Just saw this on HBO. I agree with you about the child abduction story being a page right out of a L&O ep. Not one of the better ep either. I also agree it's a copycat of "Crash". I didn't even like "Crash" and I didn't think "Answers..." came up to "Crash's" knee.
I didn't think the tie-ins worked particularly well. The characters and their stories were not all that interesting, and the tie-ins were pretty loose.
The storyline that bothered me most was the one of the recovering alcoholic caring for her profoundly disabled brother. I figured out from a weak flashback scene in the middle of the marathon that the brother's brain injury resulted from a car accident caused by the sister driving drunk. Apparently that's the motivation for the sister's determination to care for her brother and get him through the marathon. The storyline had a couple of scenes that bugged me. For one, the scene in the bathroom where the sister is giving her brother a bath. Elizabeth Mitchell, the attorney, comes over to discuss the case with her client, Drew, fighting for custody of her brother. Why is it the lawyer just walks into the bathroom? Drew was busy bathing her brother. How did she hear a knock on the door or a bell ring. When did she let Elizabeth Mitchell in? Why would the lawyer just walk into the home of a client, not to mention search the house for her and just walk into the bathroom? Why didn't this bother Drew at all? Who appreciates someone she barely knows walking into her home unannounced and bathing into the bathroom? The scene of Drew bathing her brother was touching, I suppose, but that's not the way a caregiver bathes a disabled adult. The brother is way too big to put in the tub. He would go in a shower chair that wheels into a walk-in shower and he would be washed with a hand-held shower head, or possible be transferred into a bath or shower chair in a tub/shower using a barrier-free transfer that suspends the person from a track on the ceiling. A picky point I know but it bugs me as a person who has given hundreds of baths/showers to a full-grown disabled person who can't stand or sit by himself. The other annoying part of it was the race. After the spillover, Drew stays at the marathon for many hours to complete the race. It's completely dark when she crosses the finish line. What happens to her disabled brother in a those hours. Did she feed him? Was he toileted or diaper-changed? Was his position changed ever to prevent pressure sores?
When? How? Yeah, great caregiver!
The story about the Black TV writer who hates her own race didn't work for me at all. It wasn't believable, and it was resolved way too easily. All the supposed conflicts were resolved too easily and too happily. I never did understand w hy the teacher was so obsessed with the missing girl or how he knew the guy with the big house was the abductor. It also makes no sense to me why, after Eric Palladino (would-be police officer) is shot by the pedophile and dying in the floor he gasps out "Just leave" to the teacher. Why not tell him to search the house. Why wouldn't the teacher think right away to call for an ambulance? I realize it looked bad for Palladino, but you never know. He was still alive. It's worth trying to get help. That whole part was stupid. I never understood the point of Palladino's storyline for that matter. I never understood the point of the lady detective character either. There was nothing compelling to me about the character or her life, and she was ridiculously beautiful for a cop. I think a less flashy looking actress would have been better casting. All in all, I would call it a flop. I would classify as a mediocre Made-for-TV movie pretending to be a lot deeper and more "arty" than it was.
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