“In the United States the remains of 40,000 people have not been identified … a group of volunteers work together to name … The Forgotten.”

ABC’s The Forgotten is about these volunteers and their cases.  The pilot episode starts out with a voice over by a dead Jane Doe, talking about her unidentified status.

When Alex (Christian Slater) is contacted by the Chicago police about the case, he immediately calls the team. This sequence was an awesome way to introduce the lives of the other volunteers.  Alex calls Lindsay while she is teaching a class. A call is made to Walter, who is in a bucket truck working on a light pole and Candace, who is sitting in a little cubicle in a massive office.

At the first meeting, we meet Tyler, a young artist who is working off his community service time.

The case is laid out and Tyler is set forth to sculpt the Jane Doe from pictures. The girls are set off to locate the finger nail polish and thrift store Jane Doe bought a shirt from, and the investigation is on.

Through a series of clues leading the investigation from a Goth club, an assumed identity, an unfinished tattoo and a sports team with the Blue Devils mascot, the team finally discovers the true identity of Jane Doe: Tracey Benedict.  It appears Tracey ran away from home three years prior.  Her sister kept a record of every time someone called the house and hung up, hoping one was Tracey. The numbers come in handy when they find a call that was placed on the day she died. The number belongs to Jessica, one of the girls from the club. Jessica and Tracey where friends and when Jessica learned Tracey lied about her name and past she snapped and hit her with a tire iron. Psycho! This girl is unstable. The show ended at Tracey’s Funeral, with another voice over by her, thanking the team for finding her name.

During the show when the team was someplace Tracey was before you could see her in black and white, I loved this feature. While the show has an interesting premise, with so little attention to the premiere and a broken home page picture on the ABC website (if ABC can’t bother to remember the show, why should we?), it will be a miracle if this one makes it out of the gate.