User Reviews

I'm not really a fan of TV crime shows, but new series always give me the chance of experiencing some fresh air - so I check them out. In this case, I was glad I did. The pilot started off slow, but after about 30 minutes (it was 90 minutes total w/commercials), it actually became interesting and stayed that way to the end. Subsequent episodes have kept up the momentum.

One novel aspect of the show is that its about a lady marshal in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She's in charge of people in the "witness protection program" who have been assigned to her area. She cautions and reassures them that since 1970 (when the witness program started), "No one who has followed the rules has ever been harmed." Powerful words.

Can they comply? When things go wrong, can she protect them? How can she keep their identities safe - even from the local police?

Aside from the setup, the show is ultimately interesting because she's fun to watch. She's sassy, witty, playful, smart, responsible ... and physically tough. I recommend watching an episode; if the lead character grabs your interest, then you're likely to enjoy the show.

This is one of those shows that if given enough time will develop a loyal following. I have watched 5 episodes so far. I talked my girlfriend into sitting down for the pilot and she was hooked. Mary McCormack does an excellent job of showing a flawed character struggling with a dysfunctional family and the evils of her job(protecting and hiding criminals in Witness Protection). Fred Weller is excellent as her laconic partner. Paul Ben-Victor is dead on as the not-quite-aware section chief of the U.S. Marshall's Service. The shows are well-crafted and allow Ms. McCormack ample opportunity to zing her co-stars with great one-liners. The developing back-stories on her family show great promise. Lesley Anne Warren is an over the top version of the mother no one wants to claim as their own. She's a hard-drinking "good-time" girl who likes men, a LOT. Nichole Hiltz is her sexy, ditzy sister who is attracted to trouble. The cast is a lot of fun to watch and I am going to be rooting for them to be renewed for a second season.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this show. Our comment was that it looks like Hollywood people actually can write. We prefer character driven shows and the characters are great. There is whimsy and great interplay.

The plot was complex but only because more than one story overlapped and the pilot should probably have been 2 hours instead of 90 minutes to help develop some of the themes and the characters, but there was no problem in following what was happening.

I hope the relationship between Mary and Raphael develops. She obviously wants more but sees herself as either not capable of such a relationship or because her job won't let her have a solid relationship.

But will she develop a relationship with detective Dershowitz? That would be interesting.

We look forward to the next episode.

With the addition of In Plain Sight, it's official...the summer cable shows like The Closer, Saving Grace, Burn Notice and Damages are so much better than anything the major networks have to offer during the "regular" season. Love the chemistry between Mary and Marshall. Love the quick quips and the realistic dialog. And the addition of a fine looking black detective with the unlikely name of Dershowitz for Mary to butt heads and crack wise with is pure gold.

I do agree that the mother and sister are best in small doses, but they do provide a nice slightly off-balance counterpoint to the thoroughly professional handle Mary has on her work life. One line describes the relationship beautifully: in replying to her n'er-do-well sister's question about why Mary won't just get rid of her defective car, she says "because, like my family, I love it a little more than I want to kill it." The people she's protecting have been getting better and better with each successive show. The most recent, David Foley, was a real hoot as an assassin's middleman.

All in all, I don't care if it's not exactly as law enforcement would do it. I'm not looking for authenticity in a summer show. I'm looking for fun, and In Plain Sight has it in spades.

After a lifetime in law enforcement, I don't like cop shows. The vast majority of them take themselves waaaay too seriously, and Hollywood displays very little understanding of how cops and police departments work. Oh, they have their technical advisors who show them how cops do tactical stuff, and they do manage to get that stuff mostly right, but it's the day to day stuff that they screw up. For example, how many times have shows depicted a detective leaving some major department and going to another city and immediately becoming a detective? Sorry folks, it just doesn't work that way. I don't care if you have a gold shield in the Big Apple, it you move to another state, you're going to go through the entire testing process all over again, go through another academy, and start out as a junior patrol cop working a beat.

So I don't like cop shows. Except.....

Mary Shannon has to be the most irascible, sarcastic, cynical, wry, blunt pretend LEO to ever pin on a TV badge. I love every minute she and Marshall are on the screen. Whoever writes for the show, especially the dialogue, is a genius. Practically every other line Mary utters is something that I wish I had thought of. At the same time, I identify with both her partner Marshall, and her supervisor Stan. Mary is the sort of partner and subordinate that you love to work with while simultaneously dreading whatever they're going to do next.

The show is hardly a model of realism, but I've given up on Hollywood ever getting that right. I watch the show because I want to see Mary cause Stan to pull out the rest of his hair, to hear her lay into some pompous FBI agent, to tell some protectee or family member just what an idiot they are, or to cause Marshall to go off on some existential tangent. You go girl!!

This is a great show, despite being predictable now and again. I love the characters and I love the soundtrack. Both Mary and Marshall are complicated and interesting people. Mary's family is as crazy as any family can be, but as the saying goes, every crazy family is crazy in it's own way. I wish we knew more about Marshall's life because he's easily one of the most interesting men on television, despite having no personal life whatsoever. He's well read and wry and very patient and insightful. Only drawback: I miss Robert Dershowitz!

My husband and I blew a rainy Saturday watching one episode after the next on Netflix. As rainy Saturdays go, it was a good one.

Although it's hard to decide the future of this show based on its pilot, I would assume that this show will do well on USA. While it's not quite as good as the advertisements led it to be, I enjoyed the first episode and the characters it developed. As others have mentioned, I hope that it does not end up focused around solving murders, but rather the families the Marshalls need to hide. Mary is a refreshingly sarcastic woman with great one-liners and an over-all amusing personality. There is a great juggle between local crimes, witness protection, and personal affairs. Hopefully the rest of the episodes will live up to the standards the pilot has set.

I found the show to be engaging and close enough to a depiction of real life situations to be both enjoyable and thought provoking. However, Mary's character was so emotionaly disfunctional and self absorbed that it made many of her scenes painful to watch; so much so that by the final season I was looking forward to the end of the series.

Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) is a U.S. Marshal who spends her time relocating and working with federal witnesses in the witness protection program. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mary works with her partner Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller). She is a tough fast-talking agent who won't back down, but her family life is a mess. Her father is a criminal. Her overly dependent mother Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren), and younger sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) are even more of a mess.

Mary McCormack is amazing and has great platonic chemistry with Frederick Weller. It's a simple, fun cop procedural and everything works. The dysfunctional family and love life are all great.

I have to catch up with the beginning of the first episode, but what I saw tells me USA has a winner on its hands with IN PLAIN SIGHT. The main character, a rather fetching but ball-busting federal marshal played by Mary McCormack, is a swipe of Karen Sisco from Elmore Leonard's OUT OF SIGHT, crossed with Jordan Cavanaugh of CROSSING JORDAN and even Adrian Monk of MONK, to name just a few influences. McCormack racks them and stacks them with the best of her male counterparts. Predictably, she has a troubled personal life and a ditzy mother, played winningly by Leslie Ann Warren, 62, but not looking a day over 50. In the opener, it's her birthday and she just knows Mom has planned a surprise party. She also has a murder to solve and some people to put into witness protection. By the end, all is well, of course. And so on to the next episode. McCormack, a TV and movie veteran, is the whole show. The majority of the supporting cast is made up of your basic generic TV actors, looking a little too young and too clean cut and too thin. Sounds like WITHOUT A TRACE, don't it? McCormack does a post-coital nude scene in the opener, clearly to keep the guys watching. My theory is that we will never see her naked again. But that's OK. She's just fun to watch.

This smart, funny, and sexy new show is basically SAVING GRACE starring Mary McCormack instead of Holly Hunter, and this show is all Mary McCormack. Everything else is formulaic, not necessarily a bad thing, but, if you watch a lot of TV, you'll pretty much go, "yeah, OK." Again, that's not a bad thing. You watch TV to be entertained. IN PLAIN SIGHT is definitely entertaining and Mary McCormack is perfect for this part. She makes it all work. Not only a woman with a strong personality, but a woman who competes with men in a man's world and kicks butt in the process. OK, her personal life sucks but, you already guessed that, didn't you? It's OK. Trust me. Mary McCormack makes it all work and makes it all worthwhile. After watching the first episode, I figure future episodes won't be hard to write because Mary is a to-die-for character for anyone who writes for TV. Witty. sarcastic, and dead pan. YUM!

Most of the episodes have decent, moderately interesting story. There's no real sex or violence to speak of. You won't be dazzled by the dialogue or original story lines. What you are supposed to be dazzled by, is, of course, Mary. Unfortunately Mary's character is neither original nor interesting; neither thoughtful nor intelligent. Mary is snarky and juvenile in her interactions with others, not at all the person she portrays in the opening and closing monologues which is a thoughtful, introspective person. I grew weary of her quickly. Marshall's character was interesting but his unspoken infatuation with Mary didn't fit his character and was an un-necessary sub-plot. Mary's mother and sister were AWFUL. Those characters should have been left on cutting room floor. I made it to Season 5 but Mary's character is just getting uglier and meaner and more low. I'll probably skip the second half of Season 5. Wouldn't watch another show with her in it.

This show is trying to be too many things all at once and it is failing miserably at being a show about crime and "witness protection". It is all about the drunk. Lesley Ann Warren plays the same sorry dippy ratty haired unlikable person that she plays in every other movie or show. Why is it when a show is really coming together they reduce the star players to after thoughts and bring in some has-been or in this case a never-been player and mess it up.

I was really liking this show. The team of Federal Marshalls was developing a chemistry and hitting its stride. If I want to watch a ratty haired annoying drunk with no purpose I would watch "Saving Grace"... and that is a 1 out of 10 at best.

Save this show PLEASE...!!! I really liked how the witnesses got into trouble and how things moved along. Kill off the mother.

Please don't be like the networks that cancel a show after a couple of episodes. I feel that In Plain Sight keeps getting better. Give it a chance! I'm no great fan of Psych or Burn Notice but I keep watching. Some episodes I like...Some episodes I don't like. And for all of you Monk fans out there...Did you pay attention to who wrote the theme song for In Plain Sight? Jeff Beal! Credit watchers unite! In fact I came to IMDb to find out who played Horst (David Foley) in one episode of In Plain Sight. It took until that episode for the show to hook me and it was the 4th episode, I think. I'm a big time fan of Monk and not all Monk episodes are great. In Plain Sight has potential so please don't write it off too soon.

I watched this show when it first aired. Liked it then, but I love it now. Compared to similar type shows this one is so much more believable. I'm sure there are many liberties taken with the actual witness program, but that's true with all TV shows. I love the cast, especially Mary. Unlike the petite, rail thin of current women in law series these days, Mary looks like she could really carry out the duties of law enforcement. Of course, I might be partial because I am 5"10" and of similar proportions. And I thoroughly enjoy Marshal Marshall's extensive trivia knowledge. It is one show I actually watch, rather than play computer games during it.

Mary and Marshall are two of the most entertaining and unique characters on any show. The storylines can be a bit predictable but the dialogue between Mary and Marshall is never predictable, they're true originals.

I'd give this show a solid 8-stars if it weren't for Mary's sister Brandi. Her character was just painful to watch, the mother isn't much better but it was Brandi who had me reaching for the remote to fast forward her scenes.

I heard repeatedly from friends and family that this show was interesting. However, the description of "it's a show about two U.S. Marshalls that work in witness protection," doesn't really grasp my attention. Then I found the dvds at the library and figured I'd give it a shot. The series was already finished with its second season by the time I started watching it. So, my impression. The reason to watch this show is mostly due to its characters. I think the plot could be about detectives, security guards, or sheriffs, but with Mary and Marshall as the main characters (and partners), the show would still be awesome. The writing is usually really good, though the screwed-up dynamic of Mary's family becomes irritating sometimes. I would recommend this show to anyone looking to watch some entertaining stories about crazy U.S. Marshalls and Witness Protection.

Mary McCormack is the only believable actor/actress i have seen in a police drama series since Helen Mirren in the early Prime Suspect stories. She is not like your Without a Trace or Numbers cops, that seem to be posing for every shot, or putting folders over there bodies to cover up the fact that they are going to have a baby, Mary McCormack's character in "In Plain Sight" is the reason to watch this program, she really is amazing, as a in your face, don't give a damn, down to earth veteran US Marshall the stories are not bad, getting better in fact, some of the other cast are a bit hammy, , so what, over all its an entertaining show, with some great one liners, plenty of action and i can only hope that the networks realize that they have little gem of a series here and give it a fair chance, and not kill it off before it starts, so to speak.

I've been a fan of Mary McCormack since I first saw her, when she played Howard Stern's wife in "Private Parts", and she had a terrific run in "The West Wing", playing a character not all that different from the one she plays here. As another poster has said, she makes the whole show work (as far as it does). She's smart, funny, sexy, has a great way with a line and is much more in control of her professional life than the train wreck that's her personal life. The premise of the show itself is interesting, but the main problem with the only episode I've seen so far--the pilot--is, as has been noted, that the story was weak and somewhat convoluted and, overall, tended to sink down into typical cop-show cliché. It doesn't seem to quite know if it wants to be a cop show with comedy or a comedy with cops, and that's something they need to figure out before the show goes much further. Also, IMO, she needs to get a new partner. The guy she has now seems to be more like an Abbott to her Costello except more glib and smarmy. Either he should tone down the cheap "seen-it-all" cynicism and wiseass attitude or they should just get someone else. His character really doesn't work. And I'm sorry, but Lesley Ann Warren just doesn't work as Mary's mother, either. She's too much of a caricature--not to mention yet another TV sitcom cliché, the ditzy yet sexy middle-aged mom--to be believable.

Mary McCormack is pretty much the only reason to watch it right now. With some tweaking--mainly in the writing and casting--it could be a really good show, on a level with USA's superb "Burn Notice". But it will need a fair amount of work, and Mary McCormack deserves better than what they've done with it so far.

A pathetic attempt to recreate Psych, In Plain Sight is an epic failure. The writing is not only tacky and stale it is at some times needlessly offensive. For example in the pilot in the main characters' first exchange the writers had them talking about what is 'retarded' and what is not. I know some people roll their eyes when they hear someone talk about how the use of that word is offensive but it is. It is the exact same thing as using the N word. And just a random other problem I have: why is it that in pretty much every scene in the witness protection agency office the only people there are Mary Marshall and their boss? Why can't they hire extras?

Then there is the character development or I guess I should say the LACK of character development. Not one of those characters could even begin to pass as people in the real world. Maybe they're in there somewhere in the writing but the acting is awful. Could Mary's sidekick partner be any more bland? And the mother and sister? Leslie Ann Warren was funny in the occasional guest appearance now and then on sitcoms like Will and Grace but I do not under any circumstances want to watch a plot line revolving completely around her. Then Mary herself is just your basic tough female cop. I can't even think of any more words to describe it its so boring and conventional. Also, when she talks it sounds like she has a mouth full of spit or a retainer or something. Its a source of great annoyance to me, if shes going to be the main character on a TV show she should at least know how to use her voice. I do not care about a single one of these characters. I don't care if they live or die. I don't care if they find love or end up alone. I don't care if they take drugs or drink themselves into oblivion and that is a HUGE problem. If I do not care about the characters then why should I watch it?

I keep watching it hoping it will get better like Burn Notice did but to my amazement it just keeps getting worse and worse. do not I repeat DO NOT watch this show. Its an hour of your life you will never get back.

After the first two seasons the show kind of went to hell. The third season was ok, but they got rid of Raph and Jinx and the writers just weren't doing their best anymore. The fourth season was even worse. Marshal started dating that annoying, ugly cop who unfortunately never went away and Mary had a baby with her UGLY ex husband. In the fifth season she starts dating some other ugly loser. It's a real disappointment that the show went down hill.

In Plain Slight is a crime show where you see what the lives of U.S. Marshall Officers and their jobs to put people in Witness Protection.

The series main protagonist Mary Shannon (Played by Mary McCormack) is a no nonsense wise cracking US Marshall with a interesting view on the world as she is forced to deal with her mother Jinx Shannon (Played by Lesley Ann Warren) and her sister Brandi Shannon (Played by Nicole Hiltz).

Things at work are just as interesting for Mary as well with her partner Marshall Mann (Played by Frederick Weller) as they work together to keep their witness protected within their program along with their boss Stan McQueen (Played by Paul Ben-Victor).

The series protagonists make the show a fun and interesting series to watch because Mary and Marshall have a strong partnership and are best friends.

The acting is very good with Mary and Fredrick work very well together and make their characters very strong.

The writing is very creative as you get a mix of drama, comedy and action in the show. Which is level out very well.

So you are interested in Crime drama with good characters and story telling IN Plain Slight is the show for you .