RIP WaT
It was seven years ago that eolivet wrote about seeing the pilot of this new tv show and peeked my interest. It was about a group of FBI agents who tracked missing persons. Hot off the Chandra Levi case, the country was intrigued by the stories behind why some people go missing. I watched the pilot on tape and sat memorized. I needed the commerical breaks because I was sucking in my breath all the time. The case was interesting and the actors were good. ALP, who had been goofy Simon on Frasier, commanded the small screen. New actress PM was hot and hard hitting. Now and Again's Eric Close made the bad joke "time between the drop and the delivery" good. And in the middle of this brillant ep (the best pilot I have ever watched) there was a scene where Sam fixed Jack's collar. It was definitely a WTH moment that sparked my interest about the mystery behind these two characters and their relationship. My love for the show was born.
It's first season turned out to be it's best. My favorite ep is still the haunting Maple Street and I'll never forget Sioban's "Wait till I tell Annie" or the mother beating on Jack before he even delivered the bad news. Fall Out was everything a finale should be with danger, love and depth. Maybe the exposed J/S relationship came out too early because in the second season the show began to wander a bit. But it still had some prime eps like Moving On and Life Rules. In the years that followed some wise decisions were made, some brillant eps produced, and some huge failures happened. The loss of Hank Steinberg was a definite turning of the tide for the show. It was became hard to make each missing person's case unique.
It did not end on the best note. I would have prefered one of the former cases to come back or Danny and Elena's wedding to be shown. But nothing could take away the impact this show had. How many times do you hear about missing persons cases now? How often are the words "disappeared without a trace" used? Wat changed the way America viewed these cases. They were at one time just random acts of violence or people who left for greener pastures. It was the only show on tv to be fictional but also help real missing persons. Each week at the 45 minute section a picture and info of some poor missing person was shown. Some leads were discovered, one locally.
On a personal note, WaT helped to change my life at a time I needed it to. I gained some new great friends. I learned how to make music videos. I dabbled in creative writing using the characters. A new world was opened up for me. Hell, my email adress is even WaT related.
Cheers to the writers, crew, producers and actors of Without a Trace. In the immortal words of Samantha Spade, "It's really over...isn't it?"
It's first season turned out to be it's best. My favorite ep is still the haunting Maple Street and I'll never forget Sioban's "Wait till I tell Annie" or the mother beating on Jack before he even delivered the bad news. Fall Out was everything a finale should be with danger, love and depth. Maybe the exposed J/S relationship came out too early because in the second season the show began to wander a bit. But it still had some prime eps like Moving On and Life Rules. In the years that followed some wise decisions were made, some brillant eps produced, and some huge failures happened. The loss of Hank Steinberg was a definite turning of the tide for the show. It was became hard to make each missing person's case unique.
It did not end on the best note. I would have prefered one of the former cases to come back or Danny and Elena's wedding to be shown. But nothing could take away the impact this show had. How many times do you hear about missing persons cases now? How often are the words "disappeared without a trace" used? Wat changed the way America viewed these cases. They were at one time just random acts of violence or people who left for greener pastures. It was the only show on tv to be fictional but also help real missing persons. Each week at the 45 minute section a picture and info of some poor missing person was shown. Some leads were discovered, one locally.
On a personal note, WaT helped to change my life at a time I needed it to. I gained some new great friends. I learned how to make music videos. I dabbled in creative writing using the characters. A new world was opened up for me. Hell, my email adress is even WaT related.
Cheers to the writers, crew, producers and actors of Without a Trace. In the immortal words of Samantha Spade, "It's really over...isn't it?"