In ABC’s Missing, a former CIA agent named Rebecca Winstone (Ashley Judd) travels to Europe in search of her son Michael (Nick Eversman) who’s disappeared while on a summer internship in Italy.
She’ll use any means necessary to get her son back but will enough viewers want to follow along? Will the show be cancelled before she can find her boy?
Here’s what some critics are saying about Missing:
NY Daily News: “Rome isn’t conquered in a day, even by Becca, and watching Missing will require a commitment, not occasional whim. As drama it has a few holes and clearly a lot of backstory that will unspool at its own pace. Some of the action scenes, in keeping with special-effects tradition, are filmed in near-darkness. But the narrative is crisp, fast and easy to follow, and in the end the real issue is pretty simple: Do we like Becca Winstone enough to follow her every week down a long and bloody winding road?”
Boston Herald: “The mix of soccer mom and expert operative can turn funny: Becca interrupts her own interrogation of Michael’s girlfriend to scold her about smoking. Judd, who serves as series co-executive producer, makes for a surprisingly convincing action hero. It’s when she stops to emote in full mommy mode that the show drags. Missing might as well be about Becca’s identity crisis. ‘I am not CIA! I am a mother looking for her son,’ she protests. For this series’ sake, here’s hoping Becca finds her son soon and realizes her true calling is rescuing the rest of the world — or at least the eight o’clock hour.”
Washington Post: “Missing is certainly no 24, but like that show, it prefers action at points where it could really stand to slow down and build out a slightly more creative story. It’s the very definition of a guilty-pleasure series, which ABC is getting good at, but it’s also a reminder of how far we’ve fallen since the more complex Alias days. You know how some people can get their father a spy novel and a sweater every Christmas — and he’s always satisfied? This is just his kind of show.”
LA Times: “She can say, “I’m not a spy, I’m just a mother looking for her son” as often as she wants (and she does, with wearisome regularity), but since Judd makes it so difficult to engage with her character, Becca’s quest becomes less, rather than more, emotionally evocative. What viewers are left with, then, are some excellent fight and chase scenes, an outstanding supporting cast (who, alas, only highlight the main character’s deficiencies) and a lot of truly beautiful location work. It may be enough, but it could, and should, have been so much more.”
USA Today: “Judd is certainly a game action star. But like many Hollywood stars her age, male and female, a certain plasticity has seeped in that damages both the character and her abilities as an actor. Whether through natural or artificial means, her face often appears to be immobile. And beyond the distractions, which include wondering how it can be possible that Becca has fewer wrinkles than her son, it limits her performance range. The scenery is pretty, though, and it’s not supposed to move. You’ll have to decide if that’s enough.”
NY Times: “The fights and action sequences are good by TV standards, and there’s a bit of classic international thriller ambiance, courtesy of location filming in the Czech Republic and a few scenes that actually appear to have been shot in Rome and Paris. Mostly it has Ms. Judd, who, with a mightily clenched jaw and the help of some excellent stunt doubles, is surprisingly credible as a starched, middle-aged action figure battling unknown kidnappers, every intelligence agency in Europe, her former C.I.A. handlers and, most critically, her own maternal instincts, which alternately help and hinder her.”
Hollywood Reporter: “Eventually, Missing stops demanding that it be taken so seriously. Your eyes are in for a treat, and Judd grows on you. Some of the hokey plotting fades into the background after that… If you want an hour of escapism and entertainment each week — and why wouldn’t you? — credit ABC for making an hour disappear into thin air.”
Newsday: “Nice locales (Paris! Rome!), a couple of decent action sequences… but otherwise a tepid potboiler over-seasoned with too many spy tropes and a plot with too many gaping holes.”
What do you think? Does Missing sound like it’s worth watching? If you’ve seen it, will you tune in again?
Image courtesy ABC.
Love it, better continue. Would be terrible if we are left hanging.
Please keep Missing!!! I love this show! Your right – as soon as I like a show it is cancelled. I may not be able to watch live tv too often ( busy with school, work, kids) but I do record or watch on Hulu. I need the hour of escape – keep it!!! Please.
Love the show. Now that I’ve seen the season finale, I want to watch even more. I agree with Deb, above. I love being entertained and not by reality shows, boring.
Missing is a great show. My husband and I really like the how. It’s full of suspence
and action. It’s a real shame that it has been cancelled. I really think Season 2 would have brought in more viewers. Please bring Missing back for season 2.
I loved Missing. It is one of the few programs that I would record for later viewing if my schedule didn’t allow me to watch it during regular viewing time.
Remember JAG. Cancelled, only to be picked up by another network where it ran for a full 10 seasons. Keep it, it’s worth watching.
I loved the show Missing. I feel the same. Just when you get a show you love,
it gets canceled. Very disappointed. It wasa about time there was some good
tv shows on. There is a way too many reality shows……………..and stupid shows.
I just loved Ashley Judd in this, good acting and suspensful………………………
Every time I like a show it gets canceled. Bring it back, who wants tv to be nothing but reality shows? Not me.
Boring……Dump it
Missing is a program full of suspense, as it carries one into the imagination of what a challenge it would be to go about even to the ends of the world to find your love one. Well acted and enjoyable programming! Ms Judd a wonderful Actress with all supporting, excellent stars.
When we finally get a show that all the family can watch the network cancels it. I guess the only way show can keep an audience now is have dismembered bodies on set with gruesome plot lines. Please bring back this really well thought out and written show.
We need Missing to come back! It’s one of the few shows worth watching. Most are junk shows or for idiots.
We absolutely love the show. Please bring it back. We couldn’t wait from one week to the other for it to come back on each week. Ashley Judd and cast are great.
Please bring Missing back! Eyes glued to the screen every episode – not one dull minute! Probably the best I’ve seen in a very long time.
Please bring Missing back. Its the only show on tv that I won’t miss. And I’m not normally a tv junkie. I love the espionage, action, betrayal, etc! It’s the best show in a very long time. And Ashley Judd is the best, I love seeing her in prime time. Please, please bing it back.
Love Missing……great story line ……suspenseful….action packed and keeps my family anxiously awaiting the next episode,