Tracker offers a great mix of traditional procedural and high-action drama. The series, based on the Jeffrey Deaver novel The Never Game, has drawn comparisons to Reacher. Justin Hartley stars as Colter Shaw, a skilled survivalist who lives a loner life on the road in his Airstream. He works with a remote team to locate missing persons in exchange for reward money.
The action drama did well out of the gate and was quickly renewed for a second season. In February 2025, Tracker was renewed for a third season as well. While the show remains strong, there are a few things fans don’t like about Season 2 compared to Season 1 that they hope will be rectified soon.
The Strong Shaw Family Narrative Is Missing in ‘Tracker’ Season 2
The key reason fans are growing impatient with Season 2 is that while the procedural nature remains, with every episode following Colter taking on a new case in a new city, the overarching story is missing. Along with learning how Colter developed his incredible tracking skills, Season 1 also told the story of Colter’s father and his tragic death.
A brilliant professor, his father, Ashton (Lee Tergesen), at some point started to become very paranoid and moved his family to the wilderness where they lived off the grid. One day, while having an “episode,” as Colter’s mother Mary (Wendy Crewson) called it, Ashton took off. When Colter, then a teenager, went to find him, he came across his father’s dead body at the bottom of a cliff. There’s so much mystery surrounding Colter’s father’s death, which he suspects was a murder, and questions about if his father might have been involved in something secretive or dangerous that made him so paranoid.
Through interactions with Colter’s brother Russell (Jensen Ackles), sister Dory (Melissa Roxburgh), and mother Mary, it’s clear there’s something Colter doesn’t know. Russell swears he saw someone else in the wilderness the day their father was killed. Mary is hellbent on keeping Colter away from Russell, and Dory just wants to leave the past in the past.
A major teaser was given in the Season 1 finale when Colter helps old childhood friend Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison). In catching up, she casually reveals that her mother and Colter’s father were having an affair, something she thought Colter knew about. She also tells him his father came to see her mother right before his death, and they got into an argument about something. Lizzy’s mother has since passed, but she came across a box of Colter’s father’s belongings in her mother’s house. Unsure of what to do with them, she gave the box to Dory. Yet Dory has never mentioned this to Colter. Was the box filled with unimportant trinkets? Or was there something important in there?
Well into the second season, the topic of Colter’s family hasn’t come up again, but for a short reappearance by Russell and a sweet conversation between Reenie (Fiona Rene) and Colter in a diner where he recalls a memory involving his mother and pancakes. Perhaps Colter has been too busy, but knowing how he is about following trails and breadcrumbs, it’s tough to believe that he has completely set his family mysteries aside. That’s especially so following that massive revelation from Lizzy and the mention of a mysterious person in the woods by Russell.
“It just feels like we’re getting a bunch of random episodes of Colter doing what he does best,” writes Redditor UltraDegenApe. “Season 1 had a strong narrative: we saw Colter in his element, but we also got insight into his past – what shaped him, what happened to his father…But now, it’s like the show has completely disconnected from itself.” Fans want to know more about this larger narrative, not just see Colter take on case after case. Since it’s confirmed that Russell, Dory, Mary, and Lizzy will all appear in Season 2 (or at least Season 3), it’s likely the storyline will return. But the complete pause on Colter’s quest to learn more about his own life has left fans itching for more.
Key Characters Have Left or are MIA in ‘Tracker’ Season 2
It’s not only the talk of Colter’s father’s death that has disappeared from Season 2; it’s also several characters. Robin Weigert played Teddi Bruin, one of Colter’s handlers who worked from home sourcing the missing persons cases for him. She, along with her wife Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany), also provided research during cases as needed.
However, Weigert was noticeably absent from Season 2. It was confirmed that the actor left the show, yet her departure was never addressed on screen, leaving fans confused. Off-screen, producers confirmed that Teddi and Velma are separated. The only mention of her in Season 2 was that she went to help out her mother. Then, all of a sudden, Velma moved into a shared office space with Reenie. Fans didn’t like both the departure of Weigert and the fact that the show didn’t even address it in a storyline.
There’s also Eric Graise, who plays Bobby Exley, the fiercely talented hacker who assists Colter with any technical help he needs. He’s usually needed for just about every case, whether it’s to tap into a security system, check a person’s personal cell phone message history, or pinpoint their last known location. However, Graise has been absent from the last three Tracker episodes, replaced by his cousin Randy (Chris Lee), who filled in when he’s gone. The character’s absence is explained, saying he is dealing with family matters. Randy, meanwhile, is supposedly the cousin who taught Bobby everything he knows, so he’s more than capable of helping Colter. But fans miss the rapport between Colter and Bobby.
There’s no explanation given for why Graise is missing from so many episodes and if it might have something to do with an upcoming storyline. Some suspect that it has to do with cost-cutting through rotating casts, a practice many networks are employed nowadays for various shows. But without answers, fans are just left crossing their fingers each episode that Bobby will show up again.
‘Tracker’ Episodes Rely More Heavily on Violence
Finally, the tone of the show seems to have changed quite a bit. The first season saw Colter take on interesting cases that were dark but that focused on Colter and his skills. It was about him having no fear and no worry about consequences. He will often trudge through the woods to find and help someone using tactics he learned as a child.
However, in Season 2, the cases he takes on are much darker, and the stakes are higher. There’s rarely an episode in which Colter doesn’t pull out a gun, and someone doesn’t get shot. The level of violence has increased dramatically, with one of the latest episodes showing a bloody torso in a bathtub and the man’s decapitated head on a stick in a chair. In another, he finds various body parts on the grounds at a corporate retreat. Another sees a man execute his gang member partner in cold blood.
These types of scenes are common for other shows, from Dexter to The Night Agent. But Tracker wasn’t initially about that. In Season 1, while Colter sometimes had to pull out his gun, it wasn’t usually used, and there weren’t as many deaths. There were happy endings with little bloodshed and satisfaction that the bad guys were being taken away in handcuffs. It feels as though Tracker has now become far more about dangerous criminals and near-death experiences than about how Colter uses his survival skills to help victims.
What’s more, fans point out that Colter isn’t a cop, yet he seems to get away with so much with nary a scratch and no legal consequences either. Redditor hungyhouse asks how he is able to pull weapons on people, trespass, even shoot people, then just head out on the road again like nothing happened. “It’s shocking the amount of times he pulled a gun out while actively breaking into somewhere and he has never been shot at.” EmmieMaggie adds that some of the villains are “seriously creepy, too.”
Of course, there are only so many cases that can take place in an open field, forest, barn, farm, or even open water. Still, Tracker is starting to feel like a different show that’s headed down a much darker path. With the abandoned familial storyline for much of Season 2, the missing characters with no explanation, and the increased attention on violence and creeper criminals, along with Colter acting more like a cop than a survivalist, fans are hoping for a 180 with Tracker that will bring it back to its original appeal. That’s Colter showing off the skills he learned as a child, his desire to help people who really need it, and finally coming to terms with his own past. Stream Tracker on Paramount+.
