rosa_acicularis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosa_acicularis) wrote2010-05-31 06:58 pm
rosa_acicularis) wrote2010-05-31 06:58 pm
Entry tags:
thirty days of television meme - day two.
Day Two: A Show That You Wish More People Were Watching.
Where to begin? First off, it's something of a West Wing reunion show - aside from the fact that the lead, Mary McCormack, was a regular in the final few seasons of that show of all shows, both Allison Janney (CJ) and Joshua Malina (Will Bailey) have recurring roles, and my balding beloved Toby Ziegler has appeared as - wait for it - a crime-fighting rabbi. Another Sorkin alumnus, the ever snarky Steven Weber, has also found himself a recurring spot in the cast. Like Cupid, the show's premise is ideal for character actor guest stars, and the show takes full advantage.
But the real reason to watch In Plain Sight is Mary, its central character. Mary is a truth-teller -- a brutal, unsentimental realist/cynic who helps the witnesses under her protection by 1) kicking ass, and 2) saying exactly what she thinks, all the time, to everyone. If Greg House were a federal marshal, and also less of a petty, manipulative dickhead, he would be Mary. She's tough and passionate and terribly sad, sometimes; her family life is complex, to say the least -- as would yours be, if your mother were played by a nutty, alcoholic, musical-theater-loving Lesley Ann Warren , who really couldn't be any more awesome and hilarious and sympathetic in this part if she tried.
And then there's my ship. Now, there are a lot of shows that I enjoy without shipping anyone in particular, but this show -- you see, Mary has a best friend. Her only friend, she says, and also possibly the only person who will voluntarily work with her. (Always telling the truth tends to put people off, she finds.) This brilliant, gorgeous, eccentric nerd in cowboy boots is none other than U.S. Marshal Marshall Mann. (No, that's not a typo -- he's a marshal and his name is Marshall. He's quirky like that.) While Mary kicks ass and yells at people a lot, Marshall is sensitive and emotional and empathetic. He's a man of eclectic vocabulary who memorizes random facts for the sheer joy of annoying Mary with them during long car trips. And he is, of course, head over heels for Mary. Of course.
I don't know how the relationship is going to play out. Mary recently broke up with her fiancee Ralph, the sweet, absolutely gorgeous baseball player she's been dating since the show began, and before they separated Marshall's reaction to their engagement brought what had once been subtext into flown blown text, both for us and for Mary. Right now, she seems to be pretending it never happened. Whether or not this ever gets resolved to my satisfaction (goddamn Moonlighting; they've ruined television romance for decades to come), I'll always love this show for its humor, its wit, its strong, complex female lead, and its use of Bonnie Raitt songs during pivotal emotional moments.
Also, if there was ever a show that deserved some decent fan fiction, it's this one.
Where to begin? First off, it's something of a West Wing reunion show - aside from the fact that the lead, Mary McCormack, was a regular in the final few seasons of that show of all shows, both Allison Janney (CJ) and Joshua Malina (Will Bailey) have recurring roles, and my balding beloved Toby Ziegler has appeared as - wait for it - a crime-fighting rabbi. Another Sorkin alumnus, the ever snarky Steven Weber, has also found himself a recurring spot in the cast. Like Cupid, the show's premise is ideal for character actor guest stars, and the show takes full advantage.
But the real reason to watch In Plain Sight is Mary, its central character. Mary is a truth-teller -- a brutal, unsentimental realist/cynic who helps the witnesses under her protection by 1) kicking ass, and 2) saying exactly what she thinks, all the time, to everyone. If Greg House were a federal marshal, and also less of a petty, manipulative dickhead, he would be Mary. She's tough and passionate and terribly sad, sometimes; her family life is complex, to say the least -- as would yours be, if your mother were played by a nutty, alcoholic, musical-theater-loving Lesley Ann Warren , who really couldn't be any more awesome and hilarious and sympathetic in this part if she tried.
And then there's my ship. Now, there are a lot of shows that I enjoy without shipping anyone in particular, but this show -- you see, Mary has a best friend. Her only friend, she says, and also possibly the only person who will voluntarily work with her. (Always telling the truth tends to put people off, she finds.) This brilliant, gorgeous, eccentric nerd in cowboy boots is none other than U.S. Marshal Marshall Mann. (No, that's not a typo -- he's a marshal and his name is Marshall. He's quirky like that.) While Mary kicks ass and yells at people a lot, Marshall is sensitive and emotional and empathetic. He's a man of eclectic vocabulary who memorizes random facts for the sheer joy of annoying Mary with them during long car trips. And he is, of course, head over heels for Mary. Of course.
I don't know how the relationship is going to play out. Mary recently broke up with her fiancee Ralph, the sweet, absolutely gorgeous baseball player she's been dating since the show began, and before they separated Marshall's reaction to their engagement brought what had once been subtext into flown blown text, both for us and for Mary. Right now, she seems to be pretending it never happened. Whether or not this ever gets resolved to my satisfaction (goddamn Moonlighting; they've ruined television romance for decades to come), I'll always love this show for its humor, its wit, its strong, complex female lead, and its use of Bonnie Raitt songs during pivotal emotional moments.
Also, if there was ever a show that deserved some decent fan fiction, it's this one.