Jane Doe, miss détective: La pièce manquante

In "Jane Doe: The Wrong Face," prosecutor Phil Rafelson's wife Caroline goes into the hospital for plastic surgery. When the bandages come off, it's not his wife, but a teenage girl who takes off. His wife has been kidnapped by a drug dealer who wants the charges dropped. Frank Darnell (Joe Penny) calls in housewife Kathy Davis (Lea Thompson).

The best thing about the "Jane Doe" series, or, in fact, any of the Hallmark shows, is that it gives one a chance to see some of the old mainstays of television again. Thompson is a pleasant actress; Joe Penny deserves better, but these days, we take him where we can get him. In this episode, former One Life to Live star Brynn Thayer plays a nurse, and, of course, Billy Moses is on hand as Kathy's husband. Also in this episode were Twin Peaks star Ray Wise and Crazy Like a Fox's John Rubinstein. So for us boomers, it was like old home week.

The Jane Doe series is more interesting than Mystery Woman or McBride with its Scarecrow and Mrs. King type thing happening. Thompson, however, doesn't quite have Kate Jackson's attack on the material, and the pace of these shows is on the slow side. Not much in the way of pizazz but okay mindless entertainment.

5/10 - a bland plot and only okay acting makes for a not very memorable mystery

With the feds closing in on his operations, drug dealer Alex Brant decides to step up the pressure on those that are after him by kidnapping the wife of district prosecutor Phil Rafelson. Coincidently Caroline Rafeslon is in hospital for plastic surgery to her face but, when the bandages are removed it is not her but a younger woman that is revealed. Before Phil can say "value for money" the woman has fled the hospital and soon he gets a call from someone saying they have his wife and he needs to do what they say. With the need for Phil to be on top form for his case, Frank Darnell turns to Jane Doe for help to solve the mystery.

This was my first look at the Jane Doe series and, before pressing play, I didn't even know it existed. The presence of Perry Mason regular Moses and a few other names I knew made me think that I should give it a go and maybe find a new detective film series to start finding. The plot here is reasonably good and is delivered with a nice pace to it that helps cover up how very thin it is at times. The main problem I had was that I didn't get a feel for who Jane Doe was as a character – she is a mix of housewife and secret agent for the government but her homely approach to life didn't really endear her to me, nor did it work within the mystery. For example, Columbo has his mannerisms but they are part of the formula whereas here I wasn't sure what Jane brought to the party.

Lea Thompson is quite good in the lead regardless though and she was quite fun. However she should thank her stars for the hefty presence of Penny, who made the film seem a bit tougher by his mere size and delivery. The support cast features some nice turns from Starr and Wise but the presence of faces and names I recognised just made it easier to figure out who was the bad guys and not. Overall though, the standard was OK for a TVM mystery and I found it relatively breezy and easy to just watch. Not enough of a hook to it to make me seek out any more of the Jane Doe films but if I get the chance I'll take a look at another one on the basis that this was average.

The previous poster commented on JANE DOE: TILL DEATH DO US PART. This is the one that aired last night 3/11/05 and I think the entire cast was superb. I'm so looking forward to yet another season of JANE DOE. Love the chemistry between the adults. I think Lea, Joe, and Billy all were just wonderful in TILL DEATH DO US PART. Cathy and Jack have this wonderful marriage. I would however like to see Jack continue to be wiser than he had been in the previous 2 movies. It seemed he was too trusting and unsuspecting. I'm a big fan of Billy Moses who plays Jack and I think he's extremely talented and unfortunately his talents aren't used as much as I'd love to see them used. I'm hoping to see him get more airtime in the future movies. :)

Overall, I like the shows in this series. The plots are interesting, the acting is decent, and the characters are likable. However, there are problems that could be easily fixed. First, we need less family. I get the juxtaposition of the soccer mom with her normal family life and the spy working for the government, but the family is annoying. The kids are too cutesy, and the constant "affection" between Jane and her husband is way overdone. Maybe I'm just cynical, but no one I know who's been married 20 years, is that touchy feely and constantly kissing each other. Second is the music. The constant background music is intrusive and makes it difficult to concentrate on the show. The music is too loud, it's just...weird sounding, and it doesn't go along with what's happening on the screen. Same with the background noise; there's constant noise of people talking, kids screaming, traffic, all sorts of noise, that again, doesn't go along with what's actually happening. Aside from that, the shows are entertaining.