In Plain Sight, "Who's Bugging Mary?": Family affairs

Some quick thoughts on last night's "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I accuse a widow of inventing her dead husband...

"In Plain Sight" isn't a "mythology" show in the sense we think of, ala "The X-Files" or "Fringe," but there tends to be the same kind of breakdown of episodes, where some are purely self-contained work plots, and others are about the larger backstory driving the series. It's just that this time the mythology is about a dysfunctional family, and about a magic suitcase of crystal meth.

And where the mythology episodes are often the ones to be looked forward to the most on those other series, they tend to be the weakest parts of "In Plain Sight." I would, frankly, take a dozen stories about murdered witnesses before we got another episode dealing with Jinx and/or the magic suitcase, the latter of which I thought we were finally rid of at the end of last season.

I recognize that David Maples and company are trying to tell a story about a character as much as about her work, and Mary's family is a fundamental part of her character. She wouldn't be the hard-ass she is if her dad hadn't run out on her, and if she hadn't been stuck taking care of her idiot mother and her flaky sister. But I understand that by now, and I still find her family to be abrasive, annoying and a large distraction from the chief appeal of the show, which is the interplay between Mary, Marshall and the witnesses. And the FBI agent is almost as irritating a character as Jinx, even if they explained his motivation for being so irritating at the end of "Who's Bugging Mary?"

(Speaking of which, the Mary who has held grudges for decades against mom and sis, and the Mary who can't stop being nasty to Eleanor for the sin of moving Mary's desk, does not seem like the kind of person who would be all "I look forward to working with you" to the FBI guy after he tried to destroy her life twice, and has still left her house looking like a complete wreck.)

When the episode opened with Mary dreaming that Brandi was going into WitSec, all I could think was, "Why can't this be real? And why can't she take Jinx with her?"

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Duplicate Bridge": Leaving Norman

Because "In Plain Sight" airs at 10 on a Sunday and is one of those series that Hulu can't show until 8 days after it airs, it's often taken me a few days or more to get to each episode of this season, by which point it no longer feels worth the effort to blog about it. (Or I'm tied up with more regularly-scheduled features.) But this week's episode, which I finally finished a few minutes ago, was worth commenting at any time or place, and not just because it guest starred the great Clarke Peters, aka Cool Lester Smooth from "The Wire." Spoilers coming up just as soon as I write what I think you think is my biggest flaw...

"Duplicate Bridge" wasn't exactly an "Only 'In Plain Sight' could tell this" kind of story. With a few tweaks, I could imagine it on one of at least a half-dozen other crime dramas. But where that ordinarily signals one of the series' weaker efforts, this was one of the show's best -- suggesting that the problem with the "Was a witness killed because of his old life?" episodes isn't just that they're generic, but that they're not very well-executed.

Here, the writers (specifically, Lynne E. Litt) came up with an interesting character in Norman (played wonderfully, as you'd expect, by Peters), a story with several unexpected twists (specifically, that Norman was responsible for the bridge collapse) and, most importantly, centered it all around Marshall for once. Mary's a good character and obviously the show's bread-and-butter, but it was nice to see her take a backseat in this one, to have Marshall mostly be right about everything (he didn't suspect Norman's double/triple life, but he damn sure knew Norman was going to blow up the bridge, with or without Mary on it), and to see that Frederick Weller could more than carry an episode, and go toe-to-toe with Peters while doing it.

After a bad season premiere, I've been mostly enjoying this second season of "In Plain Sight," but "Duplicate Bridge" was a cut above. Nicely-done, people.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Aguna Matatala": Get outta here!

It's Upfront Week, so I'm going to be terse with a lot of my non-schedule-related posts over the next few days. I quite liked last night's "In Plain Sight," as it dealt with a couple of WitSec-specific problems (how do you deal with divorce, and what happens if your cultural background is unusual enough to be noticed in your new home?), and had a funny turn by Richard Schiff (even if he did overplay the accent a little).

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Rubble With a Cause": Disaster relief

Quick spoilers for last night's "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I leave you 19 voicemail messages...

I never got around to reviewing last week's episode with Cynthia Watros (any show that airs Sunday at 10, and that I don't get to see in advance, is going to fall behind in the blogging rotation), but in many ways I found it to be of a piece with "Rubble With a Cause." Both episodes did what I've asked the show to do by focusing more on the unique ways that being in WitSec can interfere with more traditional TV problems (family dysfunction last week, an "ER"-style mass casualty this week), but I don't think the execution was as strong as it could have been in either episode, and I found the Brandi/Joshua Malina scenes entirely skippable.

In the interest of time, I'll stick to discussing "Rubble," though feel free to discuss both if you want in the comments.

The idea of Mary having to protect a high-profile, high-risk witness trapped in the middle of a building collapse was an interesting one, and the production team knocked themselves out creating that setting for it. But once the David Zayas character showed up to confront the witness, things fell apart. We seemed to be missing a scene between when the explosion went off and when Mary and the bad guy had their guns on each other, and I have no idea what Zayas' plan was, exactly. Even if he hadn't been dumb enough to deliver a confession in the presence of a US Marshal (with or without her walkie-talkie turned on), how did he expect to get out of there? And all the talk of loyalty to partners above all else came out of left field. It's not that Mary isn't incredibly tight with Marshall, or that they'd risk their lives for each other (see him running into the building right before the explosion blocked the stairwells); it's that this wasn't the theme of the episode, or of Mary's interaction with her witness, until that moment.

I did like seeing Marshall and Stan working so hard in support of Mary, and I particularly liked Raph's reaction (or, rather, lack of one, as it's a cliche on these shows for the significant other to give the hero a hard time after a brutal day at work) to Mary being gone all day at the accident site. I just felt like the set-up didn't go anywhere that interesting.

Also, I fast-forwarded through the scene where Brandi interrupted the AA meeting. Do. Not. Care. Brandi's less irritating than Jinx is, but she really only works in a context directly tied to Mary; giving her a self-contained storyline is a waste of everybody's time.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "In My Humboldt Opinion": Because I got high

Brief spoilers for tonight's "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I place an order at the drivethrough...

"In My Humboldt Opinion" was, in my own humble opinion, a vast improvement on the season premiere. No messing around with mysterious corpses, just Mary doing her actual job, and dealing with one of the many complications of life in WitSec: if you're a criminal, and your emotional well-being has depended on one of the crimes you regularly commit, how do you function when you have Mary telling you to obey the law?

Kevin Rankin is quickly becoming one of those actors whose appearance instantly makes me more interested in whatever he's in, whether it's a good show (as Herc on "Friday Night Lights"), a bad show (as the only interesting part of "Bionic Woman") or in between. Here, he used his Steve Zahn 2.0 qualities to good effect as Jerry the socially anxious pothead. And he made the episode's climax, where Mary found a way around the problem by affixing a Bob's Burger sticker to the witness stand mic, unexpectedly poignant. I always like seeing TV characters be good at what they do, particularly in surprising ways, and so Mary saving the day with unorthodox thinking -- as opposed to just bullying Jerry into testifying -- was a nice touch.

I didn't even mind the Jinx and Brandi material so much this week, because they were used as illustrations for the visiting shrink of just how frantic Mary's life is. When they're working as foils for Mary, I don't hate them as much; it's only when I'm expected to care about either one as an independent character that they become unnecessary distractions. And Raph's also not a huge problem if his appearances are as brief as they were here, where he became the one good thing in Mary's day.

Also, like Stan and Marshall, I'm warming to Eleanor. Anyone who can shut down that jerk from the FBI so easily by reaching out to her old contacts is someone to be reckoned with.

Midway through the episode, I wrote the following note: "Finally! An episode of the show that's actually an episode of the show!" Let's hope we get more of these going forward.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Gilted Lily": Mary's back in business

I had my say on the season premiere of "In Plain Sight" -- specifically, how tired I am of Mary investigating dead witnesses (particularly with as convoluted a case as we got here), and of Mary's family -- in Thursday's column, but feel free to share your thoughts on it here. Next week is more WitSec-specific, thankfully. Click here to read the full post

Jeff Goldblum joins 'Criminal Intent,' 'In Plain Sight' returns - Sepinwall on TV

In today's column, I look at how Jeff Goldblum fits in as the new B-team detective on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and at the frustrating season two premiere of "In Plain Sight." Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Don't Meth With Me": Letters, she gets letters

Finally got to see the "In Plain Sight" finale last night. Belated spoilers coming up just as soon as I get my blood type checked...

Well I'll give them this: for all the griping I did about Mary's family throughout this first season, they at least turned out an interesting family-centric episode at the end. I still don't care if I ever see Brandi or Jinx again, but there were three very strong performances there, and the reactions felt both surprising and real. I like that Jinx obviously cares more about Brandi than about Mary, that Brandi had no interest in anything her dad had to say about her, and that Mary could be so vicious to her mom and sister (albeit with some cause). I also thought it was a nice moment when Mary declined to burden the very drunk Raph with news of her kidnapping and having killed a guy (for the first time, I presume), and the revelation of what happened to the meth was a great capper. (Though I'd be very worried about what happens to the next guy who tries to take a wide-angled, head-first slide into home plate.)

But you know the same old song I've been singing for weeks: when the show comes back for its second season, I want the focus to be on Mary and Marshall and Stan, and on them working the sorts of cases that are unique to the Marshal's office. There are enough strong elements here that I want to like the show a lot more than I do, and if there aren't some tweaks for season two, I doubt I'll stick around long, even in the summer.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Stan By Me": Mary's off the hook!

Spoilers for last night's "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I find out where Brandi buys her luggage...

We're now one episode away from the first season finale, and I still have no idea what kind of show "In Plain Sight" wants to be. Some episodes (the better ones, not coincidentally) focus on what life might actually be like for either a WitSec Marshal or a WitSec subject, but others dwell on formulaic murder mysteries, or annoying family drama involving Mary's mom and sister. And as we come to the end of season one, it feels like the latter type of episode is seriously outnumbering the former.

Having Mary kidnapped and held hostage could have made for a really strong episode -- Mary McCormack was sure game to play Mary's terror and her drive to figure out a way out of this nightmare -- but tying it into the mind-numbing Magical Suitcase Full O' Blow(*) sucked away most of the tension.

(*) Not only is it apparently waterproof, but it now seems to wind up in Brandi's possession no matter what she does. I thought I was paying close attention last week and I still have no idea how the hell she got it out of the motel room with the scary junkie family. Nor do I really care.

The problem, I think, is that the writers (or the network/studio execs) feel like there has to be a mystery or thriller element to most of the episodes, which means there have to be dead bodies and bad guys and the like. But unless they want Mary and Marshall to seem really bad at their jobs, very few of these cases can wind up having anything to do with their witnesses' former lives, which in turn means that most of the action each week could be featured on one of dozens of other series.

Maybe the daily life of an actual U.S. Marshal in the WitSec program is interesting and exciting enough to support a weekly drama series. Maybe it isn't. I have no idea. But either the "In Plain Sight" producers have researched it (as much as the Marshals will allow them to) and discovered that it's not, or they're too conditioned to tell the same kinds of stories we get on every other cop show, and that's unfortunate.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "To Serge With Love": What a country!

Haven't written about "In Plain Sight" in a few weeks, even though I've watched every episode (the above photo, in fact, is from last week's show; USA didn't have any photos from last night's). Time to get back into the swing, however briefly, just as soon as I find out if I get an employee discount to subscribe to the paper...

"To Serge With Love" was the strongest episode the show's done since the last one I reviewed, "Iris Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and what those two have in common is a plot about the mechanics of WitSec. There are so many cop shows out there that it feels both dull and wasteful when the show gives us generic murder mysteries spiced up with a touch of WitSec detail.

Now that the show has been renewed for a second season (USA announced it during press tour), I hope the producers come to the same realization that Josh Schwartz mentioned about "Chuck" in my re-freshman story and resolve to tell stories that only "In Plain Sight" can do, in a way that only they can. The banter between Mary and Marshall is always fun, but that's not going to be enough to keep me with the show if we come back next season and every episode is about Mary trying to figure out if a witness was killed randomly, or because of what they did before going into the program.

I should also give the writers credit for making Mary's sister sympathetic in the last few episodes. I'm still not sure what Nichole Hiltz and Lesley Ann Warren add to the show, other than allowing the producers to give Mary McCormack a break now and then. (See also the non-Dexter-related stories on "Dexter," or any scene on "House" where Hugh Laurie doesn't appear, though those are still usually about House in some way.) But at least Brandi has stopped being actively annoying, and her scene with the baby and the teddy bear was as affecting as it was shameless. (That's also a remarkably well-behaved and happy baby, considering what kind of parenting it likely gets.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Iris Doesn't Live Here": The Bunk don't swim

Quick spoilers for the latest episode of "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I try to burn my clothes...

"Iris Doesn't Live Here" isn't flawless -- the writers may as well have pointed a neon sign at the kid sister reading, "This is all her fault!," and I still zone out whenever we cut to Mary's sister hanging with her boyfriend -- but it was one of the stronger episodes to date, because it focused largely on the small details of Mary and Marshall's job and what happens to people when they go into WitSec. Also, it helped to have a great actor like Wendell Pierce in the role of our frustrated and frustrating head of the new WitSec family.

That said, if "In Plain Sight" is going to come back for another season, the writers need to decide on a consistency of both tone and rules. An episode like this -- fairly down-to-earth, where much of the plot hinges on a character discovering just how limited his professional options are once he goes into WitSec -- feels like it takes place in a different universe than something like what we've seen the last few weeks.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Yes, and... S&M?

Round-up time, with spoilers for, in order, "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," "In Plain Sight" and "My Boys" coming up just as soon as I take a suggestion from the audience...

Nobody seemed too put out by my lack of blogging on last week's "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," and based on the early reactions and the declining ratings (it's now drawing about half of the "Weeds" audience, despite debuting at the same level), I doubt anybody cares at this point. But I watched all the episodes and thought this was one of the better ones, so blog it I shall.

Despite the general sauciness of Billie Piper, I find Hannah/Belle to be quite a bland, empty character, and so when the show focuses on her and her various existential crises, I don't much care. But when it focuses on the minutiae of life as a call girl, it can be entertaining in the same way that "Burn Notice" is whenever Michael's explaining how to kill a man using nothing but duct tape and a melon baller. So while Hannah's schism with Ben, and her eventual decision to come out of the ho closet for him, wasn't very interesting, Belle walking us through her fitness/grooming routine and then getting a crash course in dominatrix work was amusing.

That's two "In Plain Sight" episodes in a row now where I spent the entire time staring through the holes in the plot. So it's bad for someone in WitSec to have their picture appear in a wedding announcement in the local paper, but it's totally fine for someone else in the program to be the star player on a successful college basketball team, even if it's in Division-II? Huh? And is there any circumstance in which a player got caught up in fixing games -- even though he was doing it under duress, it was his own gambling problem that put him in this situation -- would only get a one-year suspension that wouldn't derail his NBA prospects? (And, again, shouldn't Mary be shutting down any talk of going pro, vis a vis the whole anonymity thing? I get that he was just a kid when he went into the program and looks different, but it still makes no sense.) The stuff about Mary's dad the gambler, and about Marshall hooking up with his old prof weren't bad, keeping with the tradition of the character work being much better than the plots, but next week's episode is going to seem like it takes place in a completely different universe from the last two.

Finally, the latest "My Boys" made me want to retract the previous week's statement about Brendan being the least relevant character on the show, because the Dr. Brendo running gag was the funniest part of this episode. (I had a stomachache over the weekend and wandered around the house declaring my intention to place ice on my belly.) Unfortunately, it was really the only funny part. Mike being terrible at improv and using it to blatantly and unsuccessfully hit on women was both labored and a pale imitation of Michael Scott's improv classes from "The Office," plus it continues the transformation of Mike from abrasive goofball to possibly brain-damaged loser. I'm assuming the bit about Nia Vardalos being Andy's new best friend will be some kind of ongoing storyline, which doesn't exactly excite me, and the writers are going to have to be very careful with the PJ/Bobby/Elsa triangle to avoid making their heroine look bad.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Who Shot Jay Arnstein?": Marshall the critic

Brief, belated spoilers for the latest episode of "In Plain Sight" just as soon as I take a cleanse...

One of the weird things about having been sent several episodes from various points of the season to review before the season began is that I'm now judging episodes based on other episodes that have yet to air. The episode scheduled for July 13, with Wendell Pierce from "The Wire," makes a big deal about how people in WitSec are usually steered away from jobs that are both high-profile and similar enough to what they did in their old lives that it might lead the bad guys to them. So I spent the bulk of "Who Shot Jay Arnstein?" thinking about that episode and wondering why Mary and Marshall would have allowed Jay to set up as an art dealer again, let alone the type who might get to host a well-publicized (albeit local) show that could set off the radar of the right people.

That points to a larger issue with "In Plain Sight," which is that the show is much, much stronger on character -- specifically on Mary and Marshall, and on their interplay with recurring characters like Dershowitz and guest stars like Dave Foley and the woman who played Jay's mistress -- than it is on plot. In virtually every episode, I've questioned several events and why they happened the way they happened, but I like Mary McCormack and Frederick Weller enough (Weller in particular, who's threatening to steal the show out from under McCormack) that I'm willing to avert my eyes at the plot holes.

For now, anyway. Once I'm out at press tour and busy with a million things, I'm not sure I'll be trying to find ways to carve out special "In Plain Sight" time.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Trojan Horst": Mary vs. Pure Evil

Brief spoilers for the latest episode of "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I play a few rounds of Stargate Defender...

Who would have thought that the episode with Dave Foley as guest star would be one of the less overtly comic episodes of the series?

Don't get me wrong: Foley brought the snark with his role as Horst, alleged man Friday to elite hitwoman Lola (but actually Lola him/herself), and the idea of Foley playing someone with a female alter ego is especially funny if you remember how good he used to look when he'd dress up as a woman.

But "Trojan Horst" was more action movie than farce, the show's take on the classic Howard Hawks/John Wayne Western "Rio Bravo," about three law men holed up with a prisoner while his posse tries to liberate him by force. (The original movie proved so adaptable that it's been copied countless times, including twice by Hawks and Wayne themselves.)

And on that level, with Marshall wounded but still fighting, and Mary doing everything possible to keep her partner alive without giving up her charge, the episode worked. I have some issues with the last act, as it seemed awfully easy for Mary to get Horst's people to drop their guns, and for Mary and Stan to catch up to Horst after getting Marshall some medical attention, but overall, I liked it. I'm just a sucker for scenes like the one where a bloody Marshall pulls himself off the ground and starts shooting at the bad guys to protect the far healthier Mary.

However, I'm more than ready to see Mary's family go away forever. That won't happen this season (I've seen an episode that airs in mid-July, and mom and sis are still in the picture), but lord does the show grind to a halt whenever we have to deal with those two.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Here Comes the Bride": Slutty Mary

Brief spoilers for episode three of "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I work on my lasso skills...

Of the five episodes of "In Plain Sight" I've seen (including next week's with Dave Foley and one down the road with Wendell Pierce), "Here Comes the Bride" was the most overtly farcical, even with guest star Missi Pyle doing relatively subdued work compared to what she's usually asked to do. We had the runner about Marshall taking mambo lessons (and the boss showing him the right way to do it), Mary having to tart herself up and then try to take out bad guys in two very uncomfortable, revealing outfits, and that wonderful moment at the end where Dershowitz the cop rode by in the background, pulling the second bad guy along with him. (That was much better than had we actually watched the rest of that chase go down.)

And because it was quite funny, I didn't mind the predictability of the story (Mary was so convinced that the Missi character was unreformed that of course she would turn out to be), or the waste of Joanna Cassidy as Missi's prospective mother-in-law (a paycheck's a paycheck, I guess), or that I'm supposed to buy the thirtysomething Cristian De La Fuente as a promising minor league baseball player (though I suppose he could be a Crash Davis career minor league type who's hitting well at a position where the big league club is thin).

The show's not always deep, but I'm really digging it.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Hoosier Daddy": Patching things up

Spoilers for episode two of "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I make a tuna casserole...

With Mary out of Albuquerque for most of this episode -- and therefore away from the family members who distract her from her job and drive her nuts -- this one was a bit straighter than the pilot. Sure, there was the "I can't believe you'd hit a girl!"/"You're no girl!" exchange I quoted in my initial review, plus Mary's reaction to finding One-Eyed Dan in her house, and the bulk of the mom/sis subplot was played for laughs (though it wasn't that interesting). But overall, "Hoosier Daddy" was more sincere than snarky.

Still, I liked it. For one thing, while some of the details were no doubt fudged -- the solution to the problem most of all -- the question of how to deal with something as relatively mundane as a family court issue within the context of WitSec was interesting. For another, I thought Mary McCormack played well with the kid, and after the "Look, I ain't going to church, and I don't have a bedtime" intro between him and his adoptive parents, I thought the story worked better on a more serious level. Wisecracking kid stories are really hard to pull off without getting annoying in a hurry, and so after establishing that Leo/Lonnie seemed like a clever operator, we find out that it's just a defense mechanism for a very damaged boy (one even more damaged than he realizes, because he's blocked out memory of shooting his mother).

I also appreciated that she let herself look so haggard throughout the episode to illustrate how exhausted Mary was from both family and professional obligations. (Most actresses either wouldn't want to wear such little makeup, or wouldn't be allowed to by networks/producers trying to sell their beauty.)

One note for next week: McCormack pops up late in next Sunday's episode of "Criminal Intent" for a fairly shameless "In Plain Sight" plug that includes Chris Noth asking the question "What's there to do in Albuquerque on a Sunday night at 10?" Unless you're a big fan of the Logan version of "CI," it's eminently skippable.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In Plain Sight, "Mary Sunshine": Soap on a frozen rope

Spoilers for the debut of "In Plain Sight" coming up just as soon as I put "Showgirls" and "Columbo" season 4 in my Netflix queue...

I expressed most of my general thoughts on the series in Thursday's column -- I like the grit and light touch of Mary McCormack, plus the "Karen Sisco"-ish blend of noir -- and black comedy -- so I'm going to hit a few specific things about the pilot and then open up the floor:

• Though I discussed it in the review, I want to again praise the entire sequence at the Indian biker bar, which was a very entertaining mix of Mary being in complete control (the soap bar to the jewels in the men's room) and Mary putting her foot in her mouth (the Little Big Horn speech). The phone sex sequence was also very funny, owing as much to Fredrick Weller's disgusted reactions as Marshal as to McCormack throwing herself into the "Nomi" role.
  
• With the show's premise, the guest-casting is going to be crucial, and in the episodes I've seen, it's very strong. Here, we get a pair of "Sopranos" alums (Al "Mikey Palmice" Sapienza and Katherine "Charmaine Bucco" Narducci) as our wiseguy and gal, and upcoming episodes are going to feature the likes of Wendell Pierce and Percy Daggs III.
  
• On the other hand, my joy at seeing The Bunk in an upcoming episode doesn't mitigate my disappointment at seeing Paul Ben-Victor go back to the kind of broad clown role he was playing before he got cast as Spiros Vondas on "The Wire." As Mary and Marshall's boss, Ben-Victor isn't a complete buffoon -- there's a suggestion in some of the later episodes that he's deliberately ignorant, because the less he knows, the better Mary can do her job -- but in general, the doofus boss is almost as tired a cop show cliche as the disapproving black boss.
• Also a cliche: the crime thriller hero with the drunken mom (see also "Burn Notice," for instance). But Lesley Ann Warren does a nice job as Mary's mom, Jinx. She doesn't have a lot to do in the pilot, but there's that moment where Mary tells Jinx she isn't a very good mom, and it's clear she thinks it's just a harmless joke because Jinx doesn't really care about being a good mom -- and then as soon as Mary walks away, you see that, even though Jinx was probably a lousy parent, it still hurts to hear her daughter say it to her face.
  
• Not sure yet how I feel about Mary's boyfriend and her sister.
  
• I love that, in the middle of Mary trying to give an inspirational speech to talk Charmaine down from killing Mikey (or whatever their names on the show were), she throws in a phrase like "festering crap bag of a husband," and I love McCormack's delivery of it.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Sepinwall on TV: 'In Plain Sight' review

Today's column reviews USA's fun new drama, "In Plain Sight," which debuts on Sunday. Think a blonder "Karen Sisco," if Karen transferred to the witness protection part of the Marshal service, and you've got the idea. Click here to read the full post