There’s nothing neworworthwhile in this copycatting
Lee Henaghan finds creativity, originality and credibility are all missing in a new series. Mondays, 8.30pm. TV One. Reviewed by Lee Henaghan.
While it’s not unusual to for television to ‘‘borrow’’ elements and ideas from its big brother in Hollywood, rarely has the rip-off been so overt and obvious as the carbon-copy on offer in TV One’s new Monday night action series, Missing.
To say the premise owes a little to last year’s hit movie Taken would be like saying Greece owes a few bucks to the IMF. The plot (ex-CIA parent embarks on crusade across Europe to track down kidnapped child) is virtually identical.
The only discernible difference between the two is the protagonist, with Liam Neeson’s vengeful father making way for Ashley Judd’s barely believable ninja soccer mom.
This substitution smacks of an intentional attempt to attract female viewers who might have steered clear of the unashamedly macho Taken; an assumption backed up by the sentimental schmaltz served up in the soap opera-style opening scenes, where the viewer is left in little doubt that Judd’s Becca Winstone is one mum who really, really loves her son.
Another early sign that the show is happy to flirt with self-parody is when Winstone’s husband and serial corpse Sean Bean manages to top all 21 of his previous on-screen deaths by getting blown to pieces within the first five minutes.
Bean is famous for dying in almost every role he takes on (there’s a great YouTube compilation of each and every offing) but he outdoes himself here by karking it after just three lines; his role presumably cut short after producers heard his absurd attempt at an American accent.
Fast-forward 10 years and bereaved Becca has left the CIA to dedicate her life to her son (she’s a mother, as we’re reminded roughly every 30 seconds) and start a new life as a florist.
When her beloved offspring disappears shortly after starting university in Italy, Winstone books the first flight to Rome to investigate.
Exactly why she decides to go it alone and never notifies the US or Italian police, her old CIA mates or any other authorities is never quite explained – the first of several nagging plot holes that plague the show.
Winstone soon finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and deception where nothing is quite as it seems and dramatic music lurks around every corner. Her quest takes her across the continent, each episode apparently an excuse to showcase a new European city.
While unravelling the mystery behind her son’s disappearance, she also has to contend with the CIA trying to bring her in before she causes an international incident, adding the Bourne movies and 24 to a long list of influences.
Judd does a decent job of (literally) throwing herself into an all-action role, and the frequent fight scenes are well choreographed. Somewhat surprisingly, the scenes that are less convincing than a middle-aged florist overpowering Uzi- wielding hitmen are the ones where she is required to show some emotion. A bona-fide movie star not so long ago, Judd has fallen off the radar. Hollywood’s obsession with youth was perhaps the catalyst for intensive cosmetic surgery that has the unfortunateside-effect of giving her face, the tool of an actor’s trade, a bland and deadpan quality that has less range than the pistol stashed under her cardi.
Missing’s biggest problem is the pacing – or lack of it – as chase follows fight follows shootout. Tension is never given enough time to develop and the dialogue and characters are as believable as the green-screen effects used to insert European landmarks into the backdrop.
By the end of the feature-length premiere, things have entered ‘‘so-badit’s-good’’ territory where drama descends into comedy. It’s no exaggeration to say I found more laughout-loud moments in Missing than I did in another of TV One’s new shows, the woeful sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys.
While there’s an outside chance things may improve, it would be no surprise to discover that after such a disappointing debut, one thing ‘‘missing’’ from episode two might be half its audience.