Alert: Missing Persons Unit just wrapped up its third season, and there are good reasons why FOX needs to give this underrated crime drama another year!
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Alert: Missing Persons Unit season 3
Alert: Missing Persons Unit had surprisingly earned a third-season renewal after the Season 2 finale could have worked as a series finale. It still focuses on a Philadelphia police unit that tracks missing persons, with the title referring to the alert put out to the public.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 3 opened with a shocking turn that no one expected. Nikki Batista (Dania Ramirez) was abducted by a convict she’d put in jail years before. Her husband, Mike Sherman (Ryan Broussard), and her ex-husband, Jason Grant (Scott Caan), worked to find her, only to discover Nikki had been murdered.
The hit was ordered by Irish mobster Charles McGannon, who worried Nikki would provide evidence of his crimes. The team was able to arrest him and, after a time jump of a few months, attempted to move on.
It was a wild turn to lose Nikki and it could have been a blow to the show. Instead, it’s allowed a fresh take on the series with more drama and character interactions. Those are among the reasons this show should get a fourth year.
The characters in Alert: MPU remain engaging
The loss of Nikki has highlighted the various supporting characters as they try to handle it. Mike, of course, took a bit to recover from her passing and threw himself too much into work. Kimi (Adeola Role) is taking it in a spiritual way, while young forensic scientist Helen (Diana Bang) sees the cost of being a cop.
The characters still gel together quite well, with other turns like Jason and Nikki’s daughter Sidney (Fivel Stewart) making a return to reveal she’s pregnant. There’s how Kemi flirted with Captain Houston (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) in what could be a fun romance. The characters are well-written, dedicated to their jobs, and spark better than most crime procedurals and deserve more time to show how good they are.
We need more on the new boss in Alert: Missing Persons Unit
The loss of Nikki obviously meant a new boss for the MPU team. That ended up being Megalyn Echikunwoke as Lieutenant Gabrielle Bennett, Jason’s former Philly PD partner. The pair had a very poor relationship, as Jason had been pushed out of the police force when Bennett reported his flaunting the rules. Obviously, having her as his boss didn’t please Jason.
Bennett is an intriguing character as she’s completely up front on how she took the job to help her standing and look good on her resume. She did give Jason a recording that would get her in trouble as a way to trust her and has settled into the job. The character is a huge contrast to Nikki and the series has only scraped the surface of what makes her tick. We’d need more time to expand on that and give Bennet an opportunity to become a good character.
The bromance is wonderful
The loss of Nikki has bonded Jason and Mike more than before. They are now good friends, able to rib each other and have each other’s backs.
There was a good plot of them united trying to find out who the father of Sidney’s baby was, and Jason encouraging Mike to get back to dating after his mourning of Nikki is done. The actors bounce off each other wonderfully and letting this bromance continue is a reason to renew in itself.
The cases of the week still engage
The series still has fun twists on the usual missing persons hunts. A great example is them trying to track down a missing customs broker only to discover she’s an undercover FBI agent, so the FBI isn’t happy about them broadcasting her face.
A missing artist had to be found to give a needed bone marrow transplant. A rowing team is taken with the question of just which member was the target. The series manages to capture the human drama in these hunts along with unexpected turns and spark the “case of the week” format.
The Alert: Missing Persons Unit season 3 cliffhanger needs answers
The season 3 finale had Jason and his love interest, computer hacker Wayne (Alisha-Marie Ahamed), a bit on the outs, with Jason putting a case before a planned vacation. They did come together at the end with a dance at a high school prom right after Wayne had agreed to join the MPU as an analyst. However, the last scene had Wayne texting a mysterious person how, “I’m in MPU; they don’t suspect a thing.”
So, who is Wayne working for? Has her entire relationship with Jason been a plan to infiltrate the cops? How will this affect their relationship? The show needs to answer those questions and continue the story arc.
Throw in how each season is only ten episodes long and it seems Alert: MPU has a lot more to offer and why Fox should give this underrated series a fourth year!
Alert: Missing Persons Unit streaming on Hulu.
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