In November of 2017, Gone, an adaptation of Chelsea Cain’s novel One Kick, premiered in Australia. The twelve-episode season of the new show follows Kit “Kick” Lannigan, a survivor of a childhood abduction. Several years later, her rescuer, FBI Agent Frank Novak, recruits her to join a special task force dedicated to solving missing persons and abduction cases. The rights to the show were picked up by WGN America in June of 2018. The cast stars Levin Ramblin, Danny Pino, Chris Noth, Tracie Thoms, and Andy Mientus.  

The show helps bring light to the real prominence of abduction or missing persons cases in the United States that tend to be very easily dismissed. While the plotlines of the show phenomenally address these topics, Gone goes the extra mile by airing a public service announcement during each episode in which images of missing persons are flashed on the screen with their name and how long they have been missing. These images help to put the fictitious nature of the show into a real life context.

According to the FBI, there were 424,006 entries into the National Crime Information Center for missing children in 2018 alone. For those over the age of twenty-one, the number of cases filed is close to 161,000.

While the show is meant to be entertaining and has its punchy lines here and there, each episode helps to provide knowledge on the different types of abductions and the very brutal nature of working to solve such cases under a tight time constraint.

Many of the abductees often are hinted at possibly developing PTSD because of the very traumatic nature of their experiences. Ramblin’s character, Kick, faces continual struggles as she confronts her past through working to solve the cases in each episode. In order to get a better understanding of trauma influencing the present, Ramblin worked with a survivor of a childhood abduction, Alicia Kozakiewicz. Her input proved invaluable to developing Kick’s character and understanding her changed outlook on the world as a result of her abduction.

Gone airs Wednesday nights at 8pm central time on WGN America.