife Caroline goes into the hospital for plastic surgery. When the bandages come off, it's not his wife, but a teenage girl who takes off. His wife has been kidnapped by a drug dealer who wants the charges dropped. Frank Darnell (Joe Penny) calls in housewife Kathy Davis (Lea Thompson).

The best thing about the "Jane Doe" series, or, in fact, any of the Hallmark shows, is that it gives one a chance to see some of the old mainstays of television again. Thompson is a pleasant actress; Joe Penny deserves better, but these days, we take him where we can get him. In this episode, former One Life to Live star Brynn Thayer plays a nurse, and, of course, Billy Moses is on hand as Kathy's husband. Also in this episode were Twin Peaks star Ray Wise and Crazy Like a Fox's John Rubinstein. So for us boomers, it was like old home week.

The Jane Doe series is more interesting than Mystery Woman or McBride with its Scarecrow and Mrs. King type thing happening. Thompson, however, doesn't quite have Kate Jackson's attack on the material, and the pace of these shows is on the slow side. Not much in the way of pizazz but okay mindless entertainment.

I commented about an earlier episode that the switcheroo/disappearing plots were used in earlier shows from the 60's and 70's. Now that I've watched four of them I see that it will be the theme of all the plots.

This one was just a bit weaker than the previous offerings, but still entertaining. The car chase in the hills was a little ho-hum since we all knew Cathy/Jane would come out of it in one piece, given there was still over half an hour left in the show. What ruined that particular scene was the fact that her car was completely spotless when the met Frank right after the chase. But...that's about the only thing I would really complain about, so it didn't spoil the episode.

Nice to see Bryn Thayer again, having really liked her during her three year stint on "Matlock". She has aged a bit of course, but still very attractive.

Overall, I like the shows in this series. The plots are interesting, the acting is decent, and the characters are likable. However, there are problems that could be easily fixed. First, we need less family. I get the juxtaposition of the soccer mom with her normal family life and the spy working for the government, but the family is annoying. The kids are too cutesy, and the constant "affection" between Jane and her husband is way overdone. Maybe I'm just cynical, but no one I know who's been married 20 years, is that touchy feely and constantly kissing each other. Second is the music. The constant background music is intrusive and makes it difficult to concentrate on the show. The music is too loud, it's just...weird sounding, and it doesn't go along with what's happening on the screen. Same with the background noise; there's constant noise of people talking, kids screaming, traffic, all sorts of noise, that again, doesn't go along with what's actually happening. Aside from that, the shows are entertaining.

5/10 - a bland plot and only okay acting makes for a not very memorable mystery