You may ask, "What is good about Tracy?" She does have her share of detractors, and some consider her a brainless twit. I think this is short-sighted, superficial sort of judgment. The following is a list of reasons why I like and admire Tracy Vetter, complete with visual and audio aides.
So Tracy Vetter has her inexperience, her sex, the ghost of Don Schanke, and the specter of her father all stacked against her. Does she throw her hands in the air and give up? No Way!!!
Instead, she rolls with the punches, like in
She is a woman working in a male-dominated
field. Furthermore, she's just been promoted to Detective
status and has a new job in Homicide, no less. She's under pressure to learn the ropes of her new job: which forms to use in the never-ending paperwork, understanding the abilities and
limitations of all of her co-workers as well as her own, and
knowing which questions to ask and how to ask them appropriately.
Tracy replaced Nick Knight's well-loved, trusted and talented
partner, Donald Schanke, when he was killed in a plane bombing. That is a difficult and awkward situation for anyone to find themselves in. To make matters worse, she is under above-average scrutiny because her father is a Police Commissioner. Any mistakes, and any commendable work Tracy does becomes overshadowed by thoughts of nepotism. Tracy constantly fights this stereotype, and her main weapon is her streak of independence. This is my favorite Tracy character trait, the one that gets her into the most trouble, and in the end, it is her fatal flaw. I can't help but like her when she says, "If I impress my father, it'll be because of something that I've done. Thank you." (You can download this .wav here. It's about 45K) She wants her admiration the old-fashioned way - when she earns it.
My Boyfriend Is A Vampire, when Nick
mercilessly teases her about joining the studio
audience of a TV talk-fest,The Jerry Show,
and Captain Reese doesn't act much better.
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