Review: Vanished
Ah, out with the old, in with the new. The television season is dead, long live the next television season. And to prepare for it, I’m going to review new shows as the pilots become available.
Vanished; FOX, Monday, 9:00 PM
A car drives through the night, reaching the Collins mansion (surely I am not the only one thinking of it as Collinswood); the Senator, Jeffrey Collins (John Allen Nelson, 24), greets his wife Sara (Joanne Kelly, Whiskey Echo) before leaving for a charity ball where she is to be honored. At the ball, she is called to the telephone and…
Vanished.
 Kelton (Gale Harold) search for the truth |
In backstory, we see Senior FBI Agent Graham Kelton (Gale Harold, Queer as Folk) on his last assignment, attempting to rescue a kidnapped child when everything goes horribly wrong, and explains his absence from the FBI. He’s the lead on this case, with agent Lin Mei (Ming-Na, er and yeah, I fondly remember her from her days on As the World Turns, why?) his partner. As the investigation begins, Marcy Collins (Margarita Levieva) begins reporting on the story, and generally mucking things up. The Senator’s daughter is missing, only to be found in flagrante with her boyfriend who, like everyone else including the kidnappee, has his own dark secrets.
Throughout the hour, the plot is set up carefully yet dramatically, culminating with the discovery of a freshly-killed ten-year-old corpse, and a man in Boston who may have been first to propose to the Senator’s wife
Of all the pilots I’ve seen this season, this show bears the most resemblance to 24; while no attempt here to run in “real time” (of course, 24 itself pretty much gave up on that last season, too), the show owes much to the visual style of 24. This show is tight and suspenseful, although Harold is no Jack Bauer. Indeed, he has an unfortunate resemblance to a caricature of a young Harry Hamlin, and isn’t seasoned enough to carry this show believably…most of the time, he’s either too flat, or over-the-top. But fortunately, there’s a strong supporting cast to handle the load.
And while the pilot is sky’s-the-limit on the budget, my guess is we’ll see something similar to 24 - a couple of tight studio-only episodes to save the money needed for the blow-the-wad helicopter-and-fighter-jet episodes.
The real question is, can the writing be maintained for an entire season? I can’t answer that, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be checking in weekly to find out. While, again, it’s no 24, it’s the closest attempt from any of the networks this season. When the pilot was finished, I wanted more…I’m not sure how else to measure “success” when it comes to a television program.