Parental Issues 'In Plain Sight'

This week's episode of In Plain Sight was a million times better than the pilot. It made my decision to stick with it pay off as we were rewarded with a compelling story involving a young boy who started out as a witness and suddenly became the shooter. Luckily, he blanked out the entire shooting-his-mom-by-accident incident, but he wasn't able to blank out his drug-dealing father and his (notso) merry band of low-life friends. We also saw Mary bending the rules a bit in favor of the boy's best interest and I liked this new facet to her character. Her move with sending the kid back "home" before the judge ruled could have landed her in hot water, but she was willing to gamble on it in order to ensure her young charge's safety. I started off hating the father and his horrendous parenting skills, but he kinda grew on me. By the end, I was all ferklempt at seeing him reunited with his son back in Albuquerque. And call me a sap, but there was something sweet about father and son both in the WITSEC program together.

The only thing that didn't work well for me in this episode was Mary's mother and sister and their crazy story involving the door-to-door make-up sales. Overall, the mother is the weakest link and I feel like the show is wasting Leslie Ann Warren's talent on these silly story lines and this overdone character. The sister isn't much better and the combination of the two feels a little ripped from the mommy/sister issues playbook that Cold Case sorta has the patent on these days. Even down to the daddy- left- so- mom- drinks- too- much- and- wastes- her- time- with- no- good- men- and- my- sister- is- a- chip- off- the- old- block (complete with the same penchant to hook up with the wrong guy) brings to mind a different blond detective with attitude. Long story short: I could do with less mother/sister scenes and do more with Mary's more emotional, human ones like most of this week's episode. Thank goodness for those scenes.

In Plain Sight airs Sunday nights on USA Network. If you missed this week's episode ("Hoosier Daddy"), check it out for free at Hulu.com.