Filler: In Plain Sight

Nothing like being alone in the fortress whilst the Goddess is away (auditioning chargers) to catch up on half-watched shows on the box, among them the short-lived Karen Sisco, Identity and this show.

In Plain Sight is a genial procedural with Mary McCormack‘s US Marshal Mary Shannon each week dealing with a witness protection client and their backstory, with a few beats on the side about the marshal’s personal life. You know what a sucker I am for procedurals. You also know what a sucker I am for the personal life of a favoured weekly law-enforcement/operating-room/intergalactic protagonist when done well.

So when, in the pilot, Shannon’s mother and sister move in with her, signs above them flashing ‘trouble’, I put them down to comic relief. Only, Shannon’s partner Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) is the droll and actual comic relief which left the mother and sister to be unwitting instigators of doom.

I put up with twelve episodes of that goddamned Shannon family arc, the cases-of-the-week a flimsy life preserver of sanity and interest, until a realisation in the season finale:  those Shannon harpies were there to stay, to continue to be instigators of drama for the sake of drama, no matter that logic and safety and mental well-being dictated a couple of desert graves.  Ah well.

I tried.

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Box Watch Update

With winter tapping politely on the windows and sliding leaves under the doors, it’s that time of year when the Fortress Mamea’s viewing statistics increase dramatically.

We’ve a terrible backlog of films and shows, but we’ve begun scraping away at that mountain.

In Plain Sight Season One is interesting in that it doesn’t really work for either myself or The Goddess but I’m still watching it (alone from ep five onward). Nope, it’s not the blonde lead (hey it’s Whatshername from The West Wing!). I think, for me, there’s comfort in the cop show formula, and the twinkly dialogue between the marshals is sometimes entertaining. I’ll see it through to the end of the season at least.

Sopranos Season One is a cracker. Someone has very generously lent us all six seasons of this sucker, and it’s great television. But not exactly must-see telly. I suspect the fact that the boxset sat almost forgotten under my desk for three months has given us a certain complacency in getting around to watching it.

Go Girls Season Two is a hoot. Two years ago, if someone had listed the component parts of this show to me and told me that I would like it, I would’ve broken both their legs and laughed uproariously while doing so and yet… rarely an ep goes by without me chortling happily beside The Goddess. A great New Zild show. I’m looking forward to the third season which finished screening recently.

And that’s just the legit stuff. Speaking of which, I shan’t be listing any more shows which haven’t been officially made available in New Zild. Probably at year’s end as part of the annual round up, but day-in, day-out, as a citizen, It’s Not Really Legal, and as a scriptwriter, It’s Not Right.

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