Convoluted TV Show

The Sunday episode of CBS’ “Without a Trace” was accurate on some dispatching details, but was not authentic on either New York City’s dispatching procedures or technology. The biggest problem was the overly complex story that put a PSTD-inflicted 911 calltaker into the role of revenger for a sexual assault that took place in her past. Jessica, the missing dispatcher being tracked by the FBI’s special unit, was helping domestic violence victims off-duty, which generated lots of false leads–and the death of her pet dog. Eventually the FBI’s attention focused on a 911 call Jessica had answered, during which she apparently recognized the caller’s voice as the man who raped her six years earlier when she was in medical school. She then stole a handgun and confronted the man in a warehouse, but the FBI arrived in time to convince her at gunpoint that she had the wrong suspect. The dispatching details succeeded where they could have sunk the show. But It was the flipped-out dispatcher who definitely pushed the show into strange-ville.