Without A Trace (CBS) is a smart, liberal TV show.

Last night they did a story about drug mules.

Who has sympathy for drug mules, right? Well the story was about solving the disappearance a woman trying to make a few bucks for her and her daughter at a crappy job and has to turn to working as a drug mule. One of the investigators (Poppy Montgomery's character) went undercover working in the FACTORY where this woman worked. While undercover, she lived in the trailer park this woman lived in and imagined the missing woman taking care of her young daughter.

The investigator finally gets the lead she needs when another employee at the factory overhears Poppy's character fighting with the boss over not being able to support herself without the OVERTIME she needs to make ends meet. That other employer suggests she does work on the side as a "courier."

Yeah, being a poor woman trying to take care of your family in a society which makes it very hard for people to get by at the bottom can suck. And we can still have sympathy for their plight, and solve the crimes of which they're victims, even when they become victims in the course of doing things that are illegal.

Last night was the second half of a two-parter.

about every subject it decides to take on. I'm constantly impressed by it.

It really encourages you to think about what it's saying.

It's also interesting that the three leads are all foreigners. Lapaglia, Montgomery and Marie-Baptiste (I'm guessing their names) are, respectively, Australian, Australian and British. Their American accents put Jude Law to shame.

This was a two-part sweeps episode, too. I did notice the subversiveness of its message.

Especially when the woman in the bar who had watched the event unfold said she was afraid to say anything so she didn't, and Poppy asked her if she knew the young woman who was murdered had a young son? And she answered, "So do I."

Please help Ida out and go to this thread - go to naders website and donate $5 and kick Ida's thread with the amount you donated- we're going to come up with the $35,000 with lots of little donations and we're going to do it today.

Then chase down your friends on this website and make sure they saw this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2680120

come on people, $5 to save democracy? That's not too much to ask, is it?

died when I was 5 and my brother was 2-----I know what it's like to be poor-----and this was during the Great Depression.

piece about industrial environmental pollution last season

that was absolutely stunning and heartbreaking.

Good series.

Did anyone see the one about the abortion clinic bombers that had been living under assumed names and then the wife goes missing and the anti-abortion whacko had kidnapped her because she wanted to turn herself in. I thought that was a pretty hard hitting episode too.

innocent (or very likely, innocent--I can't remember) and the show ends with all the investigators sitting around the office as the clock approaches midnight waiting to hear if there's going to be a reprieve. The show ends without telling you if the person got the reprieve. No happy endings. It was really devestating and quite a commentary on the death penalty.

too bad her character is a Republican

after reflecting on the meaning behind all the cases she's been cracking all year long.

The two-parter that finished up last night reminded be of the book
"Nickeled and Dimed in AMerica" by Barabar Ehrenreich. The author went undercover, researching how the working poor live. She did a stint in a Wal-Mart, lived in a low income motel, etc. The book is enough to radicalize a republican.

why not "Entertainment & Pop Culture"?

-ment value.

Maybe it would have bounced around the top of the Lounge for longer, but maybe it'll be discussed more in terms of politics than Poppy Montgomery's hotness (which I'm not disputing) here.

*shrug*

it's sinking fast

It's a great show. I actually choose to watch it over ER, which is coming from someone who used to spell his name "ERik"

...this one disappears.

:)