Program: In Plain Sight
Network: USA
Creator: David Maples
Cast: Mary McCormack, Fred Weller, Nichole Hiltz, Lesley Ann Warren, Paul Ben-Victor, Todd Warren, Christian de la Fuente

I eagerly anticipated the arrival of In Plain Sight form the first commercial I saw. USA has earned big props with me for their original programming. The Big Four could learn a lot from shows like Monk, Psych, and Burn Notice. Perhaps my expectations were raised a bit high from those three shows, but, after the first five episodes, I am torn about In Plain Sight. I want to like it, but I think, in general, it suffers a bit with an identity crisis.

The concept is fairly straight forward. Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) and Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) are US Marshals assigned to the Witness Protection Program. They handle the lives of the guilty and the innocent alike who have agreed to work with the US Government in exchange for protection from whoever it is that wants them dead. As a matter of course, this means changing identities for the subjects, and the inability of the Marshals to reveal what it is they do to anyone, even their own families.

On the surface, the concept seems to lend itself quite well to episodic television, and there would seem to be a great fit for the comedy-drama angle that USA has become so very good at. Unlike Burn Notice, however, In Plain Sight seems to be really struggling with itself as it hunts for just the right blend of comedy and drama. Where Burn Notice flows from moment to moment seamlessly, In Plain Sight seems to arm wrestle with itself to see which form will have dominance on a scene by scene basis, and the outcome is usually determined by which actor takes the lead in the scene.

McCormack seems to really struggle with the deeper moments her character faces. She (she being her character, Mary Shannon) has some intimacy issues that drive the people around her nuts, yet McCormack doesn’t seem to be able to really hook into the more serious moments with her family and boyfriend. About the only emotions she plays consistently well are anger and bitterness, and she seems to be embroiled in one or the other about 70% of the time. It makes for some painfully slow television in between the action scenes.

Weller on the other hand plays the transitions from comedy to drama extremely well. When he takes the lead in a scene, which isn’t nearly often enough, the scene almost always succeeds behind his characterization. He is, without a doubt, carrying the show on his shoulders at the moment, and the writers seem to have rewarded him already by increasing not only his presence on camera, but his importance to the lead character, Mary Shannon.

If In Plain Sight can find its groove, it could easily be another Burn Notice (which is, perhaps, the best TV had to offer on any station in the past year, and why I compare to it so readily). As it stands, it’s average fare at best, and certainly not up to the standards that USA has come to be known for. For now, though, I’ll keep watching, as the episodes have grown progressively stronger since the pilot. It’s the potential I am tuning in for more than anything else, and as long as that potential appears to be slowly materializing, I think the production team is on the right track.