TV Pilot Spotlight: ABC's "Missing"

Last night another late season show premiered, this time on ABC. It is the mystery thriller starring Ashley Judd (Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy), "Missing". It opened up to pretty decent rating, I believe roughly 10 million viewers tuned in to the show. Those aren't amazing numbers, but decent enough for ABC to keep the show rolling for now. Well I was one of the 10 million who checked out the show, and I will say that overall I was fairly impressed. I didn't love it, but I will stick around for another week or two to see where it goes.

Ashley Judd has kind of faded away the past few years. But she has joined the lot of movie actors who are jumping on the TV bandwagon. This show sort of reminds me of one her earlier films, Double Jeopardy. Where she gets put in jail for the murder of her husband (even though she was innocent) and get released early and goes on a chase to find out where her son is only to realize her husband was still alive. In "Missing" her husband (played by Sean Bean) dies in a car bombing in the first 5 minutes of the episode. Cut to 10 years later and while her son is studying in Rome he goes missing. So then she goes on the hunt in Europe to find him. Oh by the way, she is an ex-CIA agent who's been retired since her husband (who was also CIA) died. On the side, the CIA office in Rome led by Cliff Curtis (Runaway Jury) is trying to track down Judd's character and understand what she is doing in Rome.

The episode was hit and miss for me. I think the story elements are all there nicely, it's setting up what could be a decent cat and mouse type thriller. The chase just began last night so obviously it opened up a whole kit and caboodle worth of questions. We know her son was kidnapped by what may be some kind of group running a drug operation in Rome. We know there are eyes for this organization everywhere and quickly caught on to Judd's new role in this thing. Bad guys keep popping up to eliminate her but she takes them out with ease. I won't lie, Ashley Judd can kick some ass. Or at least, her stunt double can...I'm not to sure if scene of her fighting is actually her. But the hand to hand fighting is pulled off pretty well.

I guess what I was most thrown by was the execution of the show overall. Or maybe it's the production quality of it. To me, some of it seemed pretty cheesy and like a lot of things were ripped right from other shows/movies of this same nature. Some campy dialog, and what looked like some cruddy green screen work. Also, and I HATE to bring this stuff up...but some events seemed to be way to convenient. Like when she breaks into that bar and jumps to a date on their security camera footage, it happens to go right to the moment where her son was kidnapped and it was perfectly trained on the situation. It pains me to even say that kind of thing, because I can't stand when people complain about stuff like that. But to me, in this episode...it just seemed to perfect. Also, she strolls around Rome after murdering several bad guys out in the open and doesn't seem to take much effort to hide. I know I'm just grasping at straws here, but to many things about it came off as totally cheese ball.

My other question is about Sean Bean. His character dies before the opening credits yet he's listed IN the opening credits as a main cast member, not a guest star. Which usually will imply that he will be on every episode. On IMDB.com, he's shown as being on 3 episodes (like every other main cast member). So I'm wondering if maybe he didn't die in the explosion and maybe he's the reason why the son was kidnapped. Perhaps as leverage? Or maybe HE is the kidnapper. Or maybe...he will just appear in flashbacks the whole season, which will honestly be kind of lame. Bean is a good actor and is pretty bad ass, so if he's just used to give us some back story to Ashley Judd...they could have hired a lesser known/un-cooler actor. But, time will tell I suppose. Patience Mike, patience.

So to me, "Missing" was not a perfect show. But it's one that could get better in time and as more story unfolds. Judd was very good, but it was still weird seeing her on TV and after being out of the spotlight for a while. I'll tune in next week to see where the next chapter of this saga goes. For now, I'll say it's a fairly decent show that may be worth checking out, but if you missed it, you may not be missing a whole lot.