IIRC In Plain Sight had a cliffhanger ending that turned out to be bizzare like a bizzare thing, because someone posted links to interviews that indicated that when the show comes back they intend to just skip over the episode that was to immediately follow the cliffhanger. And then go tonally in another direction. So although I had been enjoying it up until now I'm not so sure I'll be enjoying it in the future.

Ah. Here's my read: Marshall is presented as "the man who can truly understand Mary" which I think is totally horse patooey. Though they are totes "work spouses" and rock that. Last season ended with Mary shot and fighting for life with her whole work and actual family rallying around her but since she's the lead, I am assuming she survives and everything. Also her fiance is smoking hot and awesome. If in the dark quite a bit.

I watched it all OnDemand and such. So it was fast and I might have missed some of the subtleties but it's not really a show for subtleties.

I wanted to like In Plain Sight, but it irritated me that she was supposedly so good at her job, but her personal life was a mess. I hate that strong female characters always have to be obviously flawed in some way. I hear that changed later, but I was already so turned off.

I hate that strong female characters always have to be obviously flawed in some way.

It's hard to write an interesting story about a character who has all their shit together. I mean, you could do one story that showed off their competence but in a continuing series it'd get dull in a hurry.

Drama's built on conflict, and it helps for the character to have internal as well as external conflicts to dramatize.

I hate that strong female characters always have to be obviously flawed in some way. I hear that changed later, but I was already so turned off.

Fortunately they improved it some, but not nearly enough. Her mother and sister are, and I really do not use this term lightly, emotionally abusive. Truly. And I cannot for the life of me understand why this woman would tolerate having them leeching off of her emotionally, monetarily, or any other way. I know all the psychological underpinnings going on, and she feels responsible as the caretaker, and so on and so on, but if they hadn't cut down on the mother and sister's roles in the last season I would have dumped the show. I enjoy Mary and Marshall's interplay (I love Marshall madly) and Rafe is pretty cool. Even the improbably Marty Stu the writers dreamed up for the sister to date seems okay. If they keep her homelife down to a minimum it would be fine by me.

I didn't watch from the beginning and I might have missed eps, but she seemed to be portrayed as good at her job but having a wildly dysfunctional family. Things that she couldn't fix and people she couldn't quite cut off.

Which isn't to say they weren't playing the whole "strong female characters must be obviously flawed in some way" because they were. Just they did at least pay her the courtesy of it not being entirely her fault with her sister and mom.

They did screw around with the fiance though for a while. I think they got better.

I'll likely do another power watch at some point when I can plow though a bunch of eps at once.

I liked IPS. I identified with Mary. Basically a strong, competent, smart woman, with a permanently screwed-up family. She's much more aggressive and bitchier than me, but I could easily have turned out that way. Inside I'm that way.

I do hope they don't mess the show up.

It's hard to write an interesting story about a character who has all their shit together. I mean, you could do one story that showed off their competence but in a continuing series it'd get dull in a hurry.

I don't think so. You don't have to have stereotypical inherent flaws to have an interesting character. Look at Peter Burke in White Collar. Good at his job, great wife/marriage, smart guy, hidden depths. That's never going to get old.

I hated shit like the running "gag" that her car always broke down.

I hated shit like the running "gag" that her car always broke down.

I forgot about that. I thought that was ridiculous - she makes a decent salary, if she can afford that nice house with room for her mom and sister too; she can't buy a new car? Especially since being able to get places reliably was an important part of her job.