A special guest contributor today: Sunday Star Times film critic Sarah Watt kindly agreed to review the new Ashley Judd action series Missing, airing Monday nights on TV One. For the record, I agree with everything she says. Thanks Sarah!
Despite the foreknowledge that this new TV series has been cancelled in the US after one season, Missing still seemed an attractive proposition for my Monday nights.
Following the trend of film actors making it big on telly, Ashley Judd takes the lead as a mom whose teenage son goes missing on his trip to Europe. I love Ashley Judd - her performance (and her hair!) in Heat, one of my all-time favourite films, means she can do no wrong. European locations? That's gotta be more exciting than fake New York sets or the real Baltimore. And our very own Cliff Curtis, long having shaken off his Uncle Bully reputation, has been playing Arabs, Afghans and Argentines in Hollywood movies for years now. Bring it!
Well in fact, I've given it three episodes (last week's pilot was a double-bill) and you can keep it.
Seen the Liam Neeson film Taken? Yep, so have I. Others loved it more than I did (enough to get the greenlight on a Taken 2) but even so, it was pretty cool watching Liam calling in his death threats from Notre Dame cathedral, and showing off his middle-aged fighting skills. It dealt with a gritty topic (sex-trafficking) and de-glamorised the Parisian locations while still giving us a sense of the exotic.
One has the sneaking suspicion that the producers of Missing may have seen Taken, too. They keep Ashley's secret for a wee while, but as soon as her Becca Winstone has broken into a Roman apartment and is grabbing a coat-hanger to ward off an attacker, we're thinking "Lady, you're going to need more than that to poke his eyes out," and then Boom! She's Jason Bourne meets Sharon Stone in Total Recall. Turns out Michael's mom isn't just a grieving widow who's over-protective of her only child, but an "I know how the real world works", blank-eyed, steely-jawed ex-CIA agent. And now they've made her angry.
My main objection, apart from the almost total lack of originality (so far, switching the gender of the protagonist is not enough) is that all the narrative happens way too fast. This is TV, for goodness' sake, and at this stage of the series' production they didn't know it was going to get canned. They've got more time than a feature-length movie to wrap it all up, so should be whetting our appetites and giving us a reason to tune in next week. Instead we're thrown on to a Contiki tour bus and hauled between European cities, let off only occasionally to use the loo while Cliff and his team of wannaBourne-hunters make unrealistic leaps in secret agenting (they got the local CCTV up how fast? Have you been to Italy?).
Well, while I'd lost interest in the "why has Michael been kidnapped?" thread by the end of the first episode, I admit I'm curious to see what happens with Sean Bean. There's no way you give a well-known actor second billing and blow him up for good in the opening scene. I only hope he's not just the subject of mawkish flashbacks, but instead faked his own death and is now either orchestrating a Missing Pieces moment with his son, or masterminding a terrorist plot. I'm still not tired of terrorist plots (bring back Homeland!).
But I'm disappointed in Ashley already. Her performance has gone very one-note in its hard-nosed, driven way. Plus, her relentless, Terminator-like capacity for action is just silly. (Am I being sexist? Is it OK when Daniel Craig self-defibrillates and speeds off in the Aston to save Eva Green?) I can't believe Becca uses the old tap-on-the-shoulder trick to jump an unsuspecting gunman, but also keeps all her passports and revolver in a bag anyone can find (and anyone does, when Mary the annoyingly needy BFF turns up and blows the gaff).
Granted, the production values are high - the scenery and locations are incredible, and the Amalfi Coast has never looked shinier. But jolty, "urgent" camerawork that was impressive 12 years ago when 24 came out now just adds to the frantic tone of something so underwritten it hopes we'll be too bamboozled to notice. There's too much to find annoying, and too little to keep my interest. Perhaps you'll just let me know if Sean comes back.
What do you think of Missing? And Ashley Judd? Do you agree with Sarah's take on it?
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If we compare this to Homeland I would say that the fact this does finish in one season is good. The really silly ending to homeland so we can get another season has put me off homeland a bit.
I think that 1 season series of 10-15 episodes is a good way to make TV if the storylines are quite tight. A second season of a series where the whole point of the series has been solved seems pointless. Or even worse where the last 2 episodes are re-done or altered to allow for another season which totally blows the previous episodes out of the water.
Sean Bean seems to excel in roles in which he dies in. All for the greater good?
Totally agree with most of what you said! I found myself watching the first ep going - did I get this wrong, is this a movie? It is going way too fast and seems to be focusing on fast paced action to cover the lack of character development. And HOW MANY TIMES does she have to mention the fact she is a mother?? God. We got that from the beginning, you don't have to repeat it every five minutes.
And I am with you in terms of wanting to support a kick arse female character but finding this one completely unbelievable. Give me the flawed but awesome Claire Danes in Homeland any day.
Johan #2 - I agree. 1 series should be sufficient for many series, Prison Break in particular. I like how Underbelly series works. Different story with a common production feel each series (I was hoping The Killing would be like that)
I gave up on Missing after 20 minutes. It felt too cheesy and like Sarah Watt said it was as if I'd seen it before.
Sorry you lost me at "I love Ashley Judd"
I'm enjoying it mainly because I like mindless entertaining TV. Agree with Jess @#4 that she really over-mentions the whole I'm a mother, he's my son thing. Based on his previous roles I'm fully expecting Sean Bean to be alive and masterminding everything.
You can't kill Beany, he'll be back...
The first two-hour episode put me off the whole thing by the end.
The story had a reasonable basis, although to expect a person to come out of motherhood after 10 years and get back into her lethal CIA skills and all her contacts at a moment's notice just didn't seem believable to me.
Those fight scenes of the heroine are completely unbelievable. I don't think I've seen any of her incapacitating blows strike home in the whole series to date. To bring down a fully armed man much larger than herself just by creeping up and touching him on the back of his neck stretches even my credence.
Sorry, I've given up.
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I have seen the whole show and its not bad, not great but not terrible either. Your right in that the plot could have be drawn out a bit and its not terribly original either (I saw every double cross coming a mile off).
It does have the advantage of largely wrapping things up by the season finale though, which works out well in terms of there being no second season.