Century City Review – “Without A Tracer”

Another episode originally unaired by CBS has been run
in Canada. The show is maintaining its quality.

Cast and Crew

Nestor Carbonell as Tom Montero

Viola Davis as Hannah Crane

Ioan Gruffudd as Lukas Gold

Kristin Lehman as Lee May Bristol

Eric Schaeffer as Darwin McNeil

Hector Elizondo as Martin Constable

Guest starring Todd Louiso, Danica McKellar, Felicia
Day, and Mae
Whitman.

I missed the writer and director credits this week,
and the old
TVTome.com page has been replaced with a less complete
www.tv.com
page. They IMDB doesn’t have the information on this
episode,
either. I’ll be sure to get the proper credits from
the episode from
now one.

Created by Ed Zuckerman.

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page
.


Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate


This episode was never aired on CBS. It has been
aired a few times on
Space: The
Imagination Station

this season.

Synopsis

Again, we have two cases. The serious case is about a
teenage girl
who has a “Child Safe” GPS locater chip implanted
within her that
allows her parents to watch her through existing
surveillance cameras
for practically every minute of every day. The goofy
case is about a
balding, nerdy guy whose “MateFinder” unit won’t stay
off, which
causes problems between him and his current fiance, as
gorgeous blonds
between the ages of 25 and 35 keep flirting with him.

High Point

Darwin’s complaints about the natural order of the
universe were
amusing, but the ambiguous ending has to be the best
part of the
episode.

Low Point

The producers paid attention to a lot of details when
they made this
show, particularly in set design and costuming. I’m
getting a little
tired of the protagonist lawyers always looking dapper
in court, while
the lawyers they face are rough and unkempt. It feels
like a way to
twist the audience to the writers’ point of view by
making them
dislike the opposition, when it should be the actual
writing that does
this job. Of course, the fact that the low point is
this type of
quibble says something about the overall quality of
the show.

The Review

This was original for a television
production. When was the
last time a law show took at look at where the current
privacy laws
are headed? This is a natural way for existing
technology
to
go, particularly given suggestions like this
one
.
(In fact, based on dates, Professor Warwick’s
suggestion may have
inspired this episode.) Many shows claim to tackle
real issues in the
form of entertainment, but I’ve never seen a show do
that so
completely without becoming preachy. I give it 5 out
of 6.

The visual effects are the usual subtle,
frequent little
finishing touches. 6 out of 6.

The story was well written, with both cases
dovetailing
together nicely, examining bad decisions people can
make out of love.
I give it 5 out of 6.

The acting was very good, particularly when
Carbonell and
Whitman were sharing screen time. I give it 5 out of
6.

The emotional response is strong, with some
genuinely good
laughs from Darwin’s case, and some powerful,
passionate moments from
Montero’s case. I give it 5 out of 6.

The production on this show was great. This
was an expensive
show to produce, so I certainly understand why the
ratings would need
to be high to keep it on the air. They just did a
great job. I give
it 6 out of 6.

Overall, it’s another entertaining and
compelling entry in
the series. I’m quite enjoying this show. I give it
5 out of 6.

In total, Without a Tracer receives 37 out of
42.

Additional Comments

Space: The Imagination Station is changing or removing
Century
City
from its schedule in July. There are three
episodes of the
series that are yet to be reviewed, and the other two
are not listed
in the usual Sunday morning time slot. I’ll try to
find out if it’s
been pulled or cancelled. The final episode of the
series worked well
as a finale, with a culminating growth for all of the
cast. If it has
been cancelled, next week’s review will simply include
a recap of what
I remember of those two episodes.