In Plain Sight

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In Plain Sight
Format	Drama
Starring	Mary McCormack Fred Weller Todd Williams Cristián de la Fuente Nichole Hiltz Lesley Ann Warren Paul Ben-Victor
Theme music composer	Jeff Beal
Composer(s)	W.G. Snuffy Walden
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	22 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Maples Paul Stupin
Producer(s)	Oscar Luis Costo
Location(s)	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Running time	approx. 43 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	USA Network
Picture format	NTSC (480i) HDTV 1080i
Original run	June 1, 2008 – present
External links
Official website

In Plain Sight is an American dramatic television series on USA Network. Originally scheduled to premiere on Thursday, April 24, 2008,^[1] USA held the series back when the WGA strike delayed production of the summer series Burn Notice. It made its debut on Sunday, June 1, 2008.^[2]

On July 21, 2008, In Plain Sight was renewed for a 16 episode second season. Production began in October, 2008^[3] and new episodes began airing on April 19, 2009.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Characters 2.1 Recurring characters 3 Episodes 4 DVD release 5 Ratings 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The series revolves around Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack), a Deputy United States Marshal attached to the Albuquerque, NM, office of the Federal Witness Security Program (WITSEC), more commonly known as the Federal Witness Protection Program. Shannon must find ways to balance her professional life of protecting witnesses with her problematic family life.^[4] Her partner, Marshall Mann, assists her in her assignments and serves as the foil for Shannon. The show is filmed and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[edit] Characters

• Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) Mary is a capable officer, a nonconformist, often disrespectful of authority, and disinterested in typical feminine wiles. Known to her witnesses as Mary Shepard, she has a soft spot for them that extends long past the time she should traditionally break ties. The product of a difficult childhood resulting from her father's alcoholism and gambling, Mary has trust and abandonment issues that lead her to have difficulties with relationships. McCormack described Shannon as "not a superhero" and "flawed and real."^[5] After her ordeals in the season one finale, Mary has begun recuperating with her family as they approach their lives looking for a fresh start.
• Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) A fifth-generation Deputy U.S. Marshal. Marshall is Mary's partner, as well as her best friend. He seems to know a little about everything: what Mary calls "useless information". There is friction between Marshall and Mary at times, often due to Marshall's cerebral approach and Mary's gut instinct, though both are extremely protective of witnesses and each other. Though Mary and Marshall have occasionally disagreed about the proper course of action regarding policies, Marshall has typically backed down after taking time to get a perspective and will adopt Mary's position if her cause is right—even when her attitude is not. Having bonded with Det. Robert "Bobby D" Dershowitz during Mary's disappearance, the two have become friends, now freely extending professional courtesies between their respective offices. To his witnesses, he is known as Marshal Miller.
• Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor) As chief inspector for WITSEC's Southwest region, Stan is Marshall and Mary's boss. Stan is a flexible boss and stand-up guy, quickly backing up both Marshall and Mary when they hit trouble. He also appears to have had romantic feelings for Mary at one time, though this subsided after he tried to buy her a pair of stylish shoes. Stan likes to stick to official WITSEC doctrine as often as possible and is reluctant to bend the rules without authorization. However, doing so has mostly made his division above reproach and he enjoys a direct open channel to federal authorities in the Department of Justice. In recent episodes, Stan has made an effort to recreate the professional distance in his office, presumably as a way to shield his team from FBI fallout.
• Jinx Shannon (Lesley Ann Warren) Mary's mother, who was abandoned by her alcoholic husband to raise her two daughters alone. Although she adores her daughters, she has never been a traditional, supportive, job-holding maternal figure. She recognizes that Mary is the stable member of their family, and this has inspired her to live up to her daughter's example and attempt to start over. Even so, she harbors a great deal of resentment against her strong-willed daughter, though this only comes to the surface when she is under great emotional duress. Firmly on the path to recovery, Jinx is slowly growing into her own woman apart from the conniving lifestyle she once enjoyed while being an alcoholic. Now on the path to sobriety, she still follows Mary's lead, but is slowly becoming more reliable.
• Brandi Shannon (Nichole Hiltz) Mary's younger sister is very much her mother's daughter and the baby of the family. She lives in the moment, has a limited education, preferring to get by on her charms, and is involved with a shadowy man named Chuck. Despite this, she looks up to Mary and, at times, sees her as an example. She also tends to be the more mature figure in her relationship with her mother. Brandi is loyal to a fault, but is slowly developing a conscience independent of others' approval. Moved by seeing a young infant in the hands of a meth addict and a drug-dealing boyfriend, Brandi backed out of a drug deal initiated by Chuck so that child services would protect the baby. Later, once Mary has been rescued from her abduction (which was fallout from this decision), Brandi later admits privately that if she had known how the events would play out, she would have killed Chuck herself rather than let her sister come into harm's way from her actions. She is now dating a man she met in Alcoholics Anonymous, who later turns out to be a very rich man (Mary stated he "owns half of Albuquerque"). However, Brandi takes this information differently, believing that she is just "one of his girls" with him being rich and tries to act selfishly to have him break up with her. After he stays with her (even offering hang-over remedies), he states he hopes they can continue to date, to which she agrees. Mary's nickname for Brandi is "squish."
• Det. Robert Dershowitz (Todd Williams) A homicide detective, known as Bobby D, who is occasionally assigned to cases involving Mary's witnesses. He has deduced that Mary is a U.S. marshal working for WITSEC, and doesn't hide his disgust for the branch of law enforcement that puts known criminals back on the street. This attitude has softened recently as Dershowitz became involved in cases associated with the marshal service's witnesses. While his rapport with Mary had been antagonistic at times, he appreciated the friction. After her disappearance, he and Marshall bonded during the subsequent investigation, resulting in a respect for the two marshals, even though he occasionally disagrees with the less savory part of their jobs.
• Raphael Ramirez (Cristián de la Fuente) Mary's boyfriend. Raph plays minor league baseball for the Albuquerque Isotopes and volunteers at a youth center. Right after being called up to the Florida Marlins, he tore the ACL in his knee and returned to Albuquerque to enter physical therapy. His relationship with Mary was complicated for a time when he becomes close to her sister, who helped him through his rehabilitation and was clearly attracted to him. Raph and Mary have grown closer in the aftermath of her kidnapping.

[edit] Recurring characters

• Eleanor Prince (Holly Maples) The recently widowed WITSEC office manager. Both Eleanor and her deceased husband worked for the FBI. Eleanor's calm efficiency clashes with Mary's abrasive work style, but earns the affection of Stan and the admiration of Marshall. In times of emergency, Eleanor will utilize her connections in the FBI to assist with Mary and Marshall's cases, particularly ones that have dealt with Agent O'Conner's relentless pursuit of Mary and her family.
• Special Agent Robert O'Conner (Will McCormack) A New Jersey-based FBI agent now working in Albuquerque. He is in charge of investigating the murders related drug dealing in which Brandi was involved, and has relentlessly focused his investigation on Brandi. He has also become interested in the whereabouts of Mary and Brandi's father.
• Peter Alpert (Joshua Malina) Brandi's new boyfriend and a wealthy businessman. Brandi meets him at an AA meeting where she pretends to be Jinx. Despite initially disapproving of Brandi's actions, Peter begins dating Brandi after she makes a determined effort apologize to him.

[edit] Episodes

On June 15, 2008, Mary McCormack made a guest appearance as Mary Shannon in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Contract". In the episode, Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth) makes a remark about what there is to do in Albuquerque at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night, referencing In Plain Sight's time slot.

[edit] DVD release

On March 31, 2009, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released season one of In Plain Sight on DVD in Region 1; the twelve episodes are presented on three discs and deleted scenes are included.^[6]

[edit] Ratings

The pilot episode of In Plain Sight attracted 5.3 million viewers, making it USA Network's highest-rated series premiere since Psych in 2006. It also outperformed the previous summer's debut of Burn Notice by 32% and the network premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent by 40%.^[7]

The second season of In Plain Sight debuted on April 19, 2009, with overnight ratings of 5.1 million viewers.^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Karen Sisco (2003–2004), a USA Network aired series about another independent-minded female US Marshal with a father (rather than a partner) named Marshall.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: In Plain Sight

• In Plain Sight at USA
• In Plain Sight at the Internet Movie Database
• In Plain Sight at TV.com

v • d • e In Plain Sight Episodes Characters Mary Shannon  · Marshal Mann  · Stan McQueen  · Jinx Shannon  · Brandi Shannon  · Raphael Ramirez  · Robert Dershowitz  · Eleanor Prince  · Peter Alpert Cast Mary McCormack · Fred Weller · Paul Ben-Victor · Lesley Ann Warren · Nichole Hiltz · Cristián de la Fuente · Todd Williams · Holly Maples · Joshua Malina USA Network