What is Tracker about?
Based on the 2019 novel The Never Game by prolific crime writer Jeffrey Deaver (The Bone Collector), Tracker introduces us to Colter Shaw, expert survivalist and freelance problem solver/bounty hunter, who tools around the United States in a sweet airstream trailer finding folks that less rugged and photogenic investigators cannot. Sometimes that means a rescue operation in search of a missing hiker, and sometimes that’s running down a fugitive from justice. Burdened with the requisite traumatic and troubled backstory (his dad was a paranoid prepper), our hero embarks on an episodic but deeply satisfying series of adventures in this action-packed procedural.
The cast of Tracker
Justin Hartley (This is Us) is Colter Shaw; Robin Weigert (she’ll always be Deadwood‘s Calamity Jane to us) and Abby McEnany are his married handlers Teddi and Velma Bruin, who send work his way; Eric Graise is Bobby Exley, our man’s tech expert/hacker/guy in the chair; and Fiona Rene is Reenie Greene, his overworked lawyer. This being a good, old-fashioned adventure-of-the-week series, we also get a wealth of guest stars, including Lee Tergesen, Jensen Ackles, Gil Birmingham, Peter Stormare, and Marley Shelton, playing various victims, villains, and ghosts from the past.
Why we’re excited about Tracker
Well, it was an absolute smash on US network CBS, perhaps owing to the fact that it premiered after the Super Bowl. Reviews have been solid but not spectacular, but here’s the thing: we’re a bit tired of the sort of lumbering, portentous, prestige series that thinks it’s a novel instead of a TV show, and this flavour of meat ‘n’ potatoes action thriller might be just the corrective we need. Sometimes you want a burger, not a steak.
