The Positively Positive

Christian Slater in the forgotten, Season 1, episode 4 “Parachute Jane”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

As I watched this week’s episode of the forgotten it occurred to me that there is always going to be an innate sadness to this show. Because the forgotten is different than other procedural dramas. In other shows we see a team looking to solve a crime which is more often than not a murder, but occasionally they get to rescue someone too.

This show doesn’t have that option. Here we already know that our victim is dead and nothing the team does will change that. All the volunteers can hope for is to find out who they are to give the families, and indeed the victims themselves, some closure.

That being said, I don’t see this as an overly sad show. Yes it’s true that I do tend to tear up at the end of each episode. I can’t help it, hearing the voice of the victim tell us who they are as their murderer is brought to justice, just gets to me. But the show still manages to be interesting, exciting and even funny.

This week’s episode had the team looking into the murder of a teenager whose only crime was that she wanted to go home. In the beginning I pegged the girl as a wild teen enjoying her freedom and fooling everyone into thinking she was older than she was. As it turned out, the exact opposite was true, proving that I jump to conclusions much too easily.

Overall another good episode of a show that I’m beginning to enjoy very much.

More on the forgotten…

the forgotten, Season 1, episode 3 “Football John”

Heather Stephens and Christian Slater interview a possible suspect in the forgotten, season 1, episode 3 “Football John”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

I didn’t hear about this show until after the pilot episode and I’ve only seen the last two episodes. So far I think it’s really good.

About a group of volunteers led by an ex cop (played by Christian Slater), ”the forgotten” is not your typical cop show. Well for one thing, the characters solving the murders of people the police have given up on (dubbed “the forgotten), aren’t cops at all. They’re just people. People who have decided to do this in their spare time, sometimes to the detriment of their family lives, jobs, etc.

Because this isn’t their “job”, I can really feel the passion these characters have for what they do. They also come up with some rather unorthodox ways of doing it. Unable to arrest anyone or serve warrants, they do everything to get the info they need, including pleading with a hotel receptionist or buying a round for a bar full of rowdy football fans.

The voices of the dead, as our narrators to their own story, help to move the show along.

The joy the group feels when they solved a case is palpable as well, and another reason I have enjoyed the first episodes I’ve seen. That and the fact that last night’s episode actually had me crying at the end. If that’s not a sign of some well written television, I don’t know what is.