Some thoughts on Kidnapped

So I started watching Kidnapped, which is a 13-episode show about a rich kid who gets -- take a guess -- and the investigation by Jeremy Sisto, who is an actor I have affection for. (Even though he loves to play him some assholes.) I'd never heard of this show, but a) it was available to Watch Instantly on Netflix and I love Watching things Instantly, b) it was rated pretty high, and c) I like watching stuff about investigations. However.

Criminal Minds clearly has me spoiled, because (recent shittiness problems nonwithstanding) it values its female characters and their intelligence and participation. I'm about 20 minutes into Kidnapped and it's not looking like that's going to happen. There's kind of a problem anyway with the script being generic (early in our introduction to Jeremy Sisto, Child-Finding Badass, he sneaks up behind a guy lighting a cigarette, points his gun, and says "Those things'll kill ya." Uh, yeah, just like the first nine thousand times that line was used), but not all the characters are flat equally.

Jeremy Sisto's assistant (or something? his Jeeves? his Auxiliary Lady?), who presumably has seen a bunch of kidnapped kids go back to their parents and already knows this shit, asks Jeremy Sisto, "Is she going to be okay?" (He says something like "She will be," because that's what people say in GenericScriptLand. Also, maybe she won't.) The mother of the kidnapped boy is asking obvious questions about Jeremy Sisto's terminology so he can bad-assedly explain the situation, which is both lazy character work and unnecessary. Everyone over the age of 12 with even a passing interest in watching Kidnapped has already watched hostagey/kidnappy TV and movies, because we are all creepy losers and we love to watch fake crimes. We know the rules. The kid might die. You don't need to explain to the audience, and the parents are definitely already thinking about it.

What was the most egregious for me, even though it seems like a small thing, is when Jeremy Sisto returns a random girl to her parents so we know he's competent (even though, again, as audience members, we assume he's competent) and the shot lingers on the face of the dad hugging his daughter and staring meaningfully at Jeremy Sisto over her shoulder. The mom's not in frame; when the daughter goes over to her and they cry, they're not even in focus. It's not about their feelings, it's all about this dad, who we know literally nothing about, and his meaningful staring. That's how we know Jeremy Sisto's a badass.