67: Without a Trace

Let's face it. This list wouldn't be accurate with at least a few police procedurals, as boring as they may be to write about, as, while they have always existed, they've been a huge part of television of the last decade. There are certainly a couple more coming up higher on the list, but since I didn't want to put 15 on the list, as they tend to have so much in common (probably part of what makes them both easy to produce and successful) Without a Trace will have to stand in for the Cold Cases, the Numb3rs's, the Criminal Minds's and some others, partly because it's a bit more popular ratings-wise than the rest of its lot, and partially because I've actually seen a couple of episodes.

As this is the first procedural, and because honestly Without a Trace is not all that exciting a show to talk about, I'll talk a bit about the genre in general. Police procedurals in a way capture one of the big duel trends of scripted TV of the decade - the revival of serial tv in the forms of Lost and others, and the huge success of the single-case-per-episode police procedurals. Police procedurals are in a way the fast food franchises of television shows - CSI is the McDonalds, maybe Without a Trace is the Wendys - they all have advertisements touting you watch their product, but they're all pretty similar with minor differences, and they guarentee that no matter which episode of the series you watch you'll get a standardized product - a fascinating case, some witty banter, empathy and a reminding that each case is super important, and smart detective work, following by an enlightening conclusion - case is solved, missing person is found, etc, etc. Very little personal happens in any one episode, but in the course of several seasons, as much personal drama as would happen in, say, one episode of Bevery Hills 90210 unfolds. It sounds terrible, but it's really not as bad as all that. Unlike certain shows which I find unwatchable, maybe thanks to being around my dad who loves these shows, (by the way, I kind of assume this is the demographic responsible for these big numbers - I can't imagine the numbers for viewers under 40 are particuarly kind - maybe why CBS has so many of them) I've picked up if not a love, a gentle like of them, like that towards a nephew who you see once a year and you don't need to see more often, but you honestly enjoy seeing for that time. There's far too many, as there always are when one genre blows up and other networks decide they want to copy it as fast as they can, but all said, for the most part the shows are eminently watchable television - some are absolutely better than others (Wendy's chicken sandwich is better than McDonalds' is (not saying Without a Trace is better than CSI - new and separate analogy)) but there's a comfort in knowing what you'll get and most of them do at least a passable job of making the case interesting.

Without a Trace is somewhere in the middle. I've seen it just a couple of times, and it's mildly interesting, it's characters kind of boring, and of course they care too much - they always care too much. I like Anthony LaPaglia (by the way if you've ever seen the short-lived series Seven Days, Anthony's brother Jonathan is on it, and he really looks just like Anthony), and I don't remember enough specific details from watching (so don't sue me, any huge Without a Trace fans, if I've poorly characterized your show (can that exist? a huge Without a Trace fan?)), but yeah, it's really hard to get worked up over. I have a feeling that's going to be the case for a few of these shows towards the bottom.

Also quick random props to Without a Trace for, for better or worse, helping weaken the ER juggernaut during the Thursday 10:00 PM spot, though both shows ultimately met their end in the same year - ER's very long term revenge I suppose.