In your review of Vanished ...

• Aug 28, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

Question: In your review of Vanished (which I agreed with except possibly for the "continue watching" part), you left off one serious flaw in this (to me) totally flawed show. The acting was completely lame. It felt like a daytime soap. Only Ming-Na, whom I liked on ER, seemed "natural." The misdirection "clues" hit you over the head (haven't the writers heard of subtlety?). The FBI is competent on the surface, yet I'm sure they will be proven completely inept. Is there any hope for this show?
Answer: Couldn't agree more that the biggest handicap Vanished faces at this early point is the lack of a galvanizing star presence. (Translation: Gale Harold is no Kiefer Sutherland, or Wentworth Miller for that matter.) The roles are generically written and formulaically played. It's really going to be up to the storytelling to carry this one, and subtlety is likely to have little to do with it. If there's hope for Vanished, it will be as a guilty pleasure. And for those with a little patience, things might pick up when Eddie Cibrian (late of Invasion) joins the cast seven or so episodes in.