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CBS on Sunday used Super Bowl LVIII as a launchpad for the Justin Hartley vehicle Tracker. The one-hour drama — which is loosely based on the Jeffrey Deaver novel “The Never Game” — casts the This Is Us vet as Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country and uses his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries… all while contending with his own fractured family.
That’s where things get interesting.
Flashbacks reveal that Colter and his siblings — which include an older brother, Russell, and a younger sister, Dory — had an unusual upbringing. Their parents, Ashton and Mary (played by Oz’s Lee Tergesen and Good Sam’s Wendy Crewson), “were professors at Berkeley until there was this incident with my dad,” Colter explains. “So, he took us to live off the grid at this cabin. It was a compound, actually, by Sierra National Forest,” where Ashton “started to talk about these people that were out to get him and how we all had to be prepared. He taught us how to track, how to hunt, and he taught us to free climb at this place called Devil’s Notch.”
One night in 2003, when Mary wasn’t home, Ashton’s paranoia got the best of him and he made a run for it, leaving his three children behind. Russell went after him, and an hour later, Colter found his father, dead, at the bottom of Devil’s Notch. It appeared as though he’d been pushed by Russell.
In the present day, Russell attempts to make contact with Colter. He says that there’s something Colter “needs to know,” but Mary wants Colter to disregard his brother’s pleas.
“I need you to trust me,” she says. “Block that number. Ignore him. For everyone’s sake, leave it be.”
But will Colter respect Mom’s wishes? Or will his curiosity win out and pave the way for an extraordinarily tense reunion? And what about Colter and Russell’s sister Dory, who was seen in flashbacks but was not otherwise present in Episode 1?
“We have to address that,” Hartley tells TVLine. “When it happens, it will be very meaningful… [but] you won’t see her early in Season 1. I can tell you that.”
We also asked Hartley why Mary thinks it’s for the best that Colter continue to dodge Russell’s calls. Are her intentions pure, or is there something bigger — perhaps even sinister — at play that Colter doesn’t know about?
“I mean, sometimes you protect people from themselves,” Hartley ruminates. “[Mary] knows who Colter is, and she knows that when he’s on a trail, he’s not leaving that trail.” He’s going to stay the course until he finds the answers he needs, and Mary is “desperate enough to lie to her own son” if that’s what it takes to keep him out of harm’s way.
All of this got us wondering: Just how much of each episode will focus on Colter’s day job as a rewardist… and how much will focus on building out the series’ mythology. “It would depend on the episode,” Hartley answers. “We have episodes where it’s 60-40, shifted towards the backstory, some that are 50-50, and some where it’s 70-30, shifted towards the case. There are some episodes where the backstory is peppered in a little bit more, and some where it’s not peppered in so much at all. I will say, though, that every episode has a little bit of Colter’s backstory.”
What did you think of CBS’ Tracker? Grade the premiere via the following poll, and let us know if you’ll be back for Episode 2 (airing Sunday, Feb. 18 at its regular time, 9/8c).
I missed the first show because of the Super Bowl. Do you know if Episode 1 will be repeated? I have Comcast 23229 zip
https://tvline.com/news/cbs-premiere-dates-2023-season-delayed-ncis-young-sheldon-list-1235078886/
If you can’t catch it on demand it will rerun on Thursday right after the season premiere of so help me todd
As for the show itself the mystery with the brother and Justin Hartley being a good lead will make me come back for episode 2
It’s on Paramount+ if you subscribe
I love Tracker as does my grown Granddaughter. If I miss an episode, I catch it on Paramount +.
Didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either… I feel like they did A LOT of unnecessary stuff and I know it’s “tv”, but there isn’t a Police dept that would allow an opportunist it get a 2 hours head start in a kidnapping. That was far-fetched and again unnecessary. I know people mainly watched for JH, but unless they pair this with Blue Bloods or those 13 SWAT episodes, I don’t see this making it.
They wouldn’t in normal circumstances, but in exception circumstances if the individual had verifiable experience, it offered the best chance of success and it was the families wishes, they would at least give it serious consideration.
Though the only time i’m aware of that something similar actually happened in real life it was a couple special forces guys who just happened to be nearby.
Not to mention that kidnapping is a federal crime, so it would be the FBI running things. And I’m pretty sure the FBI has its own experts in tracking people, so they wouldn’t need to defer to an unknown “rewardist”.
Enjoyed the show, but like many network shows, you’ve got to suspend your knowledge of how the real world works.
Who are the women who work with Colter and/or live with him?
They’re his “handlers,” and he appears to live in the Airstream & not with them.
I had it set to record, but, of course the game went an hour PLUS over so that idea went right out the window. I put CBS on live. That meant watching the end of the game. I am NOT a football fan in any way, shape or form.
I’m still bothered by the fact that Tracker is 100% produced/owned by 20th Television instead of being co-produced with CBS Studios like ScreenSavant said a couple of months ago. Because of this, may this Tracker show become a victim of a cancellation by the network without a proper send-off in the distant future like 2 Broke Girls and Life in Pieces (because they also got cancelled without real series finales).
I can sort of see where the long term “mystery” is going. It will turn out that someone WAS after the family/parents.
.
And that will get real old, real quick. Have this be a “villain of the week” type of show. Go the BTVS route and have a different yearly “big bad” type of mystery. On the Mentalist, a show I loved, the Red John thing was eventually a huge drag on the show.
i HATED the red john stories on the mentalist. finally, they made it seem like they killed him in a series finale (it’s been awhile but I remember a mall food court or something?) and I said if that wasn’t really red john and that storyline wasn’t over, that i’d never watch again. And i never watched again.
i meant season finale, not series. don’t remember which season.
Was Crewson a recast? I saw on Wikipedia (I know, I know) that Mary McConnell was cast as the mother back in 2022. But clearly that wasn’t her in the final scene (which was simple enough to reshoot since that was Mary’s first appearance in the episode.
I saw the “preview” in Vegas where they asked me to come in and watch the first episode back in November. McConnell was definitely the mom at that time.
I would imagine that a recast would be due to something like chemistry between the actors being off. If you rewatched the series premiere, who do you think was better in the role? The new mom or McDonnell?
Tvline reported here recently that MM was no longer attached…
Correct: https://tvline.com/features/justin-hartley-super-bowl-sunday-series-tracker-cbs-photos-1235098878/
It was a TV pilot, which means lots of set up. Mysterious backstory is fairly predictable, too. But I enjoyed it, overall, and I’ll be coming back for the next episode.
Loved Justin since Young n Restless, then this is us! Great job!!
And I loved him on Passions.
Justin Hartley is always a welcome addition to my TV. Have not watched the premiere yet, but have the DVR set for Thursday.
Excellent!
Very paint by the numbers CBS procedural. Heck it’s perfectly set up to crossover with any of the cbs shows, NCIS,FBI, etc. literally a show made for/by a ‘CBS type’ show algorithm. I’ll pass.
I wasn’t going to watch Tracker but got sucked in right away because, well, nothing else was on. First of all, a “survivalist” doesn’t haul around a huge Airstream behind his pickup. His “tracking” wasn’t so much physical but more like detective work. I can see someone making a living chasing missing person rewards; the money is good. I would prefer no back story; you can guess what it is. Just stick with the weekly case. Maybe one of the women helping him is his sister Dory?
Both of those women are older than him…his sister is younger.
I have to say that the hour spent watching the pilot live absolutely flew by, and the show was fairly enjoyable, but I’m undecided if I’ll continue to follow it
I’m still undecided I have to watch a couple more episodes. Something was missing and I want to see if it continues.
I’m gonna take a guess and say that the finale will reveal that Mary killed Ashton, with a cliffhanger of whether Colter forgives her/reports her.
I feel the same way about it as I do The Irrational. I like the actors but it’s just a bunch of people reciting dialogue without a lot of feeling or emotion behind it. Well, except for Fiona Rene’s scene at the jail. The exposition went on a little long but at least there was some feeling behind it. I hope it gets more interesting.
I enjoyed this a lot. They definitely strayed a bit from the novels but overall I’m in for the series. If you haven’t, read all 4 Colter Shaw novels by Jeffery Deaver, they’re excellent & his knack for twists is well known. I have read nearly every Lincoln Rhyme novel as well so I guess I’m a biased fan lol.
I gave it a chance and watch the episode and although it wasn’t an instant I am into this, I will continue to watch. I just don’t know if sleeping with the cop in the first episode complicates things as the series goes on.
It only complicates things if she now has a “bun in the oven”. She did seem to be completely smitten though.
It just reminded me of Reacher with the lone wolf aspect hitting road to rescue people but with smaller size muscle build.
I absolutely loved all of the comments, but not one mentioned how buff Justin Hartley looked! He must have really prepared for this role. It was a pleasure to see him again after This is Us and a delight to “see him” lol.
Thank you Cheryl!!! Exactly what I was thinking. As long as they keep showing Justin shirtless I am there for it!
Wasn’t his body AMAZING lol. I don’t think I have ever seen him looking like that. Besides the bod, I think he did an excellent job in the role (when I was not imagining him with his shirt off (grin). Looking forward to more topless action.
Justin Hartley was great – so good to see him again after “This Is Us” – and I was interested in the story of the boy he was searching for as well as his own back story. Will keep watching for sure.
Young Kevin..oops Colton was better in This Is Us.
I can tell by the first episode this is going to be a great show. DVR set so not to miss any.
It should be noted that viewers in the Kansas City market couldn’t see Tracker due to Super Bowl postgame victory coverage; Tracker had to be shifted to a sister station. I can imagine some Chiefs fans preferring to wait for the Thursday encore… Viewers in the 49ers’ market, however, did get to see Tracker, as KPIX decided to air local postgame after network coverage last Sunday.