Lightweights

This is the third episode of the forgotten that I’ve dvr’d and watched, each time wondering what it is about the show that leaves me questioning why I spent the time to watch it. One of the new season’s keep it/lose it surveys shows the program earning a grade of D, which is totally plausible after last night’s story.

The characters lack charisma, so they come across as a group of actors hired to play a role for which they will cash a paycheck. The penetrating stare of Christian Slater would be off-putting to most people, so garnering sympathy for his still-missing kidnapped daughter just doesn’t work – either for me as a viewer or for his fellow cast. If the viewer doesn’t engage with Slater, the star of the series, the rest of the lightweight cast isn’t going to overcome that deficit as they are not established, seasoned veterans, but that ubiqutous new face we see far too often ... for one season. Adding a very much younger, very much more attractive former wife to the mix last night came out of nowhere: because Slater is so totally non-sympathetic, it’s hard to believe that he ever got that woman!

Most casts have a sympathetic geek, a buffoon, a fiercely independent woman, and a sympathetic cop, all of whom form a cohesive, interactive let’s get it done team. This cast is just a collection of stereotypes that more often seem at cross-purposes than working together to achieve a common goal. Furthermore, even when they pretend to work together, it’s not there. Each of the characters has a job, but based on the incredible number of hours they spend on each case, as well as the resources it takes to get the job done, they must also be independently wealthy. The classroom teacher conducts business on a cell phone during bus duty, a huge no-no on any job, and the next time you want to know where the telephone installer is during the four-hour window you hope s/he will arrive at your home, look for missing persons who need to be both id’d and located so they can come home to their family because that's his/her service priority.

An amazing aspect of the show is how quickly this team identifies the missing, a job that the police do not seem able to do – even when there is a stack of left-behind mail at the former residence. They can find the victim’s car even when it was abandoned months ago. Canvassing even the seediest of neighborhoods brings instant results for these intrepid volunteers, a feat the police could never accomplish because … well, I guess it’s because they are cops, the central message of the cop drama. The reason WE have to do THEIR job is because THEY are basically incompetent, but the voice-over explains that it's because the police have moved on to more current cases.

What could save the forgotten is integration with one of the established cop shows, such as the CSI and/or Law & Order franchises. Going out on their own in the mid-West probably was meant to open up the range of possibilities, but it puts too much burden on this show’s shoulders, a weight it isn’t carrying.

NCIS-LA is in a similar situation cast-wise, with the current cast simply not cohesing and developing charisma. The two male leads are good, playing off each other in a believable manner, but the computer geek is no Abby, the psychologist is no Ducky, the newest Probie is no Ziva, and “Ned” will never be a Gibbs, nor come close. It’s a great concept, but the core charisma isn’t there; however, whereas I doubt that the forgotten will last past this season, NCIS-LA probably will because the two male leads are so strong and this iteration is well-morphed with the original series.

My *Gosselin moment came as I turned off the TV and realized I'm simply making do until the mid-season replacements and summer season come around again.
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*(epiphany): I wonder who taught Jon the grown-up vocabulary word to use during media interviews to prove his sincerity in wanting his children off the show to improve family values. I bet he had to practice a dozen times saying it over and over until he could use it naturally, as if he had always known/used that word to describe his ah-ha moment.