Critic Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.