Most law enforcement agencies are dedicated to putting criminals behind bars. One part of the Federal government tends to do the opposite; they put them back on the streets. This seemingly contrary agency is the Federal Witness Relocation Service or Witsec. It is their job to find new identities and relocate witnesses to major federal prosecution cases. Often they are finding new lives for known, dangerous criminals who decided to exchange their testimony on their old bosses for a chance at starting a new life. Other times they are just regular citizens who happened to have seen or heard something incriminating. In either case they are usually in mortal danger since the criminals they are testifying against would rather they be dead than able to talk. In 1996 there was a fairly popular movie based on this part of the government, ‘Eraser’ staring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, the USA cable network is premiering a new action series, ‘In Plain Sight’. The first three episodes were made available for preview and judging by them this series is going to be a summer hit for USA. It is action packed, funny, well written and contains a great cast. It used to be that the summers were nothing but reruns. Thanks to some creative programming cable stations like USA have been running their original series over the summer. This not only tends to boost their all important ratings it gives the audience something fresh to watch over the long summer months.

The series is centered on a U.S. Marshall Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack). As we used to say in the old days she is one tough cookie. I mean that in the most endearing way; she is a tough, independent woman who is dedicated to her job. Try as she might she does have the tendency to get personally involved in the witnesses under her protection. She works out of the Albuquerque, New Mexico office. In the first episode this is demonstrated when Mary has to set up a young Russian woman, Tasha (Angela Sarafyan) with a new identity. As part of the deal for her testimony she was promised a new pair of breast. Mary was supposed to bring back groceries but gets sidetracked for a whole day. To make up for it she brings Tasha a bunch of pornographic magazines to help the girl pick out her new breasts. This is the kind of character created here; one that can take any man in a fight but also one who cares about her charges. She is not above going beyond any formal guidelines to do her job. In one case she needs the location of a mob hit man out to get one of her witnesses. She calls the killer up and pretends to be a girl he met in a bar. She then goes into a whole routine telling the man she is having sex with her girlfriend and they want to come over and party with him. Naturally he gives up a clue to his location. She sees her job as a combination of being mother, therapist, best friend, maid of honor, priest, rabbi, marriage counselor, employment agent, bodyguard, and occasionally and on occasion homicide detective. A running sight gag in the series is the way Mary tries to organize her life. She has a to-do list in her car and is constantly adding and removing items from it. Unfortunately for Mary she has a lot less control over her personal life. She lives with her mother Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren). She is chronically unemployed and always overly critical of Mary. Some time ago Mary’s father turned to a life of crime and ran out on them. Coming for an extended stay with them is Mary’s younger sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz). She has a perchance for stealing cars and shows up for her visit with a suitcase full of crystal meth for a drug deal with her boyfriend. Also in Mary’s life is her on again off again boyfriend Rafael Ramirez (Cristián de la Fuente). At this point they are more like fiends with benefits than anything else with some romance still alive.

On the job Mary is usually joined by her best friend and partner Marshall Mann (Fred Weller). He knows Mary and her quirky style better than anyone else. He is aware of when it is best too just step back and let her loose and when he has to step in to pull her back from going over the line. He is the only one capable of really understanding Mary and what drives her. He is a good friend that will willingly toss the book aside to back her up. Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor) is ostensibly the boss for Mary and Marshall. He thinks she is in charge but has little control over either of them. He is not the usually dumb boss. He is an intelligent, able marshal in his own right it is just that he hasn’t a clue about Mary. In the first episode it is Mary’s birthday. First Stan picks out an expensive bottle of perfume for her. Marshal tells her she doesn’t wear perfume. He then exchanges it for a pair of high heel shoes. Mary accidentally sees them and calls then whore shoes. Finally he slips a $50 bill in a card for her. As a little piece of trivia ben-Victor is joined by his Sci-Fi channel’s ‘Invisible Man’ co-star Vincent Ventresca, who plays the father of an eight year old in the program. Life with Mary around is never dull for either of these men.

This is an excellent series that hopefully will go on for years to come. Mary is painted as a forceful woman, something that is gathering a lot of popularity on these cable networks. Fans of TNT’s ‘The Closer’ and ‘Saving Grace’ will be naturally drawn to this series. Mary is fully aware of here sexuality and knows how to use it at work and enjoy it in here private life. She is often shown as frazzled but despite the appearance of disorder she is ultimately always in control in some form or another. She is a strong girl power role model that is rare on television these days. The format of the show is simple but effective. It starts off with a little flashback showing the crime that the subject witnesses. The case number is then shown and Mary and Marshal become involved. The quality of the guest stars is incredible. Many come from such highly regarded series like ‘The Wire’. This is a level of acting that is not often seen on any television series. The stories are engaging and move along very well. There are no dead spots in any of the episodes provided for review. This is a series not to miss. USA is well known for its comedy crime series including ‘Monk’ and ‘Psych’ and with ‘In Plain Sight’ move successfully to more drama faire. It looks like an interesting summer ahead.