Tracker

If you've read the books, you know that Colter Shaw is very matter of fact and quick to a plan and follows through that plan by his actions. Throughout his "rewards" he's trying to uncover the fate of his father and his brother. The other reviewers are making negative comments regarding Colter that are actually true to the books. If you liked the books, this is pretty much on the mark. I'm looking forward to more episodes and since I did read all the bools, I know Colter will get into more "outlandish" situations and get himself out of it. I've read Lee Childs, too and Jack is a lot more violent, but both he and Colter always hatch a plan, see it through without, well, almost, without a hitch and save the day. And not everything is political.

What began as a pretty cool premise (tracker is paid a bounty to find people/things) seemingly ran out of ideas in season 2 and is stuck on repeat. In season one, Colter has a variety of situations and mysteries to solve, and brings us along on the ride. There is a back story about his family, and also one about the missing sister of his former ex girlfriend from a decade or so earlier. It was a good balance. One episode he goes looking for a missing horse, it wasn't always a kidnapping.

Fast forward to season two and it is nauseatingly repetitive, with the only variation between each episode are the ridiculous circumstances in which Colter has to find a missing person. Spies. Cults. Mob. I'm waiting for aliens next. More than once has an episode began where it feels like the first part of the episode was cut off, or was a continuation of another. One opens with him already at a crime scene. Another has him up in a snowstorm in the mountains with search and rescue. How and why he was there is never explained.

The writing has gotten lazy. Maybe because they are making more episodes than the previous season. Velma's partner just disappears in season two with no explanation. Maybe Colter can go look for her? Bobby leaves for about half of the season, and we are introduced to his "cousin" by way of Colter calling Bobby and the cousin answers and Colter says something like "Oh yeah, Bobby told me that you were going to cover for him while he is visiting family blah blah...". He's then gone for what must be several months in the show's timeline. Of course the cousin is also a super-hacker like Bobby is! Thank goodness, because seems like Colter can no longer resolve an episode without Bobby or his cousin hacking right into someone's security camera to catch the moment someone was abducted and also get a license plate. Or patch Colter into someone's locked laptop so that he can look at encrypted files. Or hack into someone's phone remotely and listen to voicemails, triangulate their last known location or see who they called last. Seems like any roadblock the writers might run into, just write in that the hacker provided the key to keep the story moving and give Colter a lead.

And what Colter can't get from hacking, he can just force his way into just about any home or office, where he's likely to find a dead body. Does he report the body after breaking and entering? Does he at some point become a suspect himself after a dozen or so dead body "discoveries"?

Then you have Reenie, who has access to sealed court documents, and can give background info on anyone. Velma's role has been reduced to about 3 minutes of story setup just to bring viewers up to speed. Rinse and repeat.

I've got 4 more episodes left of season two. I've got enough patience left for one or maybe two before I say goodbye to the series if they don't get any better. It really used to be great. I give it 8 stars for Season one, and maybe 5 stars for Season two.

Justin is awesome. Most know him from This is us. He fit that role great, but there is something missing with him connecting to the character in this. It just feels off. A great story line, but it could use more humor. Jenson Ackles, really nailed it again, and just his brief appearances made me wish that he was the lead character in this show. I am not one to hate on Justin, but I just don't think this role suits him. We don't see him as the guy, hitting and shooting people: 😂😂 He needs to be on romantic comedy shows or Hallmark shows. So I am following the show. It's good, but it could be great. The sex appeal the show brought, almost worked. But just not enough to overcompensate for the lack of connection with the main character.

This is more of a classic style detective show rather than the hard-hitting cop shows popular nowadays. Justin Hartley pulls it off quite well as the handsome dude who, along with his witty lawyer sometimes-sidekick Reenie, charms his way through skeptical law enforcement into finding missing people.

The show remains fairly upbeat and doesn't get too dark. They start to pick up with a bit of a grittier style in S2 and I hope they continue.

I think ultimately the show will come down to how well the writers can weave in the main plot of his family background. They haven't done a whole lot with it so far, and honestly it hasn't been all that interesting - although Jensen Ackles as his brother was a major plus for the show. It has mostly been a "missing person of the week" style, but S2E9 just wrapped up a longer side story in what was the best episode to date. Hopefully the writers are able to dive further into the multi-episode or even longer-running quests instead of wrapping every story up with the end of the same episode.

The helpers Hartley has are forgettable with the exception of Reenie, so Hartley is doing all the heavy lifting.

There was a similar show a while ago called The Finder (2012) which had a similar premise. This is a bit different though. While still light hearted, it's not a comedy/drama but a drama with occasional comedy.

It could have been cool if he was the guy doing stuff - like MacGyver - but this guy has a team on his rooster that are all superfluous. All of the things his team does, he could just as well do himself.

All the scenes with his team are boring and seems to be shoehorned into an otherwise promising show. The show has the same vibes as Human Target (2010), but based on what we've seen so far, I'm not sure if it will be as good as that was.

Still, happy to see a drama/action show with 0 supernatural stuff going on. If I could have my pick, we'd have a new Punisher episode every day, but these fillers will have to do for now.