‘Tracker’ Season 3 Review: After 2 Major Cast Exits, This CBS Drama Is Still a Heart-Pounding Adventure

‘Tracker’ Season 3 Picks Up Where Last Season Left Off

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Last season’s finale left us with the shocking news that Colter’s mother, Mary Dove Shaw (guest star Wendy Crewson), is seemingly the one responsible for his father’s death. Season 3’s “The Process” learns from the mistakes of the previous year’s opener, wasting no time addressing this deeply disturbing revelation. Well, after probably one of the best action sequences on the show, which further establishes our hero’s fluctuating emotional state while cementing his honorable character. Picking up a mere three weeks later, Colter Shaw is more directionless than we’ve ever seen him. However, diving back into his work — with a push from Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene) and his brother Russell (special guest star Jensen Ackles) — restores our favorite TV rewardist in full force. But don’t expect Colter to remain unaffected by the dark family secret he’s uncovered.

Hartley plays Colter with a psychological complexity that we haven’t quite seen before, carrying around this burden as he fights to relieve others of their own. It would certainly have been easy to pick up weeks later and refuse to acknowledge what Colter learned about his mother, playing the character as a stoic who can simply wander in and out of the lives of others while concealing the truth about his own. While that may work for some action heroes of similar persuasions, Tracker Season 3 refuses to fall into that trap. Hartley knows how to play the line between emotional vulnerability and a quiet confidence that reassures those around him. We see that the events of “Echo Ridge” have deeply affected the reward seeker, who has sought solitude to process what he’s learned, but it doesn’t entirely turn him off to the plights of others.

It isn’t long before Colter finds himself on a new case that is perhaps the most deadly he’s ever faced. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with his family’s secrets (at least, not on the surface), but that doesn’t mean Tracker is sweeping those under the rug either. In fact, the third season opener hints at the entire Shaw family being a larger part of the new season, as Colter continues his search for the truth behind his father’s work. Hopefully, we’ll be getting a full family reunion in Season 3.

One of my biggest complaints about Tracker Season 2 was that, after the second episode (which also, ironically, featured Ackles’ Russell), the show ignored its larger mythology in favor of new short-term arcs that were entirely divorced from the trauma Colter went through in his youth. It wasn’t until the last few episodes that the show pivoted back to the mystery surrounding Ashton Shaw’s (guest star Lee Tergesen) death. By comparison, Season 3 appears to be bringing this element back to the forefront, though in a way that doesn’t choke out the standalone nature of Colter’s work.

‘Tracker’ Season 3 Remains Consistent Even Amidst Major Cast Changes

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The good news is, Tracker doesn’t appear to be in any danger of becoming serialized, even if the first two episodes directly connect. The procedural element is certainly still there. If there’s one thing that we can always count on with Tracker, it’s a level of consistency. Even when characters come and go, Hartley always delivers as the CBS action hero, driving into new places with the same set of skills to find those who would otherwise go unfound. Season 3 continues this longstanding tradition, albeit with a few fewer faces in the mix. After the departure of Robin Weigert‘s Teddi Bruin following Season 1, it appears that paring down the Tracker cast has become common practice between seasons. This year, both Eric Graise‘s Bobby Exley and Abby McEnany‘s Velma Bruin have been removed completely from the roster, yet Tracker continues full steam ahead with no interruption. Admittedly, I was skeptical about the show losing Bobby, in particular, but it manages just as well without him.

Just as Weigert’s absence didn’t leave a particular void in Colter’s life, neither does that of Bobby and Velma. The latter’s role has been essentially taken over by Reenie herself, who recommends Colter’s unique services to well-off clients of her Denver-based law practice. As far as the technobabble is concerned, Season 2’s most lovable recurring guest star, Chris Lee, returns as Bobby’s cousin Randy, evidently taking over “guy in the chair” duties full-time for both Colter and Reenie’s business. This means that only Hartley and Rene are series regulars this season, with Lee still billed as a guest star. While that could change over time, Season 3 suggests that sometimes less is so much more, as Colter is just as effective without needing to split his earnings in four or five different directions. Now, he only needs to share with two.

Tracker is a smart show that knows what its audience wants. Bringing Jensen Ackles back for not one but two episodes up front is one way to kick off a new season, especially since his inclusion in Colter’s post-Season 2 story feels so organic. Hartley and Ackles have incredible chemistry, and I’ve long said that Ackles’ should be a recurring character in the same vein as someone like Randy. Perhaps now that his Prime Video drama Countdown has been axed, Tracker will be willing to make the extra room. Additionally, Tracker uses its small time-jump to reset not just the members of Colter’s team, but also the will-they/won’t-they between Colter and Reenie. After saving her life in last season’s “Rules of the Game,” the show seems to be more interested in exploring what could be between them than ever. Though we’ll have to wait and see if this plays out, Tracker isn’t really a show that needs that sort of love connection. As Hartley has expressed to Collider before, we don’t want to “jump the shark,” and I concur. Thus far, it hasn’t fully committed to anything, though the possibility lingers.

‘Tracker’ Season 3 Opens the Door to Thrilling New Narrative Possibilities

Perhaps what’s most intriguing about Tracker Season 3 is not the premiere’s connection to the overarching mythology or the way it handles its cast, but rather the new case that Colter (and Russell) takes on to get back into his usual routine. The two-part story, consisting of “The Process” and “Leverage” (which airs the following week), tackles a fascinating mystery that feels more like something out of a spy thriller or a conspiracy-driven drama than your average procedural. It’s enough to make anyone a bit anxious, asking the audience to consider what they might do in similar circumstances. Fortunately, Tracker‘s leading man is more than up for the task. The show gets creative in the way that it constructs its first real “double-feature,” with a tense investigation and paranoid camera angles that speak to the gravity of the “game” at play. At the risk of giving anything away, this is certainly a story that needs more than a single episode to make work. It’s one heck of a way to bring Colter Shaw back.

In my view, this third season adventure is the start of something as interesting and long-running as “The Teacher” arc from the first half of Season 2. It leaves the viewer with hope that, if this is how Tracker Season 3 begins, then we’re in for quite the ride. This dynamic two-parter sets the stage for future standalone Tracker stories to extend into multipart territory. No doubt, there are more pulse-pounding and blood-curdling adventures coming down the pipeline for Colter Shaw this season. Stripping the show’s cast in order to focus more on our hero (and whomever he is tasked with saving) will certainly give the third season more direction and less distraction than before. If parts of Season 2 felt too muddled and bogged down by overextended anticipation, Season 3 will feel like a breath of fresh air. If the rest of the season is as strong as this premiere, which plays to everything audiences have come to love about Tracker, then we’re in for a real network TV-sized treat.