Talkin' Tracker: Colter Shaw Gets it Going in "Klamath Falls"
Back to the beginning with Colter, Reenie and the crew
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Talkin’ Tracker - Season 1, Episode 1
Title: Klamath Falls
Where to Watch: CBS/Paramount+
Episodes: Infinity, probably
Rating: 3.5/5 knowing, understanding looks
Tracker is a TV show. If aliens landed on Earth tomorrow and asked me to describe a TV show to them, I would pick Tracker as the exemplar of the genre. It’s palatable, there is no vulgarity to speak of, pretty much everyone in it is as beautiful as they are capable, and, above all, Colter Shaw (played by Justin Hartley), is going to find the daughter, co-worker, sibling, or whomever else has gone missing.
He’s The Best at this, you know. He is like this because of his tough, off-the-grid upbringing, and frayed relationship with his brother (played by Jensen Ackles). You could copy and paste that sentence as the short description of like a million shows and movies, and maybe that’s exactly the point—we’re watching Tracker and we’re watching shows like Tracker.
Sometimes, though, we have to ask ourselves out loud, “Wait, can Colter Shaw do that?” In my case, this usually happens while watching Tracker with my 11-year-old daughter—she is a fan of the show, thinks Colter is “pretty hot, but he is never really in trouble,” and has a keen critical eye for plot holes.
It’s Formulaic Because Formulas Work
I don’t think Tracker has plot holes in the traditional sense, it has something more like plot conveniences—those moments where the hero sees the clue the local cops miss, or he knows a guy his uncle used to work with who knows everyone working in the local logging industry—stuff like that. Colter has this in spades, and he also has a Guy in the Chair—Bobby (Eric Gaise), Randy (Chris Lee), or both—who can, without fail, produce phone records, criminal histories, and CCTV footage in seconds, often breaking the case.
It’s classic Guy in the Chair stuff, but, like so much else about Tracker, it works in it’s own nearly-corny-but-still-earnest way. And, it’s a ratings hit. It accomplishes this by being just good enough when it needs to be. Colter is a good guy, and he often rejects the reward, rare air for a Rewardist. He is not a bounty hunter (he is absolutely a bounty hunter). He’s very kind to people in need, but over the course of two seasons and half of a third, Colter Shaw has killed a shocking amount of people. But, we’ll get to all that over the next few weeks and months. Let’s start at the beginning.
Let’s Start Tracking
Episode 1 finds un in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Colter, fresh off saving a life—and hitting us with a bit of exposition—in the high desert of New Mexico, is looking for a 14-year-old boy who was taken by his father. Classic TV show stuff here.
We’re not even 10 minutes in and Colter already knows that the woman he is interviewing is lying to him. He can sense that sort of thing. He notices things because that’s his job (Colter’s words, not mine).
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At the 14-minute mark we get our first “Can Colter Shaw do That?”—a question typically answered with a folksy “Well, he just did, so…”—and this one doesn’t disappoint. Colter needs to see some surveillance footage from the burger joint, but the manager, surprise surprise, can’t do that. Colter, our resourceful Colter, just sneaks into the office, locks the door, and looks at the footage. Can Colter do that? No idea, but he did, and he got what he needed (wipes brow in relief).
But the local cops were there and Colter is getting booked. This happens a lot too. But, he has a secret lawyer weapon in the form of Reenie Green (played by Fiona Rene). Rene is a really good actor, and she plays Reenie consistently throughout the series. She’s doing what she can with what she has and she’s doing quite well. Colter and Reenie banter, they flirt, they respect each other…they have genuine chemistry and the show is better for it.
Really Though, Can Colter Shaw Do That?
Roughly halfway into “Klamath Falls” we get a real banger of our central question. Colter’s interactions with local (and sometimes federal) law enforcement tend to be all the over the map—sometimes it’s constructive, sometimes it looks close to whatever “normal” is, but sometimes, the cops just straight up defer to Colter in ways that push disbelief.
Here, Colter has a plan (Reenie got him out of jail), the cops investigating the missing boy have a plan, and the boy’s parents say they want to go with Colter’s. The lead investigator totally caves and tells Colter he has two hours. What? How would this be explained up the chain of command?
Sir, we had dozens of officers looking for a missing boy, but there was also some guy who the parents hired. They say he’s The Best. The parents liked his idea for getting the boy so I gave him a two-hour window to do it.
Color me skeptical. Again, this happens a lot. Colter was the one who figured out that the boy and his dad were in the woods, so why wouldn’t he get to go in first…I guess?
Wouldn’t you know it, Colter finds them, the boy handcuffed in the bed of truck. The kidnapping father gets the drop on Colter, but Colter’s an empathetic guy. The cops gave Colter two hours and he intends the use the dividend to let the father make a run for it. He for sure cannot do that. It’s a wash anyways because the cops helicopter in like a half hour early. Colter lets them know he’s mad by yelling at the helicopter, one of the most effective communications methods invented in movies.
To Trope, or Not to Trope
Having watched every available episode of the show, this episode stands out in a few ways. There is some serious shirt off Colter time here, and Justin Hartley is like a top 5 handsome guy. It comes in right at the top too, no messing around. Establishing that Colter is hot is unnecessary, but they very rarely repeat this sort of thing in the episodes to come. He is fully clothed almost all the time after the first episode. I’m torn on if it’s a good or bad thing really, because in abandoning the hot guy soap opera trope, the show pivots to a sort of “the ladies absolutely are into Colter” trope. Not sure what’s better there, but I’ll figure it out at some point and then probably flip-flop.
At the end of episode 1, Colter’s also-stunningly-beautiful local police counterpart Amini Khan (played by Paniz Zade), visits his Airstream after things are wrapped up and he gets the girl in the James Bond sense. Again, the show almost never repeats this. Again…good? I think so…?
Episode 1 is about as important as a first episode of a show that will probably run 19 seasons can be. Lots of flashbacks, lots of exposition about Colter’s childhood, repeated allusions to his estranged brother—there is a lot there that will become important down the road.
Mining the Depths of Simplicity
Tracker contains multitudes, it’s true. It’s crazy how something so simple can create such multitudes of simplicity so as to render it almost uncategorizable.
Honestly, I don’t care. I like it. The hero is almost never in peril, has a strong moral code, and is good looking (as are his colleagues). What more do we really need?
— Zach
Zach Peterson is a longtime co-producer of Sree’s Sunday Note. He lives and works in the Czech Republic. Ok, TV is part of the Sree’s Sunday Note family of newsletters.
Are you knee-deep in the Harlan Coben-verse on Netflix? My colleague Tara Ruff sure is:
