Fan Review by Patsy, June 24, 2009
I've been watching this again and wishing for the impossible: for this series to come back. But then again, maybe this is the way things are meant to be: 13 hours of near perfection and a series that was wonderfully not destined to descend into vapid commercial success. I am a fan of the CSI franchise, but I will only watch up to a point. After the 5th season, CSI Vegas went downhill. I don't watch any of the new shows. After the 3rd season, CSI Miami turned into an urban opera. Don't even get me started on the NY show!
I also watch the Law & Order shows of course. SVU took a dive a couple of seasons ago. CI seems to retain my interest most of the time. And painful as this is to admit, the Mothership often bores me to tears, and yes, they are wasting Sisto's incredible talent by refusing to let any character be remotely interesting.
At first glance, Kidnapped would seem to be just another cop drama. Granted cop dramas are much more complex and interesting than they used to be (remember CHiPS anyone lol), but again, take a good idea like CSI, get a little success, and watch as they come up with spinoff after spinoff and run the good idea into the ground. What would Kidnapped have become if it had been the huge hit it "deserved" to be? Would I have been bored and/or nauseated by its 3rd season? Would the stories have gotten stupid? Would the writing have been taken over by people who can't write? Would there have been idiotic guest stars in place of real and respectable actors?
Not to say that Kidnapped didn't have flaws. Watching the entire series, I'd say that the pilot episode was a little rough. The scenes in which we are introduced to Knapp and Turner feel forced, and of course nothing is explained (why the teen girl was abducted, how Knapp and Turner located her, etc.) and they wanted to make sure you knew the girl's parents were good for their fee by having Mom in an expensive fur coat. There are also just a few cliched statements in the pilot's script. Luckily, these flaws are extremely few, and by the 2nd episode, things are already improving, climbing uphill at astonishing speeds.
As the series progresses, the story becomes increasingly intelligent, intricate and unpredictable. If there was anything bad to say about the episodes following the pilot, it would be about the Aubrey character: annoying and a waste of screen time in which she chats uselessly to college friends on the phone about nothing pertinent and bitches about body dysmorphia.
Aside from those small nitpicks, truly, nothing bad about this show. It is darn near perfect. A dream cast of regulars and guest stars creating characters that have huge roles in the story, no matter how small they may seem at first blush. It's my opinion, but formulaic shows like Law and Order are well past their prime. They cannot compare, even if they last 2 decades. No, I'm not bitter. I just frankly don't get why Law & Order lasts and lasts long after the spark dies down while a series like Kidnapped gets axed after 3 measley episodes.