Alert: Missing Persons Unit

As Nikki, Ramirez offers a stalwart, no-nonsense balance to Jason's off-kilter energy, and she handles a showy stunt sequence in the premiere nicely. And Caan, reliably, is the everything bagel seasoning that keeps Alert from being just another bland lump of procedural dough.

Elements of this storyline in the first two episodes truly beggar belief, and a sense of boundless evil surrounding the comings and goings of the Philadelphia Police Department and of a single family come to overwhelm the story in moments. And yet Caan and Ramirez are pros, and sell the double experience both characters are having.

In the premiere episode, a girl is kidnapped by terrorists. Nikki rescues the girl but only after risking her life by shooting the driver of a car the girl is in. It’s this sort of ridiculous storytelling, coupled with the uncredible recurring Keith storyline, that make “Alert” a series to avoid.

A Frankensteined pilot. ... While there’s a lot to like about Alert: Missing Persons Unit, the generic cases of the week plus the logic leaps of some of the show’s storytelling lead us to believe that the show is going to contain more bad than good.

It well might [entice viewers] as the ongoing mystery gets teased out, but thus far, this latest foray into hunting for missing persons isn’t particularly worth finding.

The new drama isn’t offensive or necessarily outrageous in its badness. I’m not angry at it. It’s just inept, and were it not for the presence of Jamie Foxx as co-creator, I have a hard time imagining the show ever would have made it to air.

I am amazed that people say that there is no character development. From the first episode on, there is one explosive twist after another. Most of these twists occur at the end of the episodes, yes, but they hit you with a gut punch, each and every time. With the theme of finding missing people (adults and children alike), the tail-end narrative connecting each episode is wonderfully executed. We need more scripted, narrative-driven series like these, and less reality show crap.

I'm always down for a procedural, so I've checked out the first three episodes of "Alert: Missing Persons" on Fox. I enjoy most of the Law and Order and FBI franchises. They tell a straightforward story with minimal subplots or character development. They aren't very challenging and don't require my full attention, but are entertaining enough. I really want to like it, but I don't think this new series, co-created by Jamie Foxx, is going to work for me. The storytelling is too all over the place. There's a missing person of the week plot, but fighting for attention is a co-main plot (more than a subplot) regarding the missing son of two of the main characters, in addition to character bits and some attempts at levity that just don't land for me. They kind of jump around and intercut and disrupt the flow of one another. There's no tension or drama around the search for the week's missing person because it's interrupted with a discussion between the ex-husband and ex-wife whose son is missing and the latest development in that case. Something needs to come to the forefront and something needs to be simmering in the background. I just don't feel that it's structured very well. Maybe it's my inability to focus in my advancing years. Maybe it's brilliant and complex and I'm just not up to the task of following the narrative. But I don't think so. I'm not ready to give up but I'm not finding much to keep me hooked.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]