Alert: MPU’s “Two Dads” Gimmick & Nikki Erasure Proves It Has Lost the Plot (and Our Respect)

By now, we can safely say that Alert: Missing Persons Unit isn’t just grappling with Nikki Batista’s death –it’s experiencing the series’ slow, painful unraveling.

What even is this show anymore?

Since the abrupt and bizarre decision to kill off Dania Ramirez’s Nikki, Alert: MPU has seemed lost in another identity crisis. The unfortunate truth is that this time, it probably won’t recover.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering why someone who hasn’t covered the series consistently for some time is still whining about it so much.

But it’s positively maddening how Alert: MPU started with a relatively interesting premise (although it still pales compared to Found), and then opted to revamp it twice.

Perhaps I’m in the minority on this, but I enjoyed Alert: MPU Season 1 in large part because of the familial element at its center and an elite team of quirky individuals solving cases of missing persons.

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The Keith mystery had an interesting enough hook that I wanted to see more, especially the aftermath of the truth blowing up their lives.

But Alert: MPU Season 2 never delivered on the aftermath part, and the family element took a frustrating backseat — or rather, it disappeared offscreen altogether.

And not only that, but one of the series’ biggest selling points — the chemistry between Nikki and Jay — vanished in the sophomore season as well.

By that second season, Alert: MPU felt like another run-of-the-mill procedural that occasionally had some strong cases.

But it notably shifted focus, dropping characters like C, sidelining Nikki inexplicably, and honing in on the buddy-cop dynamic forming between Jay and Mike.

As a result, while I found the shift to completely prioritizing that dynamic disappointing in this new season, it was far from a surprise. They telegraphed what they were doing with those two for some time now.

However, that never should’ve resulted in Nikki losing space in her own narrative and series. It warranted a deeper dive and comparison to another female character.

The thing is, Alert: MPU didn’t just unceremoniously kill off their female lead, but for those of us following along with the series in the aftermath of that disorienting choice, it feels like they’ve virtually erased her, too.

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The real insult isn’t just Nikki’s death — it’s the show’s failure to acknowledge her absence with even a shred of emotional depth.

Jason, who once seemed deeply in love with his ex-wife, reacts with baffling detachment. Mike has a few passing moments of grief that feel obligatory more than impactful.

As for their daughter, Sidney? It’s gotten weirder.

Instead of letting her grieve or process her mother’s murder, the show turns her arc into a cringeworthy “My Two Dads” subplot with Mike and Jay, complete with repeated, painfully unfunny jokes about being “Dad One” and “Dad Two.”

It serves as another reminder that, regardless of whatever occurred behind the scenes resulting in Dania Ramirez’s exit, Alert didn’t handle its female lead with any semblance of care and didn’t consider the viewers.

They’ve committed to this new buddy-cop dynamic agenda and have done so with the subtlety of a jackhammer.

But the execution is so poor and awkward that it’s becoming challenging to watch. Whether you loved Nikki’s character or had little interest in her, it’s hard for a viewer to wrap one’s head around how carelessly and callously they’ve cast her aside and seemingly gone to great lengths to erase her from every aspect of the series.

The work bit is bad enough, but where it really stings is with the home life.

It’s almost as if Nikki was never there to begin with — and positioning Sidney as a young woman about to embark on a journey of motherhood without the woman who raised her should’ve been a great storyline for the series.

However, even that has little to do with Nikki and her death, but rather it centers on Jay and Mike (when they didn’t bypass Nikki for her birth mother, that is). There isn’t much space for Sidney to reconcile with how her mother’s death happened at a critical time in her life, which is hard.

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Instead, we have Jay and Mike bickering over what their grandchild will call them.

I get that Alert: MPU is trying to maintain its humor, but as it stands, with each episode, the series only proves how it lost sight of itself and is terrible at handling female characters.

Nikki barely feels like a blip on the radar of this series despite her previous significance.

They’ve also taken to sidelining Kemi, and Wayne has no semblance of presence or importance beyond being Jay’s mostly offscreen girlfriend.

But as long as Jay and Mike get to be cute besties and platonic soulmates, that’s all that matters, right?

Am I alone in feeling this way? Please let me know below!

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