- Mary Shannon, US Marshal - USA Network
(The Closer has since been picked up by Super Channel.)
But the quirky US Marshal-themed drama, which debuted its sophomore season in the US three weeks ago, returned to Global last Tuesday (May 27), with remarkably little fanfare.
Post-Traumatic Stress and Miraculous Weight Loss
Season two picks up 48 hours after the events of the first season’s finale – although our heroine, played by The West Wing alum Mary McCormack, appears magically to have lost about 25 pounds in that short span of time. Two days after having been kidnapped, almost raped, and witnessing a murder mere inches from her face, Mary Shannon is showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. But for Mary, PTSD manifests itself by transforming her into some Oprah-style new age philosopher queen. She’s sanguine and Zen in ways that unnerve everyone who knows her.
In Plain Sight: A Primer
A brief primer for the uninitiated: Mary Shannon (McCormack) is a US Marshal, responsible for the safety, well-being and occasional hand-holding of individuals moved into the Witness Protection Program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her charges are a combination of innocent people who may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and hardened criminals who turn state’s evidence and get a free pass from prosecution for their crimes. What they all have in common, as Shannon reminds weekly via voice-over intro, is that someone wants them dead.
Mary is one of the more interesting female detectives on TV. She’s got issues: relationship issues, commitment issues, abandonment issues – and a dark sense of humour. Last season saw her rather surprisingly join a support group as she began to come to terms with her father’s departure from her family when Mary was still a child. (But Mary has been keeping secrets about her father’s disappearance.)
Supporting Characters
Mary’s partner and best friend, played by Frederick Weller (of indie films The Shape of Things and the Business of Strangers), is named Marshall Mann. Because of his profession, he’s affectionately referred to as “Marshal Marshall.” The show is forever telling viewers how smart Marshall is (not unlike Vincent d’Onofrio in Law and Order: Criminal Intent), but the actor tries a little too hard. And it’s as though he’s trying to sound like Christian Slater trying to sound like Jack Nicholson – which can get distracting.
Their boss is Stan McQueen, chief inspector for WITSEC's Southwest region, and there's a new office assistant on the scene this season named Eleanor. Rounding out the work-front characters is African-American detective Bob Dershowitz ("It's a long story," he says of his surname, but viewers have yet to hear it), who enjoys a certain love-hate chemistry with Shannon.
Lesley Ann Warren as Mary’s Mom
Mary, for all of her troubles, is the stable one in a family of flakes. Her mother, played by all-grown-up Cinderella Lesley Ann Warren, is a closet alcoholic with musical-theatre ambitions.
Mary’s nothing-but-trouble sister Brandi puts the moves on Mary’s admirably loyal, baseball-playing boyfriend Raph. And she comes into possession of her own drug-dealing boyfriend’s suitcase full of heroin. This in turn gets the boyfriend killed, Mary kidnapped, and sends the feds to Mary’s new home to tear it apart in search of more drugs -- all of which does not bode well for Mary's career.
The drama at the centre of the season two opener was unremarkable – involving members of a family being poisoned by chemical residue on some stolen biker-gang bounty. But it is good to have this show back. The spring TV season is over, and these characters, imperfect though they may be, are a welcome presence on the TV screen once again.
In Plain Sight airs on the Global-TV network on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Check your local listings.
Sierra Bacquie - Sierra Bacquie is a Toronto-based writer, editor, songwriter and musician. Writing and Editing During Sierra’s four-year stint ...
