‘Tracker’ boss teases Season 4, talks move to L.A.

When CBS’ hit procedural “Tracker,” which follows a reward-seeker who travels the country to help crack missing persons cases, returns for its fourth season, eagle-eye observers may notice the show’s backdrops may look a little different.

The series went the distance in a new way: moving production to Los Angeles from Vancouver.

The relocation was announced in May, after the procedural secured a record-breaking $48 million California tax credit, as part of the state’s strategy to woo film and television productions home through its expanded tax incentive program, as my colleague Cerys Davies reported. I recently spoke with “Tracker” showrunner Elwood Reid about the move now that the series is settling into its new home base. (Filming was nearly wrapped on Episode 7.) Reid is at least familiar with relocation shuffles since the ABC crime drama “Big Sky”(which ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023) relocated from Canada to New Mexico ahead of its second season — just as Reid took over showrunning duties. His No. 1 priority is the same now as it was then.

“Whenever you move a show, the first thought is: Do no harm,” he said. “Am I going to get a benefit from it? Can I write the same show that we were writing up there and and do it here? And I have to say, the answer for all of those was ‘yes.’”

It’s Reid’s first time shooting in California since 2008. (2008!) Though he’s been involved with projects since that filmed elsewhere, he’s thrilled to bring a major network series and hundreds of production jobs back to the region. The action-drama is a road show that primarily films on location and often features rural settings, so the move to California provides new landscapes to masquerade as other locales. Already, Lancaster has doubled for a Texas town; Griffith Park for the Pacific Crest Trail and locations in Newhall and Burbank have subbed in for Salt Lake City. Read more from my conversation with Reid about the move in Guest Spot.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend titles that lean into the past: get reacquainted with a bygone police procedural about an LAPD unit that tackles high-profile cases, or properly usher in spooky season with a collection of horror films. Though, let’s be real — our true jump scare is checking the weather forecast this weekend! Stay cool and see you next week. — Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

The Horror Collection (The Criterion Channel)

October is the one month when watching people get stalked, possessed or hacked to pieces counts as getting into the holiday spirit, and the Criterion Channel is marking the occasion with an unusually generous feast of horror, organized into a series of themed collections.

“Highway Horror” makes the open road a place to fear, from Steven Spielberg’s “Duel” (1971), in which an unseen trucker relentlessly pursues a lone motorist, to “The Hitcher” (1986), with Rutger Hauer as the nightmare stranger you really shouldn’t pick up, and the deeply unsettling Dutch thriller “The Vanishing” (1988), about a man consumed by the disappearance of his girlfriend at a highway rest stop. “Unwelcome Guests” moves the danger indoors, with Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), Michael Haneke’s sadistic home-invasion provocation “Funny Games” (1997) and the bloody, darkly funny “You’re Next” (2011). “Possessions” offers all manner of body-snatching mayhem, from the demonic-child classic “The Omen” (1976) to Andrzej Żuławski’s feverish “Possession” (1981), in which a disintegrating marriage takes a decidedly monstrous turn. “Made-for-TV Terror” digs up small-screen nightmares from the 1970s and early ’80s heyday of the TV movie, including Tobe Hooper’s creepy Stephen King adaptation “Salem’s Lot” (1979). And there are retrospectives devoted to Dario Argento, the Italian master of stylish, blood-soaked giallo, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose eerie Japanese thrillers include “Cure” (1997) and “Pulse” (2001). Horror may now be respectable enough for its own sprawling exhibition at the Academy Museum, but Criterion’s October lineup proves there are still plenty of disreputable pleasures to be found. — Josh Rottenberg

Mary McDonnell stars in”Major Crimes.”

(Karen Neal / TNT)

“Major Crimes” (Netflix)

As if they were making not merely recommendations but programming decisions based on my personal viewing habits, Netflix has supplemented my rewatch of “The Closer,” the great L.A.-set police procedural, by posting its immediate sequel, “Major Crimes,” which ran on TNT from 2012 to 2018. Not wanting to waste a good ensemble after the departure of Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, it put former internal affairs investigator Capt. Sharon Raydor, played by Mary McDonnell, in charge of her team, an endearing, quirky crew of veteran detectives who show up en masse at every crime scene like Mystery Incorporated. It’s less overtly comic than the series that preceded it — though there are hilarious individual episodes — with Sharon soft-spoken and contained (where Brenda flew all over the place) and serving as a surrogate mother to Rusty Beck (Graham Patrick Martin), a teenage street hustler waiting to testify in a murder trial held over from “The Closer.” Themes of parenting, coming of age and sexual identity are highlighted. As did “The Closer,” it makes brilliant use of local locations and culture, providing at once a guide to how much the city has changed in the years since and a reminder of how much of what plagues us has remained the same. — Robert Lloyd

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Mike Faist as Charles Trask, Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask and Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames in Netflix’s “East of Eden.”

(Netflix)

If you want a mix of something old and new, this week also brought the arrival of new retelling of a John Steinbeck classic: “East of Eden.” Seven decades after Elia Kazan’s film adaptation, his granddaughter Zoe Kazan has distilled her interpretation of Steinbeck’s multigenerational saga, which is deeply structured around biblical allusions, into a seven-episode series for Netflix. Even before its launch, the series stirred spirited discussion from enthusiasts of the book overs Kazan’s decision to center the story’s chilling antagonist Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh. The adaptation explores the immediate and long-term the disruption she brings to the lives of half brothers Charles and Adam Trask, played by Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott, respectively.

In his review of the series, TV critic Robert Lloyd praised Pugh’s performance: “Pugh impressively represents Cathy’s outward self through successive stages; she’s not a character born to develop, though she will have various crises to navigate, and the actor imbues her with as much nuance as the part allows.” Meanwhile, I spoke with Pugh, Abbott and Faist about the debate over nature versus nurture and the daunting pressure of taking on Steinbeck’s timeless story: “I’m excited for people to do the stuff that I’m doing now, which is [to say], ‘Oh my God, let’s read this and see how it fits against what I’ve got in my head.’” — Y.V.

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Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw in “Tracker.” Ahead of its fourth season, the action-drama relocated production to Los Angeles from Vancouver.

(Mike Taing / CBS)

Think your family has secrets? The Season 3 finale of “Tracker” delivered a major Shaw family twist: Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles), the brother of the show’s rugged problem solver Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley), made a secret, dark deal to protect his brother — he agreed to a dangerous job in exchange for securing (and burning) a file detailing the dark childhood trauma and secrets inflicted on Colter by their late father. The series returns for Season 4 Sunday on CBS — it will stream on Paramount+ — and Colter’s dark and mysterious backstory remains an unfinished through-line even as it falls to the deep background of the action drama. But now the audience knows something that Colter doesn’t, and that will fuel some tension. But big stuff is happening behind the scenes, too, this season. Production relocated to Los Angeles from Vancouver. Over a video call, showrunner Elwood Reid discussed the show’s big move, what’s coming in Season 4 and the police drama that had him hooked this summer. — Y.V.

“Tracker” is very much a road show. How has the move to L.A. re-energized the show or broadened the landscapes you can mimic?

I got to reunite with a locations manager I worked with way back in my career — Veronique Vowell. She’s been pretty vocal about moving shows back to L.A. We did a show together, “Cold Case.” It was a flashback show. Every week she had to find a different look — ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘30s — which was its own challenge. I knew when when we got the show [moved to L.A.], she would be one of my first calls. There’s a reason people shoot in L.A., because it can look like so many different places. It takes a little bit of work and a lot of driving, but you can do it. The thing I’ve noticed, from a creative standpoint, is we can be a lot wider. I love shooting in Canada. I’ve shot a bunch of shows up in Canada — Montreal, Quebec, Vancouver. It’s hard to avoid that Pacific Northwest look with the trees. We did a great job doing that, but we shot tight. Now we’re able to shoot a lot wider. We had one alleyway in Vancouver that could look like New Orleans. So, you never move the camera. Here we we’ve been able to really open the show up, and I think when you see the show, you’ll see a big difference.

What was the trickiest thing to emulate out here?

Veronique has been like: “Don’t write rivers, don’t write lakes!” The other thing is row houses. Can’t find row houses in L.A. But there’s a section of downtown that was fashioned like Art Deco, New York. It’s been invigorating for me and the writers. We have access to the ocean, which has been awesome. But yes, rivers and lakes — that’s something that Vancouver had. You threw a rock and you hit one. I’ve been studiously avoiding those settings and locations. That’s been a big challenge.

How much will L.A. or Southern California be itself in the show? Is there an L.A. episode?

We just started breaking one. I don’t want to call it a Hollywood episode, but if we can pull it off — it’ll be our midseason finale and the midseason opener — the story is going to wend its way into Hollywood. And we’re not faking it, we can go right there. I’m super excited to do that.

Erica Hernandez as Becca and Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw in “Tracker.”

(Mike Taing / CBS)

Season 3 ended with Russell’s decision to leave Colter high and dry. How do the revelations about Ashton’s death set the stage for the next chapter?

That’s going to play in the deep background. The real cost of that is — if I can pull this off with Jensen, who is one of the busiest actors I’ve ever worked with — Russell was forced to take a job for somebody he may not be wanting to work for. The first time we see him, we’re going to see some part of that. But if we can play our cards right, and I can convince Jensen to come back on the show, he’s going to get into a situation where Colter has to come rescue him and get him out of trouble. The big theme we’ve been playing with this season is, we’re meeting some cool characters who do things that are similar to what Colter does — I put Russell in that camp too. We’re looking at: Why does Coulter do this? What’s the cost of it? And what happens when he loses people, which we don’t normally see him do? What happens when he meets his match with someone who’s better or as good or formidable an opponent? And what happens when he has something to lose? These are all things we built in the season. We’re building some characters that are going to sort of really shake up Colter’s world [and] making him question why he does what he does and why couldn’t he save that person. That’s I think a darker place, which I think we’ve earned a little bit because now that we’ve got the family stuff out of the way. But who is Colter outside of that family background? Who is he right now?

Would you say Season 4 focuses more on standalone cases?

Yes, but not when it comes to Russell. We’re going to see the cost of that on Russell’s side. But we spent a lot of time in the past, but now, for the viewers who are like, what does this guy [Colter] do when he’s not working for people? Does he have relationships? Why does he do this? Are there cases in his past that haunt him? That’s the arc we’re taking for the season. We’re going to bring Russell back into it at the end. And I have to be honest, I don’t know the answer to this [yet]: Does Russell tell Coulter the quid pro quo that he took to get them free, or does he not? Does that secret fester? I don’t know. There could be something really interesting with that. Again, it all depends on whether I can get Jensen.

What’s the last show you were obsessed with that you encourage everyone to watch?

I have daughters. I watched “Furious” with them. Liz [Meriwhether, the show’s creator] is such a good writer. There was just something about that show and those actors — Emmy Rossum. I’ve done a lot of police procedurals, and I just found Liz’s take on that really interesting.

What is your go-to comfort watch?

From a movie standpoint: “The Big Lebowski” or “There Will Be Blood” [Paramount+]. As far as TV goes, “The Sopranos” [HBO Max], also “The Wire” [HBO Max] is just one of those shows. A show that gets forgotten a lot is “NYPD Blue.” I tried to reboot that. We had a script and everything but it didn’t work out … it almost had no familiar bleed through or anything because I thought they told that story. It had a lot to do with race in New York City. It was one of my favorite projects. You forget that David Milch and Steven Bochco started this thing we all live in right now.

ICYMI

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