I've
unwittingly noticed a bit of a pattern in the various topics that I
have chosen over the last couple of weeks or so on Fridays. Perhaps
you've noticed it too? If not, I'll explain what I mean.
With
the exception of the entry that focused on the various Simpsons
Treehouse of Horror specials, the last month, I've featured
television shows that have three things in common.
1
– They were all shows that aired on CBS
2
– They were all shows that were drama series on CBS
3
– They were all shows that ended up being canceled by CBS.
Who
knew that “Ghost Whisperer”, “Joan of Arcadia”, and “Cold
Case” had so much in common?
Well,
why break with this trend? Today's show also happens to be a
dramatic series that aired on CBS until it was canceled.
What
I found interesting about all of these shows was the fact that all of
them had a unique theme to them that helped them stand out. “Ghost
Whisperer” featured a woman who could communicate with the spirits
of the dearly departed, “Joan of Arcadia” showcased a teenage
girl who could speak with God, and “Cold Case” featured a team of
detectives who re-investigated old murder cases that were never
solved.
And
for today, we'll be looking at show that featured a team of
detectives that worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigations
(otherwise known as the FBI) aiding in the search for missing people.
I'm
not talking about the missing people whose faces could be found in
department store lobbies or milk cartons. I'm talking more along the
lines of people who have disappeared more recently than that, like
within a 48-hour time period.
I'm
not exactly sure where I heard this statement...for all I know, I
could have heard it on this show...but I have heard that the more
time that passes after the initial 48-hour period, the less of a
chance that a missing person is found alive. So it's incredibly
crucial that investigators and police work as quickly as possible to
make sure that they can save the life of a person who has gone
missing.
As
many of you know, the circumstances in which a person can go missing
are plenty. They can be kidnapped or abducted, they could have some
sort of disease or mental illness that causes them to wander off,
they could have gotten lost in an unfamiliar area...and in some
bizarre cases, they could even fake their own deaths.
All
of these plots and more could be found in this television show.
The
Jerry Bruckheimer produced program “Without A Trace” is our topic
for today, a show that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 until May
19, 2009.
The
series depicted five (six as of season four) detectives who worked
for the FBI offices in New York City. Each episode, they would be
alerted to a missing person (or in some cases, persons), and they
would have to work together to try and locate the person before
something terrible happened.
In
almost all the cases, the missing person was found alive...but
sometimes the ending wasn't a happy one. And in some cases, the
missing person ended up being involved in criminal activities, and
the team had to try and locate them before they caused innocent
people harm.
You
think that's stressful enough? That's not even counting all of the
personal struggles that all six of the detectives had to deal with
during the course of the series.
What
sorts of personal problems are we talking about?
Well,
let's start with introducing the team members and go from there.
The
leader of the team is Special
Agent John Michael Malone,
otherwise known as Jack (Anthony LaPaglia). During the first two
years of the series, he has to take care of his ailing father (Martin
Landau) who is battling Alzheimer's Disease. He also ends up getting
divorced from his wife, and struggles to be a single parent to his
two daughters. Jack also gets abducted and is tortured by his
kidnapper, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which
leads to him getting demoted. He does get reinstated as team leader
in the final season. He also gets involved in a couple of
relationships during his time on the series, including one of his own
team members...
Special
Agent Samantha “Sam” Spade
(Poppy
Montgomery) is introduced as the other woman that Jack is having an
affair with at the beginning of the series. And would you believe
that the affair goes on and off during the entire length of the
show's run? But by the end of the series, Sam ends up finding her
one true love, and gives birth to a child. Samantha's time on the
series was quite memorable as well. At the end of the first season,
she gets shot, and ends up getting severely beaten up while going
undercover in a missing persons case. Samantha also ends up having a
secret relationship with fellow detective Martin Fitzgerald, and she
also has a strained relationship with her family after it is revealed
that she murdered her mother's boyfriend with a shovel after she
discovered that he was sexually abusing her sister.
Special
Agent Vivian “Viv” Johnson
(Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is the second-in-command of the missing
persons team at the FBI. If anything were to happen to Jack, she
would immediately take over. When Jack moved to Chicago in order to
try and save his marriage, Viv took over. But when Jack came back
after his marriage inevitably failed, he returned to his old job,
which caused tension between her and Jack. She and Jack did settle
things, and she probably understood Jack better than anyone else.
She has a teenage son named Reggie, and she underwent open heart
surgery in the middle of the series, making a full recovery.
Next
up is Special Agent Danny
Taylor (nee Alvarez)
(Enrique Murciano) probably has the most troubled background out of
anyone. He lost his parents in a car accident when he was little,
and shouldered most of the blame on himself, as the car crashed as
his father turned away from the wheel to yell at him. He ended up
being shuffled from foster home to foster home, and as a result is
sympathetic to children with poor home situations, much like
Samantha. Danny helps Martin get over some personal issues, sees
Jack as a father figure, and has a very close relationship with
Samantha and Viv. His brother ended up becoming a drug addict and
Danny did whatever he could to get him on the straight and narrow.
At the end of the series, he ended up marrying...
Special
Agent Elena Delgado
(Roselyn Sanchez). As you may have learned from the last paragraph,
Elena ended up marrying Danny at the end of the series. She actually
didn't join the series until the fourth season. When she first
appears, we quickly learn that she fled from her ex-boyfriend Carlos
Aguilar, and is a single parent to her daughter, Sofia. She didn't
have a huge role in the series until she got involved in a nasty
custody battle with Carlos. The battle climaxed with Carlos
kidnapping Elena, but she was rescued by the team and began seeing
Danny shortly after.
The
final member of the team is Special
Agent Martin Fitzgerald
(Eric Close), who has quite a huge role on the series. Originally
with White Collar Crimes in Seattle, Washington, Martin's father had
him transferred to the FBI offices in New York. The pilot episode of
the series was Martin's first day. Despite some of the team (Danny
in particular) believing that Martin's transfer was brought on by
favortism, Martin's relationship with his father is lukewarm at best.
Martin ended up shooting a suspect in suspicious circumstances
(which Viv witnessed), and the two of them kept it under wraps until
Martin confided in Jack what really happened. Martin ended up having
a brief relationship with Samantha, and ended up getting shot several
times while transferring a prisoner to a detention facility. The
shooting caused Martin to develop an addiction to painkillers...one
that Danny helped him kick.
So,
that's about all that I have to say about the characters of “Without
A Trace”. Now for some of the cases. I don't have a lot of time
to go over all of them in detail, but I will briefly talk about some
of the more memorable cases below. I'll write down the season and
episode number for you, in case you want to find them yourselves.
Season
1, Episode 1 (9/26/2002) – The episode where it all began. It's
the perfect episode to introduce the team characters, as well as the
premise of the show.
Season
1, Episode 5 (10/24/2002) – When a teenage boy goes missing from a
private school, Jack discovers that the headmaster may be
responsible. And believe it or not, this episode is the beginning of
a storyline that lasts almost a whole year!
Season
1, Episode 11 (1/9/2003) – The victims are just two young
girls...and Samantha develops an obsessive need to find them before
something terrible happens.
Season
1, Episodes 22 and 23 (5/8/2003 and 5/15/2003) – Doing a case based
around the 9/11 attacks just a year and a half after they happened
was a risky move, but I think these two episodes did a fantastic job
handling a sensitive subject. This is also the story arc where Sam
gets shot.
Season
2, Episode 1 (9/25/2003) – This case was unique as an entire school
bus filled with children goes missing, and it's a race against time
to find them before something bad happens.
Season
2, Episode 6 (11/6/2003) – The case is about a missing high school
student, but it also got slammed by parents groups, who sued CBS for
its display of a teenage orgy on screen.
Season
2, Episode 15 (2/14/2004) – As a child who was bullied, I recommend
that EVERYONE SEE THIS EPISODE just so they can understand how much
of an impact it can have on a child.
Season
3, Episode 5 (10/28/2004) – Ever seen those extreme makeover shows
with the plastic surgery? Believe it or not, this episode focuses on
one of these shows...as well as the negative effects that can come
from them.
Season
4, Episode 6 (11/3/2005) – The first episode to visit another
country, the team goes to Mexico in order to save a man who was
kidnapped on a vacation with his wife.
Season
6, Episode 6 (11/8/2007) – Believe it or not, this show did a
crossover with CSI, as Gil Grissom (William Petersen) makes a guest
appearance.
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