FALL TV REVIEW: the forgotten

Name of Show: the forgotten
Network: ABC
Day: Tuesday
Time: 9pm EST/8pm CST
Genre: Draaamaaaa
Length: 1 hour
Episode Watched: Pilot

Setting: Chicago!
Characters (in order of mention/appearance):
Alex (Christian Slater) - fighter guy, ex-cop. kinda talks like Jack Nicholson
Det. Russell - cop chick
Highway Jane - dead, 5'7", 18-22, 110 lbs.
Tyler Davies- sentenced to community service, artist, sarcastic, dropped out of med school
Lindsay Drake - runs the forgotten network. . .or hosts them
Candace - works somewhere with cubes
Jessica - goth chick witness, lives on Kedzie
"Sister Mary Margaret" - other goth chick witness
Clay - ex-boyfriend
Quint - scary bouncer guy
Stereotypes:
- Grumpy Old Man
- Sassy non-White Woman
X Funny fat guy
- Hot blonde wife of funny fat guy
- Quirky, far too self-aware early 20's guy/girl
- Emo Teen
- Guy you've seen in that one movie who always has a sarcastic comment
X Fallen star taking what work they can get
- Relatable guy/girl, soon to be tabloid fodder
- High-strung guy/girl whose buttons everyone enjoys pushing
- Cougar
X Brainy brunette
- Precocious kid acting way too mature for their age
- Hot blonde

Facebook/Twitter awkward reference?: No! I'm shocked!

Basic premise:
People try to find out the identities of unidentified bodies

Pilot plot:
Show opens with title cards. Reading? booooo. We learn that there are over 40,000 unidentified bodies a year. Yeah, I know. I've seen the commercials.

A dead chick does a voiceover (from Heaven presumably?) lamenting that she's dead and doesn't have a name.

Cue the montage of people being called about the next project, all secret society style.
Alex is boxing
Some woman (Lindsay?) is teaching at school
Candace is so over a work party
Walter is fixing some phone lines

They all gather at a pretty nice house and Tyler arrives fresh from a community service sentence. We learn that it's the Midwest Headquarters for the Forgotten Network (or maybe the forgotten network, given their penchant for e.e. cummings-style capitalization). Since he's new, it gives them an excuse to explain the backstory of the organization. Basically, they try to figure out the identities of unidentified bodies. Yeah. . .got that from the title cards, thanks. Oh, and they have 5 days to figure out who she is - and no playing Whodunit? (by Milton Bradley), just give the chick a name, y'all!

Meanwhile, Tyler tries to sneak out. Alex gets him to stay by bragging about how great they are. . .and being within make out distance of his face. Since Tyler was assigned the job of sculpting the dead girl's (Highway Jane) face, he thinks it's weird, but relents.

Cut to a sculpting montage. . .he has a bust laying around (is that normal?) and starts making it look like Yoda (or so it appears), then puts it in some kind of mold, pops it out, puts in eyeballs (ewww!!) and voila! Dead girl resurrected! And I'm with Tyler on this one. . .it is kinda weird.

Alex and Walter go to the site where the body was discovered, and Walter asks why they're there. Alex: "Why, I'm glad you asked, Walter! This will be me an opportunity to lay some sweet backstory on you." ok, he didn't really say that, but basically we get the "A life ended here, we owe it to her to find out who she is." Yeah, ok, we get it, you're like super important.

Walter goes to nearby gas station to charm the attendant into letting him post flyers and maybe giving him some info. I'm beginning to think that Walter is a little bit of the black sheep of the Forgotten Network. As he exits the truck, we see a pic of what I think is him with Dennis Franz. awww.

Attendant will not let him post flyers and won't answer questions, he's a charmer! Walter takes pics of him (but he's behind glass - won't it be all flash?) and leaves. Attendant seems unphased by the whole situation. Day in the life, I guess.

Meanwhile, Candace ids store where Highway Jane probably bought nail polish. . .it's all Gothy, after all. Voiceover from Highway Jane to let us know they're on the right track. Kinda like the henchman vignettes from Carmen Sandiego, when you chose the correct city. . .but less entertaining. Maybe they'll increase in violence as they get closer to figuring out who she is.

We also learn that she bought her blouse on Ashland! Alex: "Ashland is West Loop, right?" uh. . .and a lot of other neighborhoods. Aren't you people supposed to be from Chicago? Nobody from
Chicago would ever say that. Walter tacks up his prize of a photo of the gas attendant - and it does have a flash spot! but you can still see his face.

Tyler and Candace go to a goth bar to hand out flyers of their pic of the sculpture. They're asked if they're cops and then are asked to leave. A couple girls claim they know Highway Jane and that her name is Vivian. They call Alex to come, but the bouncer eyes them angrily (that guy is everywhere!)

Alex arrives and we find out that the bouncer's name is Quint and that he used to date Vivian. They got into a huge fight at a Sharpener show according to the Goth girls. We learn Vivian was a CTA rider, so they promptly go to look at CTA security camera footage. Apparently she rode the blue line.

Montage of flyer handing out and interviews with people. (lots of exterior shots of Chicago and me trying to figure out where they are. they went pretty far, since there was a Pace bus stop by one of the locations). Checking off blue highlighted buildings on a satellite google map. Figured out she's a waitress. Last name! Simmons! Montage successful!

They figure out where she lived, and visit her apt the popo take over (and some sexual tension between Det. Russell and Alex. . .?). The gang meet Clay who used to date her. They eye him and take camera phone pics. He suggests talking to Quint who used to date her. Him again!!

They figure out her parents' address in Evanston and go to break the bad news, but his Vivian Simmons is very much alive and very much in the house!

Act 1 Break Pickle: Wrong Vivian Simmons! We're back at square one. Why did we think they could figure out the whole identity in the first act?

Time to Rehash what we know (and what they learned during the commercial break):
The real Vivian Simmons lost her purse at the Art Institute and Highway Jane stole her identity. The wall now features Quint's headshot - they ARE resourceful!

Alex and Det. Russell go to the med school to get Clay's info and they amazingly divulge a lot. Basically, they we learn he was kicked out of med school. They run into a student outside who informs them that he stole drugs from the lab and dealt them, and that's why he's not-so-Hippocratic.

Elsewhere in Chicago, Quint is walking menacingly down the street with his fo'ty in a brown paper bag. Walter follows him - Quint spies him, gets mad and punches him. . .then threatens to kill Walter. Noooo! No hurting Walter! He's gonna lose his job soon anyway, since nobody has landlines anymore.

Det. Russell and Alex go to pay a visit to Clay and Clay runs. . .Alex chases him down and impersonates a police officer. . .I'm pretty sure you can get arrested for that. Clay claims Highway Jane was never involved in the drugs.

Everybody is Rehashing what they know when Tyler figures out that Highway Jane's tattoo is a pitchfork. They then think that her high school mascot was a devil (kind of a jump, eh?) and find the blue devils in Dubuque, Iowa. Btw, DePaul's mascot is the Blue Demon. Close, and only in Lincoln Park!

Name! Tracy Benedict. Old principal remembers her. Alex tells the mom and the sister. . .or doesn't. . .she kinda figures it out. Mom Backstories and lets us know that the dad died a year and a half ago from cancer and that Tracy and he were close. She was getting the tattoo when Mom pulled her out to let her know the dad died. As they leave, the younger sister gives them a log of whenever somebody would call the house and hangup. Probably will come in handy!

Alex stops some woman who Tracy was seen fighting with in Chicago - turns out she's the drama teacher from the high school. Was in Chicago and just ran into Tracy and told her to come home. Obvi Tracy listened.

Back to the call log - the last number matches some numbers on a bag they found at the scene. They call it and it's Jessica! One of the Goth chicks. Aww man, somebody is getting a visit from the Forgotten Network (I thought this wasn't a whodunit?)

Jessica slips up and lets them know that she does know that her name is Tracy. The VO informs us that Jessica was her good friend and showed her the ropes. She wanted to go home and bought a ticket. She told Jessica the truth, who then totally freaked out. Tracy went to get stuff out the back of the car and Tracy hit her in the head with a crowbar.

Uh. . .so why would Jessica admit that she knew her? Why wouldn't she just be like "nope. sorry?" And why no fake nun name like her friend. Jessica, you're not so smart.

The gang attend the funeral and we learn that Alex's daughter was 8 years old and kidnapped two years ago, so that's why he does this. Oooh! Story arc!

Reaction:
Interesting premise, but a little too much reviewing the facts for me. I just hope future episodes don't harp so much on why they do what they do and why it's so important. We get it.

Competing against in my DVR schedule (remember, only two slots!): Nothing
Added to schedule?: No
Renewed for a 2nd season prediction: Well, ABC doesn't really have a crime procedural, so probably!

Hey look! It's ___Christian Slater_______ from __why can't I think of anything else he's been in?_____

what else have I been in? help her out!