3 out of 5

Created by: Ben H. Winters

covers season 1

An engaging lead and fun support characters; a quality and flexible setup for (essentially) a crime-of-the-week PI procedural: I am easily entertained. If Tracker’s writers had put some more focus on actual character building, and not mystery-boxing Colter Shaw’s (Justin Hartley) past, the show might’ve gotten an extra bump. As is, the positive distractions of the good cast, and smart production – well-chosen sets and locales – keep things in the mid-range, but it’s a consistent mid-range.

There were a few paths for Hartley to take after This is Us; the show’s producers surely knew they had to at least partially appeal to one of those, occasionally going the cheesecake route with reasons to get the actor out of his kit, but on the whole, I’m very glad that this was the show the actor pursued next, as Colter is a character with some appealing tonal complexities that serve the actor’s dramatic chops well. Specifically: Shaw is a “reward seeker,” taking odd jobs – mostly finding missing people – that pay out a certain amount, and while we inevitably get plenty of pro bono good guy moments, the show plays it straight in always having Shaw get paid; it’s an appreciated bit of business that keeps us mostly on a straight path. And even some of the snippets of backstory that inform Colter’s loner status – primarily a survivalist father – are good grist for the flashback mill. But this is constantly subjected to “but what REALLY happened in the past?” thread danglings that only distract, and feel incredibly tacked on as linearity stingers.

Buttressing this stuff: the support crew who often assist Colter are used sparingly and effectively, and as such, are generally fun to see in their sprinkled appearances, playing off of Coulter’s nigh-curmurdgeonly ways charmingly, uniquely – everyone brings a specific skill set – and usefully. And the look and feel of the show is similarly practical, making use of the premise’s wandering rogue framework to take us across varying locales (compare to the modern Equalizer, an approximately similar show, but with a frequently recycled and empty sense of place) and using the detective framework for a moderately slower pace, so we’re not disoriented by globe-trotting (it’s a case per episode), and action can be rolled out as needed instead of, tiresomely, at every turn.

Tracker works. That seems like a low bar, but watch enough procedural TV… well, it’s not, and that the show maintains its workmanship for pretty much every episode makes it worth a casual view.