What makes Tracker Season 2 one of the best shows on TV right now?
Almost everything that worked in Season 1 is back in full force in Tracker Season 2. Colter balancing his loner persona with distant friendships? Yes. The mystery surrounding his past, yes. His flirtatious but non-committal relationship with Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene)? Also yes. There’s an old adage that goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and Tracker certainly took that to heart in its second season. This is especially true for the show’s basic format, which has remained essentially the same since its first episode. At a time when episodic television has become the norm (shows like Reacher follow this formula), Tracker is a breath of fresh air that proves that episodic broadcasting and standalone storylines can still work together perfectly, even in the age of streaming. Of course, this works largely because of the show’s choice of protagonist.
In many ways, Tracker is a one-man show. Justin Hartley certainly carries the show, both on and off camera (where he serves as an executive producer), and proves once again that Colter Shaw is a worthy protagonist of our time. He can be aloof and moody, but he’s also charming, caring, and puts himself in the shoes of the people he wants to help. The Killer Season 2 opener, “Out of the Past,” challenges Colter as he struggles to find a young family caught in the crossfire of some pretty bad people. But the disturbing circumstances don’t phase Colter, no matter who he has to beat up along the way. He remains calm and level-headed throughout the show, only losing his professional touch during an unrelated case that’s still very personal to him (more on that later). Whether he’s working with his family or law enforcement, we love seeing Colter risk his life for the good of others. Sure, our hero is paid (cops are paid, after all), but that doesn’t make his actions any less heroic.
But while Colter can sometimes act like he’s alone in all of this, Season 2 has made it a point to remind our hero that he has others standing by his side. This much-needed development allows characters like Bobby (Eric Graise) to become more than just Colter’s “guy on the couch,” and really, the show should explore that more. (Poor Eric Graise needs some co-stars, pronto!) On the other hand, Tracker is shaking up the way things work now that Reenie and Velma (Abby McEnany) are sharing an office space. For that reason, Teddi’s (Robin Weigert) somewhat open-ended departure from the show—which was explained as her dealing with a family emergency involving her mother—was barely even felt. In fact, as Colter’s co-handler, the partnership between Reenie and Velma felt so natural that we wondered why the show didn’t pair the two up sooner. It was sad to see Weigert go, but Tracker has recovered professionally. Perhaps we’ll finally get to see Colter and Velma interact directly this year.
What fans should really be excited about, though, is the introduction of a new overarching mystery that has haunted Colter for the past decade of his life. Season 1 opened the door to the Shaw family’s murky past (a storyline that Tracker is still keen to explore), but Season 2 takes things a step further by inserting Colter into a missing person case that he’s been unsuccessfully investigating for the past 10 years. Even compared to his own family problems, it’s the only job that seems capable of shaking him up. It’s deeply personal, and by the end of the first episode, we understand why. As “Out of the Past” opens, Colter breaks into the home of a man named Frank (Ryan Dorsey), who he believes is involved in the disappearance of a teenage girl. Frank protests, as he does every year when Colter visits him, and by the end of the episode, Colter finds himself in the arms of newcomer Camille Picket (Floriana Lima), who also has a deep connection to the mystery. It’s a bit of a shock to see Colter interested in someone other than Reenie, but it opens the door for a lot of new narrative potential.
While the overall tone of Tracker Season 2 remains the same, thematically the series seems to be getting a little darker. “The past is a part of who we are, it doesn’t have to define your future,” Colter says at one point in the premiere, a truth he himself hasn’t fully accepted. This new mystery is an interesting addition considering that Tracker still hasn’t solved its previous overarching puzzle, but since both
