Blog From The Bench

I've decided it's my duty as a TV reporter to watch at least one episode of every new show on TV this fall. I've already seen Stand-off, Justice and now Vanished.

Vanished was the Fox show I was least interested in seeing and it's the one that grabbed me the most! It's a convoluted tale that seems to be about the kidnapping of a Senator's wife but it turns out to be so much more. Conspiracies and layers and layers of lies, old murders, new murders, who's involved and who's not? The show has a cool style - a bit of high tech on-screen graphics (CSI Style) with rich movie colors. The characters are many so you may need a score card to keep up. It's highly serialized so if you miss the first few episodes you're doomed and it's one of several TV shows (Kidnapped) this year to deal with the one season, one quest (crime) theme.

Gale Harold (Wyatt Earp of Deadwood) is very interesting as special agent in charge Kelton. If you love complicated mysteries, this is the show for you.