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Sepinwall on TV: 'In Plain Sight' review

Posted by Alan Sepinwall/The Star-Ledger May 29, 2008 5:41AM

Mary Shannon's partner has been driven to punch her in the arm, because that's the kind of effect she has on people.

"Ow!" she complains. "I can't believe you'd hit a girl!"

"You're no girl!" he tells her, unimpressed.

And this is Mary, the heroine of USA's breezy new drama "In Plain Sight," in a nutshell. She is tall and blonde and pretty, and even though she has no interest in girly things, she's not above trying to exploit her feminine side when it might be useful. And only the people who know her well know what an act it is.

A U.S. Marshal working in the Witness Security program (WitSec for short, though most movies refer to it as Witness Protection) based out of Albuquerque, Mary's job is to help other people assume roles that are expedient but not always comfortable. Whether they're criminals who cut a deal to stay out of jail or unlucky civilians who witnessed something they shouldn't have, Mary has to explain to them that their lives as they knew them are over, and their job is now to blend in at all costs.

Mary's played by Plainfield's own Mary McCormack, an actress who's been bouncing around the movie and TV business for a couple of decades without breaking through. You might remember her as Howard Stern's wife in "Private Parts," or as an NSA advisor in the final days of "The West Wing," or as the astronaut in "Deep Impact" who, upon realizing their world-saving mission has just become a suicide mission, wryly tells her colleagues that at least they'll all get junior highs named after them. More likely, she's one of dozens of actors and actresses you see pop up and think, "Where have I seen her before?"

But USA has made a specialty of taking underused, idiosyncratic third and fourth bananas and finding the right starring role for them, preferably in some kind of light mystery format. Just as they put Tony Shalhoub in "Monk" and Jeffrey Donovan in "Burn Notice," they've now found the perfect fit for McCormack.

"In Plain Sight" in many ways resembles ABC's brilliant-but-canceled "Karen Sisco," which also had a pretty (and butch) U.S. Marshal as its heroine. Mary's good at her job and cares about her charges, but she's no day at the beach. In an early scene of Sunday's pilot episode (ironically titled "Mary Sunshine"), she follows a suspect into a bar's men's room, and when he advances on her in a threatening manner, she nails him in the crotch with a deftly-thrown bar of soap. After getting the information she needs from the man, she walks back out into the bar, flashes a smile at the crowd, crosses her fingers and says, "That is one special guy! God, I hope he calls!"

Though the show works in a hard-boiled milieu, it takes a playful approach to that. Mary narrates her own adventures, but often admits she wishes she was as cool as the TV detectives she used to watch in the '70s. (McCormack does an excellent "Columbo" impression.) Earlier in the aforementioned bar scene, when the Native American bartender claims not to know who any of the patrons are, Mary warns him to write down some names "before Great White Father in Washington comes down and goes Little Big Horn on your (behind)." The bartender, after pointing out who was actually on the winning side at Little Big Horn, explains that this is his first day on the job and he genuinely doesn't know any of the customers yet.

"I'm sorry," says a sheepish Mary. "I thought you were being difficult."

The pilot episode (more than an hour, but with minimal commercial interruption) is a busy affair that involves Mary's birthday, a fight with her boyfriend Raphael (Cristian de la Fuente), the arrival of both her troublemaking sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) and a new witness, and the murder of another witness' son. With the latter, Mary has to figure out - without telling anything to the local cops - whether it was a random act of violence, or a case of someone piercing the veil of WitSec.

Later episodes ask the more routine (but rarely dull) questions that come with a Marshal's job: what happens if a child is in WitSec and his criminal father wants to sue for custody? Or how can one of the country's top African-American obstetricians continue using his medical license while trying to stay under the radar?

Mary's life (which also includes Lesley Ann Warren as her pickled mom) is so busy that she's constantly adding items to a To-Do list, more often than not having to cross them out undone because three more things just got added. "In Plain Sight" is a definite for any summer TV To-Watch list; don't cross it off until you've seen at least one.

"In Plain Sight" (Sunday at 10 p.m. on USA) A U.S. Marshal (Mary McCormack) helps people in the witness protection program adjust to their new lives.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepinwall@starledger.com, or by writing him at 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200. Please include your full name and hometown.

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