In Plain Sight was a TV series running from 2008 to 2012. All 5 seasons are available on Amazon Video, YouTube, iTunes and elsewhere. I loved it when it was originally out, and I recently got hooked on watching it again. Here’s a look at season 1. If you missed this series the first time around, it’s a good one to check out now.
The premise of In Plain Sight is that witness protection people are relocated to Albuquerque, NM. US Marshalls played by Mary McCormack and Frederick Weller help them find new lives and try to keep them alive.
Mary Shannon (McCormack) is an absolute kickass character. She’s tough and snarky, full of contradictions and complications. She’s fantastic at her difficult and dangerous job. Her personal life is a total mess. She’s the glue holding this show together.
Her partner Marshall Mann (Weller) is an intellectual. He’s full of contradictions himself. We don’t see into his personal life the way we do Mary’s. Their boss Stan (Paul Ben-Victor) is a little bit tough cop and a little bit comic relief. He manages to do both well.
In season 1, Mary lives with her mom (Lesley Ann Warren) and her sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz). That sounds cozy, but it isn’t. The two of them move in uninvited. They are lifelong screwups who are always broke, always in trouble, and always making a mess of Mary’s life. Brandi brings a problem with her that almost gets Mary killed.
The three of them were abandoned by Mary’s father when she was a small child. Mary coped by becoming a hero who managed everything while her mom and little sister went to pieces and haven’t gotten their acts together since.
Mary’s main squeeze in season 1 is a pro baseball player named Rafe (Cristián de la Fuente). When he injures his knee, he needs help. Mary isn’t exactly the warm, fuzzy, nurturing type. Brandi steps in to help out. That causes quite a bit of conflict between the sisters, as if they didn’t already have plenty of problems to deal with.
An Albuquerque PD detective named Bobby (Todd Williams) is another recurring character in season 1. In the witness protection program, Mary and Marshall are dealing with both criminals and innocent people criminals want to kill. There are plenty of crimes that the police stick their noses into swirling around that.
I loved Mary McCormack in In Plain Sight. She killed at the action scenes. She was terrific opposite everyone she interacted with. The guest stars were good. There was humor aplenty. I loved the way the camera treated Albuquerque and the mountains and desert around it. The city and the mountains and the desert all came out looking good.
If you haven’t seen this series, I urge you to give it a try. I predict you’ll be hooked immediately.
Here’s a trailer from 2008. You’re gonna love it.