One of the longer running shows of recent history, Without A Trace followed the Missing Persons Unit of the FBI as they searched for people, knowing that the first few days after a disappearance were crucial to finding them. Headed by Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia), the team consisted of Sam Spade (Poppy Montgomery, Unforgettable), Viv Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), and Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close) for all seven seasons, and we now find the third complete season available from Warner Bros. via Movies on Demand.
Picking up where the second season left off, the group finds itself dealing with Malone’s return as their boss, which demotes Viv back to her “normal” teammate role, before her health concerns lead to a greater scare for all of them. Martin and Sam will try at love… and fail; Malone will continue to struggle with his new family structure. Certainly, the individual episodes drive the drama: will they find the missing in time? Is the missing absent by choice or by abduction or accident? What secrets will the missing’s absence uncover? Those are the questions which must be answered on a weekly basis, but the questions about the team are the ones which made fans watch for weeks in a row, years even.
This third season from 2004-2005 releases on DVD for the first time from Warner Bros., and allows fans to get caught up with the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama. It will force you to consider the dynamics of your workplace, of your family, and of your decisions within a community. While its contemporaries, CSI or Shark, for example, focused on the nature of their team or protagonist’s work, Without A Trace had just as much power in the personal lives of its MPU team. It seemed to focus just as much on who they were as people, without lessening the importance of their work in saving lives.
