Searching for Runaways on A&E

Joe Mazzilli emerges as a new super hero in A&E’s new series Runaway Squad, which has its debut Monday.
Mazzilli, a former New York City detective, once headed up the pimp squad, busting guys who pushed young women into prostitution. The experience stuck with him and now, as a private investigator, he helps families search for their missing children on a pro bono basis.
On the premiere, a Long Island girl is missing and the cops don’t seem to care much. Mazzilli steps in. He and his crew search for clues and discover the girl has joined a gang and is turning tricks.
An imposing figure himself in a black sleeveless muscle shirt, Mazilli confronts the gang members. He tells them to return the girl to her family, or he’ll be back.
The New York Times compares Runaway Squad to WE’s Locator in a review today.
“The contrast is embodied in the show’s stars, the chief investigators of these made-for-television missing-persons teams. Joe Mazzilli of “Runaway Squad” is an intimidating former New York cop who stalks nighttime Brooklyn wearing a sleeveless muscle-T in search of a girl “turned out” to prostitution by a local gang. Troy Dunn of “The Locator” is a dapper Ben Affleck look-alike who jets around the Sun Belt— his constant air travel is a recurring motif — tracking down children, parents or siblings who have been separated for years, usually because someone was given up for adoption,” write Mike Hale of the Times.
“At heart, though, Mr. Mazzilli and Mr. Dunn are in the same business, which is making people cry — both on screen and, if they’re doing their jobs right, in the audience. Both operate not just as investigator-hosts but also as amateur sociologists and therapists. And they’re willing to use any amount of psychological manipulation — grim and earnest in Mr. Mazzilli’s case, bland and salesmanlike in Mr. Dunn’s — to push their targets toward their appointed reunions.”
Check out Runaway Squad Monday night at 10 p.m. ET and tell us what you think.