‘Tracker’ Is Back For Season Two And Someone Needs To Make It Make Sense
CBS’s improbable show about a guy who makes his living finding lost/missing people for rewards is back for season two. I watched the entire first season of Tracker and I have questions.
One of them involves his success rate. Colter Shaw, played by Justin Hartley (Aquaman, Smallville, This Is Us) found every single person he was looking for in season one. A 100% success rate? Normal people aren’t 100% successful at anything. And neither is Colter. Season two opened with him stalking the guy he suspects of having taken someone he couldn’t find. Having failed that one time weighs heavily on Colter Shaw; he is not used to failure. I imagine this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the “You Have No Proof I Took Her” guy or the the missing woman’s sister, who Colter slept with. This is the case that haunts him, so he needs to solve it before the end of the season.
I shouldn’t be surprised that Colter never fails. He’s a handsome fella, and everyone knows handsome guys don’t fail. Colter is improbably handsome, if you ask me. Tracker lives on the road in a camper. He has no fixed address, and while it’s a nice camper with lots of bells and whistles, he is still living rough. How hot can those showers be? Why are his clothes so clean and well-kept? He’s also very moisturized. If you told me, “Hey, I know a guy who travels the country claiming rewards for finding people,” I would not picture someone who looks like Justin Hartley with his fine, chiseled features in a million years. He’s not even as roughly worn as the guys on Fire Country, and those have to be the prettiest wildfire fighters ever.
Then there’s the matter of his income. In the season two opener, Colter’s … I don’t know, is Velma his keeper, his minder? Perhaps a research assistant? She (Abby McEnany) tells him she has a big fee for him. $30,000 for one job. That is a lot of money for maybe three days of work. But it’s still only about $14.00 an hour if you calculate it as a salary. I can’t imagine every job he takes offers that large a reward, either. And he’s got a support staff to pay. Velma and his buddy Bob (Locke & Key’s Eric Graise) who knows how to use a computer. And now he’s adding Rennie (Fiona Rene) as an on-call lawyer. How are they living off whatever percentage of Colter’s fees they get? Are they freelance? Do they work for multiple Trackers? Maybe there’s a whole Tracker Universe we’re not yet aware of. Fun episode idea: get all of the Trackers together in one event space at a Super 8. Hilarity is sure to ensue.
I can’t imagine how much it costs to fill up the tank on that giant ad placement of a truck he drives. And then there’s taxes. Maybe he only pays federal taxes since he doesn’t have a fixed address. But that’s still a good chunk of change. Or does he not pay taxes at all? It would be funny if he goes to jail for tax evasion this season.
All of that comes back around to his success rate, how often he takes a new job, and how much each one pays. Factor in travel time between locations, paying the staff, gassing up the truck and the math just doesn’t math on Tracker.
I did some internet sleuthing of my own (quick, someone cast me as a plucky sidekick!) I found a bunch of rewards listed on Craigslist. But they’re for lost pets and phones. Hardly $30,000 bounties. Crimestoppers has a section for Missing Persons posters, but none of them list any rewards. I have no idea where anyone working for Colter Shaw “finds” these reward opportunities. Even the fine folks over on Reddit agree that it seems impossible to make a living as a “Rewardist.” But, if handsome Justin Hartley is your thing, and you don’t mind all of the plot holes or how all of the characters speak mostly in aphorisms, then Tracker might be for you. Maybe if you watch it, you can answer some of my questions.
