Finale/Season review: In Plain Sight

The 12-episode first season of In Plain Sight came to a dramatic and emotional conclusion last night in the finale dubbed A Fine Meth.

This final episode was at times almost unbearable. The stuff that comes out when Mary, her sister Brandi and their mother Jinx decide to lay out all their cards on the table, was brutal and tough to watch. There was an amazing amount of crying and yelling between the three women, so much so that the normal humor that underlies every episode was noticeably missing.

Not that it was bad. The anguish that these ladies felt over their father and husband leaving when the kids were still so young was good drama. The fact that the father is wanted by the FBI and somehow keeps tabs on his girls was interesting.

The comedy wasn’t entirely absent in this episode, even though I figure it was unintentional.

If you have a bag of drugs and need to get rid of it, what is the first thing you’d do? Maybe flush it down the toilet? Or if you are worried the cops could find traces of it, then take it down the street to a public restroom and do it there?

But would any of you, especially those of you who are professional baseball players, take it down to the facility you practice at and dump it into the chalk that is used to mark the lines on the field?

It’s kind of ironic that it was used to make “lines”, but honestly, really? You would risk being found with bags of drugs by dragging it with you to practice?

I know it was just for fun, to show us that Raph saved the day, but it was almost too much.

The episode gave us a few things to look forward to next season. The first is that this FBI agent isn’t done investigating this family. The second is their father. Where is he? How is he watching them?

And the third, which I may be wrong about, is the potential mutual love interest that Mary and Marshall have in each other. Yes, she’s dating Raph and appears to have no feelings for Marshall, but I think he’s the one in love with her and we’ll find out more about that next season.

Does she feel the same way, but can’t see it?

So how about that first season? Did you like it?

For a summer show it was quite fun I thought. I looked forward to each episode and they usually held my interest. Mary is a great character and you slowly start to understand her over the course of the season.

Marshall is funny and dry, a perfect partner. Along with Stan, both of these guys give the show its levity.

The idea of WITSEC is still cool to me. No other show has tackled the angle of how witnesses are relocated and protected, so it was interesting to watch an entire series dedicated to that.

My early beefs with In Plain Sight had mostly to do with Jinx and Brandi. Ugh. I couldn’t stand them. I wanted to see more about these witnesses and less about Mary’s over-dramatic, needy family.

As the season wore on, I actually started to like Brandi. A lot. The character slowly separated herself from the mother and had her own side-plot concerning the Raph and this big drug deal. She became interesting to me and I thought Nicole Ritz did a great job.

But the mother. I still don’t like her. I’ve never enjoyed the side-stories that concerned her selling makeup, or working at a bar or even her more recent attempts to try out for a musical. I know Leslie Ann Warren was a Golden Globe winner in the past and even nominated for an Oscar, but I just can’t get into her acting here.

Maybe I’m wrong and she’s perfectly cast. Jinx has endured a lot, can’t take care of herself and depends on Mary for everything. Perhaps that’s what rubs me so wrong about her. Maybe the casting department did their job too well.

So far this year, Breaking Bad earns my nod as the best new show on cable, but In Plain Sight provided great entertainment and some much needed fun during this quiet, strike-damaged summer.

The show was already renewed for a second season back in July, and production on the next 16 episodes begins in October. Expect it back in the summer of 2009.

What did you guys think of the season and the finale?

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Television
breaking bad, in plain sight, leslie ann warren, mary mccormack, nicole ritz, usa network