seraphcelene | TV: Missing (1.1 Pilot and 1.2 The Hard Drive)

The Missing isn't a new premise. We've seen it before and it's nothing, if not Sarah Connor gets transplanted into the Bourne-verse. Ashley Judd plays Becca Winstone, an ex-CIA operative who's spent the last ten years raising her son after her active CIA husband is killed in a car bombing finds herself suddenly back in the life after her son is kidnapped from his architecture school in Rome. Let me say that it is awesome to watch Ashley Judd kicking ass and taking names. I like how focused and dangerous the she is, although the Mama Bear trope is a little overused, I like how its also nuanced by her sooper sekrit CIA operative past and those wacky awesome ninja skilllz.

Becca is a mom looking for her son. Her rampage isn't political, it's personal. The theme plays heavily on the Mama Bear trope, made all the more dangerous by her past. It's not especially unique, a repeated refrain in our culture that insists that women are at their most fierce when they are protecting their young. Although Judd plays the part with a great deal of empathy, I like that the character is also unsentimental enough to just fucking do what needs to be done in order to get what she wants. The outcome is very black and white in Becca's mind: find her son; however, the way that she gets there is all kinds of morally gray. Becca may feel a little bad about doing things, but she does them anyway. Heaven help anyone who gets in her way.

There was an awesome moment in The Hard Drive when Becca trades a man called HardDrive, basically an informant that she's kept hidden for the last twelve years, to the head of the French Intelligence Agency, Antoine Lussier, for her son. During the drive to the place of exchange, Hard Drive tells her about living with his guilt and having a wife and kids, now. For a moment I thought Becca was going to crack and give in to sappy sentimentality. However, she's looking for her kid, and heaven help anyone who gets in her way. Becca's trades him anyway, declaring that in their line of business no one has friends. Becca will sell out whoever she thinks she needs to, but only if she feels its unavoidable. I like that about her. It's not until she realizes that the Lussier is trying to con her (and kill her) that Becca pulls the plug on the exchange and under a rain of bullets, jets off into the countryside with Hard Drive.

Again, I really like Becca. She is no fucking joke and I find Missing much more interesting (and entertaining) then I thought it would be. The only thing that I'm not sure of is how long I will be able to stand to hearing "mother looking for her son," "my son," "mother" before I want to shoot myself. Maybe I'll start a drinking game instead.