You can find all the media scares of 2024 in the CBS drama Tracker

Taken one way, Follower, the new CBS drama premiering after the Super Bowl, may be the most generic procedural ever devised. It stars a blandly charming white man (Justin Hartley from This is us fame for most, Smallville fame for me) who makes a living finding missing people and collecting reward money, using his skills as a survivalist to travel across the country noticing things others don’t, killing a local police officer or doctor charms. On the surface, Follower is about as generic as network dramas come, the slickest 42 minutes you can spend between ads shouting WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER or listing pharmaceutical side effects. But I think Follower is actually fascinating, based entirely on what it is is not about.

Colter Shaw (yes, that’s his name) is notably not a cop, nor is he a detective. He rather seriously calls himself ‘a rewarder’ – because he tracks down missing people for reward money, which he always collects. This gives Follower‘s main character a mercenary advantage that the show isn’t particularly interested in; He’s clearly in it for the money, but he’s also a nice guy who wants to get involved and help people, as long as they can pay. Colter’s civilian status is also not questioned – since he is not a cop, the people he interrogates on his journey to find the missing person from that episode have no real reason to work with him, especially if they are involved in some crime.

But then again, Shaw has no superlative skills to show off, nor any extraneous character traits to help him navigate such roadblocks. He’s not an excitable Sherlock Holmes type, nor does he have the unusual talent for immediately knowing when someone is lying or for pulling out complicated gadgets from the pantry. In Followerit just works out for Colter because if they didn’t, the show would end.

Because of all this, Follower comes across as an extremely anxious show, carefully constructed not to alienate anyone and ultimately not engaging for anyone. The intention is not to avoid calling the police a copaganda. It’s definitely not urban and takes place mainly in the green expanses of Real America to take advantage of them Yellowstone Red State’s call – but not without alienating liberal viewers interested in representation. Notably, Colter is supported by a fun lesbian couple who find new rewards for him to track down, and a tech support guy of color with prosthetic limbs. (None of these characters share scenes directly with Colter, as they usually just talk to him on the phone.)

Follower‘s anodyne nature is a bit confusing given his pedigree. The series is an adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s The Never Gamethe first of four Colter Shaw novels featuring a real wild plot summary That Follower does not come within spitting distance of. Co-executive producer Ben Winters is also an acclaimed novelist with a short but promising TV resume to date, having previously worked on FX’s Legion. Read generously: This is just the reality of getting a network drama on the air in 2024 – starting as generic as possible to get the greenlight, and gathering the momentum to get really weird with it. (As have previous very good CBS dramas The good woman And Suspect.)

At least, that’s what I want to believe. There are so many meaty directions Follower could go that it seems like it takes real willpower not explore them, based on the first two episodes. Of course, the show could break out in an even more awkward direction – I haven’t seen a show more ready to just do a whole ass Sound of freedom comes straight out of the box. But honestly? That would probably be more memorable than the version of the show we have now.