Season 2 of Tracker has come to an end. By mid-season, they’d wrapped up a central storyline from the first season, and throughout the second half of the season, they tackled more of the Shaw family secrets. Tracker is a formulaic drama, with the aforementioned plots serving as overall story arcs while each episode maintained a Monster of the Week format. The procedural format has worked out for them, though. For the second year in a row, Tracker is the #1 show on network TV. Variety recently caught up with star Justin Hartley to talk to him about the season as a whole, Colter’s personal growth, and the series’ secret sauce for success. Head’s up: the excerpt below doesn’t contain spoilers, but the entire interview I linked to is full of spoilers.
The procedural format is versatile but can also feel constraining, but for two years in a row, “Tracker” has been the No. 1 show on network television. To what do you credit the overwhelming success of the show? How exactly have you and your creative team been able to break through in such an overcrowded genre?
It’s a great question, and I think it’s changed a little bit. Initially, we got really lucky. We have a studio and a network that really believed in us. They gave us all the tools, and they gave us all the opportunity with the advertising and post-Super Bowl [premiere slot]. After that, you just have to prove yourself, because obviously you’re going to have a big audience after the Super Bowl, but then you have to have a really good show. Otherwise, people are not going to return over and over and over again. People are busy! We try to come up with really compelling stories that people haven’t seen before, and we try to put this guy in believable situations that are quite harrowing at the same time.
One of the things that we do is, for instance — gosh, without getting too specific, and I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus, but I’m not a huge fan of these shows [where] the music kicks in before anything happens, and you’re sort of telling me how to feel, you know what I mean? I always give this example: It’s like Colter hasn’t even picked up his [ringing] phone yet, and the music’s already going. It could be his girlfriend. It could be Amazon. We don’t know. Why do we have this music? Why are you telling me how to feel? Sometimes, I think you can get rid of all of that and just have a scene that’s dry with two actors talking. So I guess we try to push the boundaries that way, and the studio and the network are receptive to all of that.
We’re also very aware and respectful of the fact that we have an audience that finds comfort in the formula that we have, so we’re not going to go off the rails into a musical or anything like that, but we just try to make the best show that we can every week. My goal is to make every single episode better than the last.
Hartley is spot-on here about people watching certain shows because of the comfort in the formula. We watch soap operas for plot twists, prestige dramas for the unpredictable and the acting, and formulaic, over-the-top network shows for the excitement and comfort in knowing that our heroes will survive impossible odds. 9-1-1 found this out the hard way when they killed off a popular character recently. I stopped watching my embarrassingly guilty pleasure Blue Bloods when they killed off a specific character. (Please don’t judge me!) If formulaic shows want to throw a curveball, they add a new character, which this season of Tracker did very well when they seamlessly integrated Bobby’s cousin, Randy, into the mix. Viewers know the stakes are low and we like that it’s just stressful enough to keep us engaged, but not so much so that we’re watching it in constant dread. The real world is stressful enough.
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, IMAGO/Dave Starbuck/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram
I have never watched this show. (I have generally avoided CBS primetime since the Les Moonves debacle). Formulaic shows are comfort watches as long the overarching plot is well thought out and carefully plotted, the formula isn’t too repetive and the plot doesn’t exploit the female (or minority) characters to embiggen a white male lead. Lost and The X-Files completely lost their way because their mythologies weren’t properly plotted. The X Files mythology was based around exploiting Scully which makes the mythology episodes unwatchable nowadays. House is unwatchable for me nowadays because the episodes are just so repetive. I tend to prefer the British TV/streaming model of fewer episodes because quality is easier to maintain with fewer episodes.
I haven’t watched this show either. But yeah, a comfort watch should be comforting. Like what you said about not exploring the other characters to embiggen the wife male lead.
I remember watching Justin as Adam Newman on the y o u n g and the restless.
Yeah! I also loved him as Fox Crane on Passions. 😍
OMG! I knew he was familiar! We watch the show and enjoy it. He is somewhat of a perfect protagonist (like Reacher) so there is not too much suspense. There was one episode this season when I felt they were veering into Criminal Minds territory but they haven’t done that since.
Never thought much about why watching something new just felt like too much stress and commitment lol, so I get what he’s saying here. My entertainment needs to be safe lol.
I personally don’t like formulaic shows anymore. The last ones I got into were Revenge and Scandal. It feels dated when you watch higher budget shows now. However I do agree that the prestige dramas do feel too heavy sometimes and we have to take breaks (Handmaids Tale, Yellowjackets, The Last of Us). I get the attraction of not wanting the dread but different case per episode thing feels so old at this point.
Ooh, I loved Revenge in the beginning. But then they started tweaking affections for somebody they’d established as a clear villain. Irksome when they expect the audience to get on board with forgiveness of an evil character without sufficient groundwork showing the former villain can now be trusted.
I’ve really enjoyed Tracker. The main characters are all likable. Love the unexplored back story of his weird formerly academic parents who chose to hide out in the forest in northern California. I accidentally subscribed to Paramount, so I can go back and watch episodes that have already aired, sans commercials. Have missed the last few weeks. Hope they bring Bobby back, but his cousin is cool in his own way.
I no longer watch any network TV shows because of the endless commercials. Half of most shows are annoying ads.
I still watch original Law & Order reruns when I’m stressed because of the unvarying formula.
YES! L&O is great comfort TV. I still enjoy the formulaic shows if they are fairly well done and written and have characters you can care about. No more 911 though. Watch the FBI’s and NCIS Sydney plus a lot of PBS. Don’t want to watch real life on TV. I have enough of that.
This show is wholly mediocre. That being said, I look forward to every episode. Maybe because of the comfort thing.
Totally agree Karen. I sometimes ask myself why I keep watching. It’s soooo formulaic, it’s almost funny. Seriously, each episode starts out exactly the same way with him getting the call, the clients always say the same things, and he uses about 15, I would estimate, of the same lines in every episode. But, I do like some of the pretty locations, most of the key actors have a natural charm even while saying essentially the same things each episode, and the family mystery arc does add a bit of variability in some episodes So, yeah, maybe finding it predictable and comforting is its main appeal given the chaos and negativity around us.
I love his suit. Hot guy.