Without a Trace - The Complete First Season
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Movie Reviews of Without a Trace - The Complete First Season
Movie Review: Entertaining TV-series
Summary: 4 Stars
Without a Trace - The Complete First Season
Highly entertaining! Credible characters, interesting plots.
Movie Review: I was very pleased with this product!
Summary: 5 Stars
This show is done very well! Each episode leaves you on the edge of your seat!Movie Review: Great Series.
Summary: 5 Stars
Without a Trace - The Complete First Season
Great Cast + Superb Acting + Absorbing Stories = Great Series
Movie Review: I guess you either like it or you don't.
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm one of those people who likes to buy tv on dvd movies without having watched the show on television before buying it. I like to watch the show on my own time, sometimes one episode a week, sometimes 3 episodes a day. When I was looking for a new series to watch, I settled on Without a Trace because I'm going to school to study some form of criminology. After watching just a couple of episodes, I felt slightly disappointed.
Obviously, every person has different interests. Having only watched clips of Without a Trace while flipping through the channels, I wasn't sure whether or not I'd completely like the show but the topics interested me. TV shows are much like movies. You have to have a beginning, middle, climax, and an ending. Without these things, you don't have a good movie, or a good show in this case. This review is not meant to critique the show, rather I'm reviewing this particular season as well as the actual dvd (bonuses, etc.).
But let's talk about the positives first. First, the main characters seem to be pretty likeable. And of course you need to have likeable characters since they're considered to be the "good guys". The show revolves around a group (the "good guys") who are part of the FBI's missing persons unit. In each episode, the group must find a missing person, each with different circumstances, and different surprises. One thing I'd like to point out is that the endings are far from predictable. I like that each episode and each case is completely different with completely different characters and completely different endings.
In terms of the actual dvd, there are a ton of great bonuses and behind the scenes footage to keep any Without a Trace fan content. Some episodes also have deleted scenes, most aren't anything new and interesting, but some would have changed the episode if they weren't deleted.
And now for the negatives. The one huge negative that turned me off from the show is something that (according to some of the reviews on Amazon) some people like about the show. As I said above, the endings are far from predictable. And when I say far, I do mean FAR. It's to the point where I was thinking "where did THAT come from?". I don't want to spoil anything so I'll come up with my own example. Say a woman is missing and her husband is the prime suspect. Without a Trace will obviously not allow the husband to be the suspect but they will have the husband's uncle's friend's girlfriend be the suspect. And the worst part is the husband's uncle's friend's girlfriend will not be mentioned even once throughout the show until she is found to be the suspect. Another thing that annoyed me a bit is a lack of additional storylines. Yes, there are a couple of little side storylines but they're not completely developed and throughout the whole season, I was craving SOMETHING to break up the traditional storyline.
As far as the actual dvd, the episodes are printed on both sides of each disk. And it's hard to figure out which side you've watched already since the disks contain no images to differentiate between them. Also, if you're not very careful, double sided disks can scratch easily (and in my case, I only watched each disk once and I managed to scratch a couple disks just by placing them on top of the table).
Look, if you're a fan of the show, my review isn't going to influence you to not buy it, but for those who, like me, enjoy buying tv on dvd movies without having watched the show on television, keep in mind the negatives I pointed out. It's not a bad show but I certainly will not buy season two.
Movie Review: The best out of all those crime/missing persons/CSI themed shows
Summary: 5 Stars
Anthony LaPaglia, who plays serious yet caring Agent Jack Malone, is easily one of the most underrated actors on television today. He is just superb in this series. His scenes in this season's episode "Suspect" with Conor O'Farrell, who played dean Graham Spaulding, left me with chills. There are so many great moments and episodes in season one of Without a Trace.
The finale is extremely suspenseful, but the episode "Suspect" has stuck with me all these years. It's just done so well, especially afterwards when Jack Malone has to vomit. It's just haunting and shocking all at the same time - the music, the lighting, the rain going on in the background, basically just everything leaves you cold but at the same time completely in awe of this scene. Yes, I am a tad in love with Anthony LaPaglia due to his acting in this series. Can't ya tell? ;)
The supporting cast is also really great. All the characters are very interesting and the mysteries always have you guessing.
I like this show because it focuses more on the actual mysteries, instead of who's sleeping with whom. That goes on in this series, but the actual missing children/people take precedent over any intimate relationship plot line.