With the cancellation of CBS procedural Without a Trace late May, ABC is set to fill in the gap with The Forgotten, a crime series following a team of dedicated amateurs working on cases involving unidentified victims. The amateur group takes over when the police has given up on a case, first having to solve the puzzle of the victim's identity in order to help them catch the killer. The team - a group of civilian volunteers across the country - attempts to give otherwise unnamed deceased people their names back - lest they become forgotten, hence the title. After all, in the US, the remains of 40,000 people are not identified.
Set to debut on ABC in fall 2009, The Forgotten chronicles the cases tackled by members of the Identity Network in an attempt to reconstruct the pieces of the John and Jane Doe's lives from the little evidence left. Every episode is narrated by a "body" (the disembodied voice of a murder victim) who watches the team as they pursue the giving an identity to the victim.
Down the line, viewers will realize that each member has his or her own reasons for taking on an otherwise thankless job in the Chicago chapter of the Identity Network. The cast of
The Forgotten includes former cop Alex Donovan (Rupert Penry-Jones), whose 11-year-old daughter was kidnapped and never found; Linda Manning (Reiko Aylesworth), who runs the network from her home, is a recluse whose husband is a convicted murderer; talented sculptor with a forensic background Tyler (Anthony Carrigan), who was assigned to the group as part of his community service; Walter Bailey (Bob Stephenson) who works for the phone company; and Candace Butler (Michelle Borth), who hates her day job and has an uncanny talent for putting people at ease.
- Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: ABC
(Image courtesy of ABC)