In the pantheon of contemporary law enforcement dramas, most female characters fall into one of two categories: badge babes (Catherine Willows, “CSI”), who look great in cute suits but take their work a little too personally and make questionable decisions, or ball-breakers (Jenny Shepherd, “NCIS”) whose self-righteousness hampers investigations.
Fortunately, USA Network’s new series, “In Plain Sight” doesn’t stick its heroine into either category. Mary Shannon, who is played by Mary McCormack, is a U.S. Marshal working in its witness protection program. She’s dedicated to the job without haranguing her co-workers, doesn’t over-sympathize with the witness of the week and can separate her personal life from her professional one. In fact, Mary’s family and friends, including mom (Lesley Ann Warren), little sis (Nichole Hiltz) and boyfriend (Cristian de la Fuente), don’t know that she and her partner, Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller), are responsible for making sure that relocated witnesses get used to their new identities in the southwestern city.
“Mary’s a little bit of a throwback to characters in the ‘Cagney & Lacey’ vein, where you really get to know all sides of them, not just their on-the-job, crime-solving side,” says series creator David Maples. He says he created the character to give his six-year-old, daughter, Joely James, a heroine to look up to.
McCormack, 39, says that Mary “was a nice fit, she feels like comfortable jeans.” Nevertheless, the actress, who is married to “Brothers & Sisters” producer Michael Morris, had recently given birth to a daughter, Rose, now 1, when the show went into production in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last August and she had to get in shape fast.
“I had a little tiny baby so I had to work out and exercise a lot,” she says. “All the evidence of just having made a life was there, so it’s a tricky business, but with a kind DP [director of photography] and good lighting, you can fudge a little,” says McCormack, who also has a three-year-old with Morris named Rose.Originally set in Phoenix, “In Plain Sight” moved its location to Albuquerque at the network’s request when New Mexico offered CBS a huge tax break for filming there. Although hesitant about the relocation, Maples found in the state’s sweeping desert and mountain vistas “the opportunity to create a ‘big sky’ show, where we could really use our locale as another character – it’s a world that no one’s seen on TV before.”
The inner workings of the U.S Marshal Service’s Federal Witness Protection Program (a k a WITSEC) are also new territory for a TV show.
While forensic scientists, lawyers and doctors jump at the chance to be advisors on TV shows, “In Plain Sight” had the opposite problem. It was almost impossible for Maples to get a WITSEC technical advisor because the Marshals won’t reveal the strategies that keep people safe.
“We had to convince them that we were going to treat the subject respectfully and didn’t want to give away any trade secrets that would put anyone in danger,” says Maples.
“Finally they sent us our current technical advisor, who was the chief of the L.A. office back in the ’80s. He’s been an unbelievable resource, but even then there are questions he wouldn’t answer. We’d have to play a guessing game – he’d either say, ‘Yeah, I think that might work’ or shake his head and grumble, so we’d know we’re on the wrong track. It’s a very interesting way to work.”
“I asked him a lot of technical things, like what do you call the places where witnesses are temporarily put after they’re snatched out of their dangerous environments. He wouldn’t tell me that. I asked if they were in every state and if Marshals knew exactly where they are or where to find them. Where are they? Are they just vacant houses? High school gyms? And he just shook his head, like “I’m not going to tell you.'”
The upside to doing a show about a subject so shrouded in secrecy is that the personnel involved never field complaints about how they’re doing everything wrong.
“It’s true, I don’t have to deal with the nagging doctors like those poor ‘ER’ actors. Everywhere they go, some doctor comes up to them and says, ‘You know when you performed that surgery. . .’ ” McCormack says with a laugh.
“I don’t have to deal with that, because [the WITSEC Inspectors] can’t talk about it. They could think I’m doing a crap job and they have to keep it to themselves.”
IN PLAIN SIGHT
Sunday, 10 p.m., USA