In Plain Sight - Season 1 - Complete [DVD]

I had never heard of this series when it was recommended to me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It focuses on Mary, a tough talking US Marshall responsible for people in the Witness Protection Programme. Each episode deals with a different criminal or witness and the complications that arise from being in the programme. However, there is also the long-running storyline of Mary and her partner, Mary and her on/off baseball playing boyfriend and Mary and her flighty mother and sister. Mary and her family also have some backstory relating to her father who has been missing for most of her life and is wanted by the FBI.

The pilot episode and the follow up were a little dreary, I found, and I was a little disappointed. However, after that it really picks up and I started to be much more interested in what was going on. The relationships between the characters became clearer, rather than foggy mess that they seemed at first. The longer running storylines are more compelling than the "new each week" ones and that's what holds the interest. The acting is pretty good but there is still some work to do. Mary's sister, in particular, can be a little one-dimensional, so I hope that will improve in further seasons. I think it could be funnier too. There's room for a little more humour in there.

It's worth a try if you have liked other American crime shows but it's not up there with the likes of Criminal Minds or CSI or The Mentalist for example. I'm going to stick with it for season 2 and see how it improves.

Having bought In Plain Sight after seeing Mary McCormack's performance in Season 5-7 of The West Wing, I knew I was buying it based solely on the merits of the lead star. And so, at first, I was disappointed. The early episodes (especially the double-length Pilot), felt slow and quite heavy after the excellent dialogue and wit in The West Wing. But I decided to give it a few episodes and was richly rewarded.

There is plenty of good dialogue, withering looks and a fair few bad guys that make the harsh Albuquerque sun disappear from washing the programme out: enough plot for each episode to stand alone with a few background 'plot arcs' that encompass the whole of the series. Although it would be nice to have more emphasis on the law enforcement side of programme (recitfied in Season 2), the family plot lines don't detract from a series that grows and which will inevitably want you to buy Season 2.

With the DVDs themselves, there a very few extras (some deleted scenes), which is a disappointment compared with other US TV Series. Also, being a 'summer' US show, there aren't the usual 22-25 episodes, but just over half that number, so when watching it, it is pretty quick to get through them all.

All in all, well worth getting, and continuing with.

In Plain Sight is a police drama/procedural show that centres on Mary Shannon, a US Marshall responsible for entrants into the Federal Witness Protection Programme in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition to the demands of her witnesses, she has a challenging home life and a rapidly unfolding string of personal problems. So far, so generic, and to a certain extent, there's not much that's truly new here. However, In Plain Sight has fantastic qualities and it has gradually become one of my favourite `weeknight tune out' shows.

The witness protection programme construct is handy as it allows for a variation of storylines. Sometimes Mary's witnesses are criminals, sometimes they're innocent bystanders who happened to get in the way of a criminal act. Sometimes they're single people and sometimes they're families. So there's always a different `how did they get here' theme to explore. Outside of the crime storylines, Mary struggles with her family and personal network relationships. Occasionally soapy and melodramatic, nevertheless this element gives the show an added layer which makes it a bit more interesting than the usual `criminalists without personal lives' shtick of other cop shows.

The interesting - and comment-worthy - thing about In Plain Sight is that it seems to have attracted a better calibre of cast than this kind of show normally gets. Mary McCormack is convincing and charismatic as the tough, nonconformist Mary. Fred Weller (cousin of Robocop Peter Weller - fangeek alert!) as Marshall Mann proves to be an excellent sidekick, equally adept at laconic asides and the action scenes, and has gradually developed into something of a second lead. Paul Ben-Victor (Spiros Vondas from The Wire) is brilliant yet largely wasted as Mary and Marshall's boss, as is Todd Williams as Det. Dershowitz, although both manage to steal scenes from the main cast with pleasing regularity. Nichole Hiltz gets some hilarious scenes as Mary's sister Brandi, as well as a subplot which builds up to the seasons's effective two-part finale. And Cristián de la Fuente is great but basically eye-candy as Mary's adorable put-upon boyfriend Raphael, who puts up with an inhuman amount of nonsense and emotional detachment from her. Despite this, he still manages to find plenty of time to take a heroic number of showers (the fact that de la Fuente is one of the most beautiful men on television MUST be the reason behind this cleanliness obsession!).

Special mention must go to Lesley Ann Warren, who plays Mary's mother, Jinx. Warren, a truly class act and something of a legend, is by far the best thing in this show and many of her scenes achieve genuine emotional heft. Vulnerable, flirtatious, loving yet anti-maternal and occasionally defensive, Warren walks a tightrope between pathos and parody, always teetering on the edge of emotional collapse yet never allowing Jinx to become truly monstrous. Her character's journey is interesting and it is good to see Warren given a three-dimensional, meaty role after several years of guest starring in other shows.

Negatives? Well, it won't win any awards for originality. The tone is uneven at times, veering between dark drama and comedy, and there are occasional scripting clunkers (particularly early on; it seems to take a handful of episodes to find its groove). It can be surprisingly cheesy (although I have now decided to find this charming!). Paul Ben-Victor is woefully underutilised. Will McCormack, appearing in the last two episodes of season one as FBI Special Agent O'Conner, attempts scenery-chewing villainry but falls totally flat. The disparity between Mary's care and compassion for her witnesses, and her frustration and occasional anger with her family, isn't always handled terribly well and can, at times, feel incongruous; likewise, her dismissive and passive-aggressive treatment of Raphael seems unfair and as a viewer, you often end up siding with him instead of her when they disagree (the only time that Mary, as a character, seems genuinely unlikeable).

Bottom line: although this show is extremely entertaining, engaging and well acted, it is not The Wire. So don't start watching it expecting it to change your life. Nonetheless, it's rapidly become one of my favourite shows due to the quality of its acting and its entertainment value.

In summation I really enjoyed the first season of In Plain Sight. I have just bought the second and was pleased to hear that as of July 2010, the US network continues to put faith in the show by commissioning two further seasons (taking it up to five).