Hollywood Reporter says that CBS is stepping into the crime reality show genre, by ordering this new series called Missing You. Shaun Cassidy is an executive producer for this project. It will feature a team of investigators who tackle a new missing persons case each week.

With all the amazing scripted crime dramas on the network, and the success of other reality series such as Survivor, Missing You may prove to be their missing link that will successfully bring these two genres, crime and reality, together.

A&E has already been pretty successful with their whole Crime and Investigation Network, which includes series such as Crime 360, and Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force.

CBS did have an idea in 2004 for a show called Recovery, which featured child kidnapping cases, although I’m unsure if that idea ever took.

I’ve always felt the best reality crime series is Cops, which is one of the longest running TV shows, and the second longest running series on Fox. It’s a very basic premise…police officers with embedded camera crews, and the only dialogue is from the bad guys and the cops who bust them.

Here’s hoping CBS’s Missing You captures some of the hilarity, seriousness, and even a bit of high-tech forensics for the tech nerds.

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In this episode, two women are interrogated about their boyfriend’s deadly altercation, but their stories begin to fall apart as Detectives Crewell and Williams get closer to solving this case of murder. Is it murder, or self-defense? The answers may all hinge on one piece of evidence. Catch this episode on Thursday, March 13 at 10:00 PM on A&E.
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Crime 360, A&E’s latest new investigative series airs again this week, on Thursday March 13, at 10:00 PM. One question in my mind in the beginning was how this marriage of good-old fashioned police work and computer-enhanced investigation would mix. After seeing the series premier, I was impressed with how quickly the support personnel collected the data from the scene that was later to be used for digitally reconstructing the crime. Overall, the show gives a sense of a crime unlike anything else on TV.

The detective in charge, Shane Wait, seemed a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, particularly when confronted with the body of the victim. Was this the reaction of a seasoned investigator? Hmm. I don’t know. He had a supervisor (Detective Williams?) working the case with him that seemed to be unfazed by anything. The supervisor wasn’t shy about directing Detective Wait through the steps to get the job done. See, there was more drama here than even I had realized!

Overall, I found the show to be very compelling, and real in the sense that there is no magic to crime solving. Watching a fictionalized crime drama is neat, clean and orderly for the most part. In Crime 360, you are seeing an actual case being solved with real crime scenes, investigation, and victims. The detectives are in your face, flaws and all, just doing the work to solve the crime.

After seeing this show, I began to wonder if TV viewers (such as myself) expect too much from our real life detectives. Have we become jaded from wallowing in our fun and tidy little hour-long forays into math power points, and BAU profiling?  Who knows. Is it possible the investigators depend too much on these computer generated methods? I suspect an experienced investigator would say that you have to go with the evidence, but also with instinct. I recommend Crime 360 for anyone who wants a real view of an investigation, no fluff!

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We have the synopses for the first four episodes below, along with more info about the show. If you haven’t seen the Behind-The-Scenes video yet, you can get a peek at how they take the actual data from the scene, and recreate the crime scenes using stunning visual imagery. You end up with the unique sense of a crime, from the victim’s and the murderer’s viewpoint. You can read the episode summaries here after the cut:

Crime 360 Upcoming Episode Synopses

(March 6, 2008) Crime 360. Welcome to Homicide. On a hot summer day in Richmond, VA, Detective Shane Wait is called to a local apartment complex where a murder victim has been bound and stuffed in the trunk of the car. With no witnesses and no original crime scene, the detective has to heavily rely on the forensic evidence gathered from the victim’s body and the car. Waite has forensic tech Detective Faith Flippo test the vehicle for blood, DNA, and anything else that might help identify the killer. A break in the case occurs when Waite gets a 911 tip from a witness who said he that heard two gunshots the night of the murder at his apartment complex and saw two men entering the building. CC HD [TV14]

(March 13, 2008) Crime 360. Fatal Feud. Two men who live next to each other in a housing project get into a deadly argument. One is shot and killed. Detectives Crewell and Williams take the two men’s girlfriends back to headquarters to find out what happened. One story tells of murder, the other self-defense. Detectives try to unravel the different accounts given by the girlfriends. The key may lie with a gun that was recovered from a trash can behind the house. A Federal lab tests a bullet found at the scene and the gun to determine if it is the murder weapon. Meanwhile, Crewell and Williams try to find holes in the girlfriend’s stories. As the girlfriend’s stories start to fall apart, the suspect on the run is feeling the heat. CC HD [TV14]

(March 20, 2008) Crime 360. Deadly Secrets. In Cleveland, Ohio, lead Homicide Detective Wally Everett and his partner Detective Mike Smith, are called out to a crime scene where a body lays hidden between some hedges and the porch of the victim’s grandmother’s house. The victim, a male, is face down. Strewn around the front lawn are seven bullet casings, evidence suggesting that the victim was shot multiple times. As detectives investigate the immediate area, they discover clues of the victim’s alternate lifestyle–and they wonder if there may be a connection between that and his murder. Each piece of evidence takes them closer to their suspect and his motive. CC HD [TV14]

(March 27, 2008) Crime 360. Blood on the Tracks. In Cleveland, Detectives Tim Entenok and Joselito Sandoval are called to a crime scene where a missing person is found dead in a 4-foot-diameter sewage drain, in a remote section of a park. The body is found 300 feet deep in the pipe, which has been draining a constant flow of rainwater. When Entenok takes a closer look at the body, he notices that it is maggot-infested: an indication that the body has been in the pipe for over a week. The victim’s head seems to have bullet holes, but the detectives can’t be certain. Only an autopsy will determine the cause of death. Meanwhile Sandoval scours the nearby train tracks for additional evidence. A few rocks, stained with a blood-like substance, are collected. The investigation seems to go cold with no leads until a female witness gives them a much-needed break in the case. CC HD [TV14]

© A&E Television Network

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If you watch one crime investigative series this year, the perfect show has come along. Crime 360, an A&E investigative series, will debut this Thursday on March 6, at 10:00 PM ET.

This is unlike any show you’ve seen, as it takes a real criminal investigation, and step-by-step solves the crime, using the latest high-tech advancements.

Why You Should Watch

What’s the catch? You, the viewer, are brought along on the ride, seeing the actual investigative techniques, via amazing digital photography, and computer generated imagery (CGI). From the beginning of the investigation to the actual answers at the end, you are there.

We’ve had some great shows in the past, such as Unsolved Mysteries, which teased us, and asked us to help solve the crimes. Later, we had other shows which solved issues in a 48 hour format. On Crime 360, you get the full effect in one-hour wrap-ups, while meeting some awesome detectives, along with beautiful, but telling imagery.

The current list of investigators for the series are from Cleveland, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia, and they are all uniquely qualified to lead these investigations, based on their profiles.

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