In Plain Sight is an American drama television series on USA Network. Originally scheduled to premiere on Thursday, April 24, 2008, USA held the series back when the WGA strike delayed production of the summer series Burn Notice. It made its debut on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

On July 21, 2008, In Plain Sight was renewed for a 16 episode second season. Production will begin in October, 2008.

Synopsis

The series revolves around Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack), a Deputy United States Marshal attached to the Federal Witness Security Program (WITSEC), more commonly known as the Witness Protection Program. Shannon must find ways to balance her professional life of protecting witnesses with her problematic family life. Her partner Marshall Mann assists her in her assignments and serves as the foil for Shannon. The show is filmed and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Characters

• Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) Mary is a Deputy U.S. Marshal attached to WITSEC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mary is a capable officer but a non-conformist, often disrespectful of authority, and disinterested in typical feminine wiles. Known to her witnesses as Mary Shepard, she has a soft spot for them that extends long past the time she should traditionally break ties. The product of a difficult childhood resulting from her father's alcoholism and gambling, Mary has trust and abandonment issues that lead her to have difficulties with relationships. McCormack described Shannon as "not a superhero" and "flawed and real."
• Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) A fifth generation Deputy U.S. Marshal. Marshall is Mary's partner, as well as her best friend. He seems to know a little about everything: what Mary calls "useless information". There is friction between Marshall and Mary at times, often due to Marshall's cerebral approach and Mary's gut instinct, though both are extremely protective of witnesses and each other. Though Mary and Marshall have occasionally disagreed about the proper course of action regarding policies, Marshall has typically backed down after taking time to get a perspective and will adopt Mary's position if her cause is right--even when her attitude is not.
• Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor) As chief inspector for WITSEC's Southwest region, Stan is Marshall and Mary's boss. Stan is a flexible boss and stand-up guy, quickly backing up both Marshall and Mary when they hit trouble. He also appears to have romantic feelings for Mary at one time, though this subdued after he tried to buy her a pair of stylish shoes. Stan likes to stick to official WITSEC doctrine as often as possible and is reluctant to bend the rules without authorization. However, doing so has mostly made his division above reproach and he enjoys a direct open channel to federal authorities in the Department of Justice.
• Jinx Shannon (Lesley Ann Warren) Mary's mother, who was abandoned by her alcoholic husband to raise her two daughters alone. Although she adores her daughters, she has never been a traditional, supportive, job holding maternal figure. She recognizes that Mary is the stable member of their family, and this has inspired her to live up to her daughter's example and attempt to start over. Even so, she harbors a great deal of resentment against her strong-willed daughter, though this only comes to surface when she is under great emotional duress.
• Brandi Shannon (Nichole Hiltz) Mary's younger sister is very much her mother's daughter and the baby of the family. She lives in the moment, has a limited education, preferring to get by on her charms, and is involved with a shadowy man named Chuck. Despite this, she looks up to Mary and, at times, sees her as an example. She also tends to be the more mature figure in her relationship with her mother.
• Det. Robert Dershowitz (Todd Williams) A homicide detective, known as Bobby D, who is occasionally assigned to cases involving Mary's witnesses. He's pretty sure he's got Mary's number—that she's a U.S. Marshal working for WITSEC—and doesn't hide his disgust for the branch of law enforcement that puts known criminals back on the street.
• Raphael Ramirez (Cristián de la Fuente) Mary's on-again, off-again boyfriend. He's a good guy who also happens to be quite good-looking. Raph plays minor league baseball for the local Albuquerque Isotopes and volunteers at a youth center. Right after being called up to the Florida Marlins, he tears the ACL in his knee and returns to Albuquerque to enter physical therapy. His relationship with Mary is complicated when he becomes close to her sister, who helps him through his rehabilitation and is clearly attracted to him.

Ratings

The pilot episode of In Plain Sight attracted 5.3 million viewers, making it USA Network's highest-rated series premiere since Psych in 2006. It also outperformed the previous summer's debut of Burn Notice by 32% and the network premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent by 40%.

Crossover

On June 15, 2008, Mary McCormack made a guest appearance in the episode "Contract" of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Mary Shannon. At the time of the original airing, In Plain Sight followed Criminal Intent on the USA Network; Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth) makes a remark about what there is to do in Albuquerque at 10:00 on a Sunday night, referencing In Plain Sight's timeslot.

References