Without a Trace: Don't Miss This Missing Persons Drama (unless ER's Really Good that Night..)

Remember the old days before Without A Trace? Days when NBC ruled Thursday nights and all comers disappeared without a trace themselves? No one but no one could even contemplate out-rating ER. Well, as anyone who can read a TVGuide can tell you: those days are done. Without A Trace, the usually intriguing missing person's drama starring Anthony LaPaglia has become a worthy heir to ER's slot. Too bad for NBC it's not on the same network. Without A Trace

Without A Trace stars Emmy-winner (for Frasier guest role) LaPaglia as Jack Malone, head of the FBI's New York bureau's Missing Persons division. As Malone, he leads a talented team played by one of the most likeable and strongest small ensembles on TV. They include fellow Aussie Poppy Montgomery, Oscar-nominee Marrianne Jean-Baptiste, Eric Close and Enrique Murciano, plus newcomer Roslyn Sanchez.

The show has agents running down leads that tell the story of the missing person's background, often shown in flashback, so they can find out where the person went. These mysteries are compounded (of course) by the personal issues facing the agents.

Plenty of highly-rated mystery series don't have great mysteries. But not so with Without A Trace. These series usually has cases which will keep you guessing as the pieces fall into place. Stories build nicely as new witnesses and evidence add new angles to the missing person's real story, which is seldom what it seems.

Sometimes, the story can drag towards the end, when it's all about getting to the person and not finding out where they are, but, that's what the remote and ER are for. Week-to-week, the stories are solid.

What can also get boring is Malone's baggage. The series has shown him dealing with the fallout of his affair with Sam (Montgomery), dealing with his divorce, dealing with his father (Martin Landau) who recently died, and dealing with the demon of them all: his mom's suicide when Jack was young. In recent episodes in 05-06, Malone's finally found a love interest in a fellow fed played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, but who knows if that'll last. Sometimes, lm personal issues are interesting, particularly the revelation about his mom.

But sometimes, it seems a little too much, and distracts from the main event of the show: the crimes. Every character, in fact, has shanghaied the show with personal issues: Martin (Close) got shot and is getting hooked on drugs; Danny's (Murciano) ex-con brother went missing; Vivian (Baptiste) had heart troubled that sidelined her and Sam- Well, actually, Sam's affair with Jack and her issues with her low income past are usually pretty well integrated into the stories. But they surface a little too much. Of all the connecting-with-the-missing episodes, hers are usually the ones that are a little too on the nose. Though what's recent one with an amnesiac was a little better.

What's more effective on Without A Trace than very special episodes or subplots are the tiny nuances that flesh out the characters, like the way Danny and Jack can both be snarky to witnesses, which is so cool, you never see that on cop shows unless the witness is a bad guy.

Or how Danny smirks a lot at mouthy suspects, as if in challenging them to make a move. Sam's a tough chick, and Viv's calm veneer can sometimes crack as she gives someone, like Jack, the straight truth. As for newcomer Sanchez, as Elena Delgado, some diehard fans resent her intrusion, but she pushes the envelope sometime. Let's just hope Without A Trace avoids a THIRD interoffice romance with her and Danny. Fat chance.

Without A Trace gives us a lot of screentime with the guest star missing person in his or her past. Such chunky roles have gone to some good guest actors who add to the quality of the show. They include: had Lowe, Timothy Busfield (also a producer); MADTV's Phil LaMarr, Chicago Hope Emmy-winner Hector Elizondo; Tony Goldwyn (in two episodes in a dual role); Homicide's Kyle Secor, Cold Case's Josh Hopkins, a pre-Joan Amber Tamblyn, Crossing Jordan's Jerry O'Connell, L&O's JK Simmons, Deadwood's Robin Wiegert, Charles Dutton (who won an Emmy for his 2-part appearance) and Oscar-winner Landau.