In Plain Sight – Has motherhood changed Mary?

In Plain Sight is back. Luckily, it isn’t the Mary from the beginning of season four, but the Mary we love from seasons one through three (thanks to Carla for covering the premiere).

This week focused on Mary dealing with the difficulties of a single parent balancing her child and job including unscheduled re-assignment requests, the AD, and Carlos’s return. The sub-plots surrounded Delia handling Mary’s witness, a professional doll collector who turned to hoarding to deal with familial isolation; Stan dealing with the AD’s political plotting and  his dance teacher (Tia Carerre) while Marshall settles in with his girlfriend and handles his Aryan Brotherhood witness.

I broke up with In Plain Sight last season. The new production direction removed the strong writing and darkness I loved so much. Luckily, the introspective monologues, the fiery Mary and the realistic witness scenarios returned. In fact, I enjoyed last week  so much that I checked the writing credit to learn David Maples penned season five’s premiere episode.

David did a good job muting Delia (Tangie Ambrose), the marshal-in-training, and making Marshall’s girlfriend Abigail (Rachel Boston) more palatable and realistic. Also, he made the introduction of Mary’s baby fit her character by writing Mary’s pregnancy and decision to keep Norah stemmed from a need to protect someone with both Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren) and Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) cleaning up their acts. In one fell swoop, he made  issues that never fully flowed, click.

This week, Michael Reisz, 2011’s supervising producer on six episodes,  followed David’s example. I enjoyed  this and last week so much I hoped we’d receive another season. Unfortunately, the Albuquerque office’s possible closing will prevent that.

Yet, I have to cry foul on the office closing. In an earlier season, administrators declared the office as exemplary for possessing two marshals who did the work of more than four, making it more efficient and economical. Plus, in a seceding season, they already closed and folded another WitSec office into Albuquerque. So, you’re going to cut the most economical and efficient office AFTER cutting another area office? Really? That feels contradictory. But, it  gives the show a natural closure. I don’t like or trust the AD character; but I am grateful the male writers stopped penning Mary’s drag down, balls-out fight with every single female administrator.

So, has having a child changed Mary? Thankfully, no. Despite Norah (or because of her), this is still the snarky, bad-attitude, controlling Mary we know and love, realistic post-pregnancy weight and all. While some parts didn’t  feel like Mary i.e. when she apologizes to her baby daddy for yelling at him for bailing on babysitting, everything else remains 100% Mary. But, Mark and Mary’s mutual frustration at Jinx’s decision to take care of Brandi is immature. Relying on Jinx as free childcare for eternity isn’t fair to Jinx. Without Jinx, she’d still have to shoulder the  responsibility.  So, she was totally within her rights to yell at her sperm donor for not helping shoulder responsibility. I LOVED Delia’s confrontation with Marshall’s witness which made her darker and realer. However, Mary’s open mouth seemed unnatural. I totally expected her to say, “Wow, I finally like you now.”  However, as the show consistently framed Mary’s witness whisperer capabilities as unique (which I always called ‘Bull’ on), I like that the show’s admitting that other marshals have that skill.

Speaking of Delia, I liked her maturity from Miss Hyper-Mary Sunshine this week. I really enjoyed the covert writing of her character as good at her job, yet still a trainee. She did a good job calling herself  the witness’ sister-in-law and handling the landlord. However, after identifying the witness’ real issue and neutralizing the landlord, shouldn’t she have gone OUTSIDE to alert Mary about the witness’ bat-shit craziness, and, THEN, bring in a therapist to help? Instead, staying inside and calling various trash pick-up services without dealing with the issue seemed foolish because the witness would overhear, feel threatened and react (which she did). Although Mary chiding Delia seemed odd  (for doing what Mary would have done), considering  Mary dropped a witness in the season finale, it guess it makes sense.

I hope season five continues on the path set by the past two episodes. I considered myself a devout acoloyte in seasons one through three. If the show continues with the strong writing path (and taking advantage of David Maples’ guidance and writing), I’ll continue to enjoy it as much as I did previously.

Notes:

• I loved the parallel “lie low” advice Mary and Marshall gave their witnesses.
• I’m finally over the Marshall and Mary relationship. Marshall always wanted Mary. While he might love Norah as an uncle, I don’t feel the I-would-love-her-as-my-own-child vibe. Plus, Mary finally has someone permanently in her life.
• I still love Fred Weller‘s Marshal Marshall Mann.
• I loved watching typically soft-hearted Delia, close the door, locking the rabbit out (as opposed to keeping him in)!
• I love Tia Carrerre (The Relic Hunter!) and am glad to see her as Stan’s love interest.

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Mar 25, 2012 @ 17:04 EST5EDT