Tracker: A Review
So… I did it. Over two years later, I’ve managed to watch every single episode of CBS’s hit show, Tracker, so far.
For those who don’t know what the show is, let me explain: Basically, it’s about a guy named Colter Shaw (played by Justin Hartley) who uses his survival skills to help find people and solve the mystery of the week to get some cash. He’s got a team that works behind the scenes to further help him on his mission, but he usually does his own thing. It gets its inspiration from the book series, The Never Game, though you’d be forgiven if you thought the books get inspiration from the series. It’s got a three season run and is preparing to go for its fourth season, due to be in production in Los Angeles, and is planning to be released this fall.
Series Overview
While Tracker is primarily a case-of-the-week series, they do have some overarching story in its three seasons thus far. Furthermore, those story arcs also have something to do with Colter Shaw’s upbringing and how dysfunctional his family can be. He takes on missions that others wouldn’t be able to solve. Yeah, it’s one of those series, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
Season one involves Colter’s adventures as a rewardist (his words) as he goes around the country helping find missing people or items in exchange for rewards (usually money). The most important plotlines of season one include whatever happened to Ashton Shaw, his paranoid father who went off the grid before the show began. As mentioned before, he has a team helping him out: handlers Velma and Teddi Bruin, hacker Bobby Exley, and attorney Reenie Greene. As Colter does his job and tries to figure out what happened to Ashton, he reunites with siblings Dory and Russell. He later finds out they’ve both been keeping secrets about Ashton in the end.
Season two involves more of Colter’s family drama, especially over who killed Ashton Shaw. More important key plots include a white whale case, where Colter tries to solve a decade-long mystery of the disappearance of Gina Picket, who is a sister of Camille, a former love interest, and the team gets more to do in terms of plot lines, and the introduction of Randy, Bobby’s cousin (who fills in for Bobby for a majority of the season). Reenie opens up her new law firm, with Velma helping run operations, and we meet Billie, who is another rewardist who occasionally partners up with Colter on missions.
The season two finale reveals a new revelation about Ashton: when visiting his old home in Echo Ridge (and visiting Dory earlier in the season), he discovers a man named Otto Warden was the one who killed Ashton, at the request of someone else, and it happens to be none other than his mother, Mary Shaw.
Season three feels a little different, as it puts more emphasis on Colter’s family history and his past as well. Remember Ashton? Well it turns out he was working on a project with government funding where is focused on testing children with psychological gifts. Also, Colter’s team is also having plot lines of their own, continuing the trend from season two. Reenie gets a new assistant in Mel Day, and she also deals with a real estate case with a lot of high stakes. Randy also gets his time to shine an episode where he helps Colter find a long lost buddy of his who was under house arrest and mysteriously disappears. Plus, Randy fills in for Bobby full time. Billie also gets some focus where Colter is framed in another episode and he has to rely on her to bail him out.
The season three finale involves yet another cliffhanger: regarding the government project that Ashton was working on, Colter and his brother Russell infiltrate the facility and teaming up with Dr. Selena Jukic, a rogue project handler. They battle a bad guy, and the two test subjects get in witness protection. Then, Russell makes a deal with the devil (by that I mean keep a secret file about Ashton and have it burned) and is told to have Colter be kept in the dark about it.
All in all, the entire premise is a series you’d expect out of an Americana series blended with some modern day technology. The series doesn’t rely on one singular location, as it requires Colter to be all across America as well have being supported by his support team. To me, them having him travel across the country, alongside having a team to back him up when needed gives off a premise like Tracker a more grounded vibe.
Pros & Cons
Let’s talk about the good things about the show. First of all, the lead character, Colter Shaw, is a great protagonist. I also appreciate that its faithful to the source material while at the same time being its own thing. One the the series does way better than the books is that the writers realize that Colter can’t do it alone, because they gave him an entire team to back him up, while book Colter would have gone it alone, which in my opinion is a little bit of a drag. Plus, Colter in the show seems like someone who you’d wanna hang out with, which is always a plus in my book.
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The mysteries are quite intriguing and how he solves them are also fun to watch too. The action is quite solid and believe me, I was seated for at least 40 minutes wanting to know what happens next. My favorite episode just so happens to be when every time Colter works with Billie. I really hope she comes back in the fourth season. The writing is also great, and it didn’t piss me off (aside from Randy at times).
Speaking of the writing, it’s actually the best part of the show. It didn’t make me fall asleep or make me feel like I was missing something. It knew was it was going for, it made sure viewers were hooked and the dialogue is very down-to-earth, making it seem as though it sounds like something people would say nowadays. You could put in another past decade and aside from a few changes, it would largely fit. It makes me feel as though the writers know what the show wants to be, if that makes sense.
The camerawork is the second best part of the show. It really invites you into the atmosphere and I really like how they work the locations, even if they just so happen to be different locations of the same city, which was Vancouver. When I was watching the episodes for the first time, I almost thought they were in another city in British Columbia when filming the episodes, only to find out that it’s part of the same city. That’s how you know they did a great job with the cinematography. The color palette also makes a lot of sense for a gritty show like this one, and the camera angles and backdrops help match the script of the story. Good on them for those ones too.
Now on to the bad. First of all, I do wish the dad disappearing arc would be given much more attention than given and I wish the mom appeared much earlier. Additionally, aside from that, I do wish the writers had Colter had a loss, as it shows that he has a balance of wins and losses. It’s not that I hate Colter, no. I just wanted to see an episode have an ending where Colter loses for the first time, as it shows that even the best trackers with the best survival skills have their off days.
I also feel as though the others are underutilized sometimes. I get that this is Colter’s show, but I feel as though the others could have been given their own storylines and more to do much earlier and later in the third season, because more often than not, as much as I like the show, it feels as though they take a backseat to Colter (again, I get why, but at the same time, I don’t know why).
The biggest complaint I have is the constant (and I DO mean constant) cast changes. My mind was thinking when I was watching on Paramount+ is “WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THE CAST?!” I really hope that isn’t the case every year. Also, Randy is my least favorite character. Not that he’s terrible, far from it. I know he’s supposed to be the comic relief of the group, much like Luca was from S.W.A.T (2017), but Randy only mildly bugged me; not nearly as much as Luca, anyway. I get that they replaced Bobby with him, but it just doesn’t feel the same.
My Verdict?
If you have Paramount+ or Disney+/Hulu (because keep in mind, Disney is the one who actually produces the show) then watch this show. Unlike Watson (I’ll get to that), I didn’t feel like watching something else. Believe me, I was hooked!
I really like how they blend the case-of-the-week dynamic with an overall arching story with the missing dad, and I especially like how it spiraled into something massive. Sure there were some cast shakeups that I wasn’t into and the whole “good guy wins every time” endings the episodes always have, the episodes’ missions and Justin Hartley really do save the show, as well as the other characters and their actors performances, too, and I appreciate how it’s appealing to both the book fans and the new fans who have never heard of the books.
If you’re looking for a show that has the action, story, and the adventures, you will not be disappointed. Give it a watch.
Score: 8.5/10
(P.S.: I find it funny that they just name the episodes based on the location they’re in, but then they stopped doing that after the tenth episode. I mean, CBS could have the premise be changed to Colter being a secret agent for the government and the story structures of the episodes would not change one bit.)
