Sundays on USA Network are going to be exciting yet bittersweet this summer. Although fans definitely appreciate having fresh installments of both Law & Order: Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight to watch, the first crime drama will be presenting its 10th and too-short final season of just eight episodes.

The summer fun begins tonight, May 1, at 9pm ET with much-missed detectives Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) and Bobby Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) investigating on the “Rispetto” season premiere of the Law & Order spinoff. Actor Jay Mohr (Gary Unmarried, Ghost Whisperer) guest stars.

In Plain Sight follows in the 10pm time slot with its Season 4 premiere “The Art of the Steal.” Since the newer series has a total of 13 episodes during the current run, fans will get to watch it a bit longer in coming weeks. We’ll take what we can get of both shows.

Finally, what fans have been awaiting for months. USA Network has at last scheduled the season premieres of crime series In Plain Sight and Law & Order: Criminal Intent for the lovely month of May.

Both shows are now joined at the time slot and will return on Sunday, May 1. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, back for its tenth and last season of eight episodes with original series stars Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe thankfully in place, starts the night off at 9pm ET.

In Plain Sight follows on Sundays at 10pm with 13 episodes in its fourth season. The show’s third season ended abruptly three episodes early at the end of June 2010 due to showrunner John McNamara‘s leave for medical reasons, so many viewers will be that much more happy to see Mary, Marshall and Stan in action again.

Welcome back to both missed series. Spring is looking better already.

USA Network crime dramedy In Plain Sight closes its third season three episodes early tonight, June 30, with the 10pm ET finale “A Priest Walks into a Bar.”

Many viewers who have been following the show during its current run will probably agree with me that the series has been far better than expected, based on its already enjoyable earlier two seasons. So, USA Network’s decision to end the present season at 13 episodes instead of the originally planned 16 installments is understandable yet disappointing all the same.

The reason for the shortening is the medical leave of absence that executive producer and showrunner John McNamara required. Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery.

Season Three’s finale involves a priest who saw a stripper get killed and then has difficulty cutting ties with the victim’s family after entering witness protection. Meanwhile, Stan has a hard time telling a woman about her dead father who was a former witness, Brandi and Peter decided to live together, and Jinx returns.

Enjoy three sneak peeks at “A Priest Walks into a Bar” below before the full episode airs. The episode reportedly ends with a cliffhanger that will virtually ensure fans — and the show — will come back. Good.

USA Network is really keeping the original series coming these days now that it has so many in the stable. When one ends a half-season, another one is just around the corner. Case in point: In Plain Sight, the Mary McCormack U.S. Marshal crime dramedy, which begins its third season tonight, March 31, at 10pm ET.

The first fresh episode of 2010 is “Father Goes West,” guest starring Donnie Wahlberg (Runaway, The Kill Point, Boomtown) of New Kids on the Block boy band fame.

It’s been so long since the show’s August 2009 second-season finale “Don’t Cry for Me Albuquerque” I can barely remember what last happened to main character Mary Shannon (McCormack). But I know the episode ended with a gunshot wound for the heroine, and she’s recently discharged from the hospital when the new season gets underway.

So, while Mary — being her usual “let’s get the job done” self — returns to work right away, her partner Marshall preoccupies himself with trying to figure out who shot her. Mary has a lot to keep her busy, too, since her latest case involves a witness who may have gone back to his criminal ways.

Sneak a peek at “Father Goes West” in the following preview video. If you’re a Breaking Bad fanatic, as am I, you’ll have no problem recognizing the bald, heavily tattooed baddie “chatting” with Marshall.

That’s fantastic actor Luis Moncada reprising his “Don’t Cry for Me Albuquerque” role as Lala. He also happens to play one of the silent, sinister, and severely deadly “cousins” on the current season of AMC’s hit meth dramedy. Recognizing him makes me twice as eager to check out In Plain Sight‘s season premiere.

Surely fans saw this coming. USA Network has announced that sophomore crime dramedy In Plain Sight will return to the small screen for a third season. This news follows closely on the heels of the network’s decision to pick up fellow dramedies Burn Notice and Royal Pains for additional seasons, as well.

As The Hollywood Reporter accurately notes, the In Plain Sight development and probable Law & Order: Criminal Intent pickup means that USA Network has renewed each and every one of its currently airing series, “an impossible feat” for either a broadcast or cable network.

Good for USA Network and the shows. There’s a reason why I and many others watch all of them, and the proof is in the series’ excellent ratings.

USA Network’s entertaining U.S. Marshal dramedy In Plain Sight kicked off its current second season on April 19. The series stars Mary McCormack (The West Wing, Murder One) as central character Mary Shannon, but longtime fans realize her trusted partner Marshall Mann — yours truly’s favorite character — is just as integral to the show’s impressive success.

Stage veteran Fred Weller (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Missing Persons) is the talented actor who brings Marshall to life during each episode, and as the following interview demonstrates, the real man behind the fictional marshal seems just as fun — and funny — off-screen as his alter ego definitely is on-screen. How cool is that?

How is the overall tone of In Plain Sight‘s second season different from Season One?

FRED WELLER: Well, the drama is ratcheting up between— You’ll see the Mary/Marshall drama increase. Raphael (Cristián de la Fuente) figures very largely. Probably bigger. Raphael probably is bigger this season, whereas last season, I think Mary’s mom (Lesley Ann Warren) was sort of more a key figure, and Brandi (Nichole Hiltz). I think Raphael, in this season, is going to be a bigger component. Without giving anything away, some big events will go down.

How is Mary’s post-traumatic stress affecting Marshall?

FRED WELLER: Well, it’s one more occasion to evoke Marshall’s affection for her, his simmering romantic feelings. In a way, it helps him to be able to be there for her and to try to strengthen the bond between them, but it also concerns him because he is truly concerned about her well being and does want the best for her.

But it enables them to bond and enables him to come in and try to be the knight in shining armor. It’s right up his alley. He dabbles in psychology. He dabbles in every other field. He’s ever the dilettante, so it enables them to bond. So, like, of course, there’s good and bad for Marshall.

Speaking of his feelings for her, how does Marshall feel towards Raphael?

FRED WELLER: He feels competitive towards him. On the one hand, I think he’s also somewhat dismissive of him. I don’t think he takes their relationship seriously.

Raphael is a big, handsome guy, so there is a lot to be jealous of. But he’s a nice guy, so Marshall’s— Whatever resentments and jealousies he has — and he does have them — he’s got to keep a lid on them. He’s got to keep them repressed.

How will Marshall and Dershowitz’s relationship evolve this season?

FRED WELLER: They will become closer. You’ll find out— Well, I think we, actually, you already saw on the first episode that Marshall and Dershowitz (Todd Williams) bonded over the near-death experience. They’re hanging out a lot, but we’ll actually take a road trip to Philadelphia to help out, in an unofficial capacity, an aging mobster go back to his son’s funeral, and that mobster will be played by Martin Landau.

So, Todd and I had quite a great episode together, working with Martin Landau, who’s an amazing person and really loves to socialize and tell stories about all the many great directors he’s worked with. So, that was a wonderful experience.

How fun is it playing not just any old lawman but a U.S. Marshal? Have you learned anything that helps you in your real life?

FRED WELLER: It’s really fun to play a lawman who, in theory, has jurisdiction anywhere in the country. Also, an undercover lawman is, I think, an especially cool thing to play because you’ve got an inherent inner— Well, not a conflict, but an interesting dynamic that you are enforcing the law but, at the same time, trying to appear like you’re not.

Our technical advisor, who is the head of WitSec in California, is on the set every day now, and one of his favorite reminders is that you’re always scanning the horizon for danger. In fact, we poke fun at him whenever he walks over to the set. We just say, “ABS, ABS,” which stands for “always be scanning.”

I don’t know if I’ve learned anything I’ve applied to my life. My life is pretty safe. I don’t have too many run-ins with unsavory characters, but when I do, I plan to really scan the hell out of them.

We know tons about Mary and her family but very little about Marshall. Are you just as in the dark about his background, or do you know some details you can share with us?

FRED WELLER: Well, I’d love to see more on the air. We think about it and secretly joke on the set about what his apartment must look like with all his myriad interests. We hypothesize about what musical instrument he plays. There must be one, and it must be weird. I’m thinking the bassoon, sometimes a French horn. Does he have a bird? I don’t know.

I do conjecture about his family life. All we know about his family life is he is a fifth generation U.S. Marshal. I imagine his father was a hard-ass and his mother was an intellectual, but this is just conjecture.

The creator might decide something else, something I think is even better. He never ceases to surprise and amaze, I think, with his ideas. He’s a great writer, David Maples, and I’m sure what we do learn about Marshall’s personal life, it’ll be interesting.

What scenario would you like to see Marshall in that he’s not been in yet?

FRED WELLER: Well, I’d like to meet his parents, or one of them. But David likes the mystery of Marshall. He’s said as much. He likes to just discover little tidbits of weirdness that emerge through the course of the story, rather than making the story about Marshall.

But I’m sure at some point we’ll see a little more about where he comes from. He claims to have gone to college at the University of Albuquerque and to have been the star of the badminton team there, for example. Does that mean he’s from Albuquerque? I don’t know. I’ll have to sit down and just write out everything that we know about him sometime and his various interests.

How does this role challenge you?

FRED WELLER: Well, it’s challenging for the same reason that it’s fun in that it requires comedic and emotional ability. Now, my emotions are not as … as frequently as are Mary’s. Her character is in emotional turmoil much of the time. But at least a couple times a season, and certainly more times this season than last, Marshall is in some kind of emotional turmoil. And any time that you’re asked as an actor to exhibit some state that is out of control or should appear out of control, it’s a little more challenging.

And then I think comedy is an exacting science. You don’t want to blow the humor if it’s there. If you do it wrong, it’s either funny or it’s not. So, the fact that it’s a little, has comedy and emotion, is what makes it rich, and it’s also what makes it challenging. You don’t want to disappoint. You don’t want to when you’ve got such great material. It’s important to rise to it and get it right.

You mentioned Marshall being a bit of a dilettante. Which of his many interests is your personal favorite and why.

FRED WELLER: Well, let’s see. I suppose my favorite would be his medical ability because it’s so far removed from anything I can do. The fact that he can patch up his own bullet wound to his lung, it’s an interest that I think would be useful, and it’s removed from my own fields of interests.

I’m a little more of a music and literature person. My big brother is a man of science, an electrical engineer, and I always really admired him growing up. He had this strange capacity that didn’t seem to come from anyone in the family.

It was just something that he was born with, and he was always intrigued by how things worked and just had an aptitude for it. And everybody else in the family is basically literature and arts. So, that, to me, is fun because I get to pretend that I have that aptitude.

How did you get the part of Marshall? Did you audition, or were you given the part?

FRED WELLER: No, I auditioned. In fact, I went to Los Angeles for pilot season. I had been in New York, and I still live in New York. And for years, I had been avoiding going out to Los Angeles for pilot season because it’s quite a grind. You audition for five TV shows a day.

And so I’d been doing mostly theater and indie film out of New York, and I hadn’t been for pilot season in, I don’t know, six, seven years. And so I just went out, and it went well for me.

And this was the best pilot that I read, and I was fortunate enough to go to network for, I think, half a dozen people wanted me to go. So, this was, I think, the second thing I went for, and I was very excited to get it because, well, it’s not your average TV show.

Do you have any other projects coming up?

FRED WELLER: No, not really. I’m putting together, I’m editing a short film that I wrote and directed, with Mary actually acting in it. Mary and I both act in it, and [I'm] putting it together and now I’m hopefully going to submit it to festivals. That’s all I’ve got right now. I believe it’s going to be called The Sheriff of King’s County.

Have you brought your kids to the set, and do you have any interesting tales from their adventures there?

FRED WELLER: I brought my daughter to the set a few times. She’s not yet as sophisticated as Mary’s kids around the set. Mary’s kids will actually say, “Shh, we’re rolling.” She’s not really at that level. Let me see. Do I have any child-related anecdotes? Gosh, maybe one will come to me. She—

Well, she’s a little bit of a social butterfly, something that I want to nip in the bud if I can. I’m hoping to eventually groom her into a very bookish child who doesn’t date boys at all, but, at the moment, she loves just being around crowds of people.

So, that was basically my experience of her being on the set. [It] was just one more setting in which I was concerned that she might get to be popular in school, and I want to avoid that at all costs. She just loves crowds and people, and she seems most content when she’s away from home and around a bunch of people who aren’t her parents.

Does that mean you’d shy away from letting her have an acting career?

FRED WELLER: I’m going to try to keep the secret from her that I’m an actor at all. It’s going to be tough. Obviously, you want to have publicity as an actor, but I’m going to try to persuade her I’m a professor of something. Maybe, I don’t know, something really nerdy [like] comparative literature. I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet. I’ve got to figure it out before she really masters the alphabet.

Make room for In Plain Sight‘s second season, starting tonight at 10pm ET. The witness-protection crime dramedy proved an immediate and solid hit for USA Network after introducing viewers to lead character Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) last June, and the first two episodes of the new season indicate the show is destined for more ratings glory during its sophomore run of 16 episodes.

Continuing a storyline started in the series premiere involving Mary’s visiting sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) and her big ol’ suitcase full of drugs, the rookie season ended with a frightening kidnapping — where one victim was Mary herself — and a dead man on Mary’s hands. Fittingly, the Season Two premiere “Gilted Lily” begins right after those events occurred, which is always a welcome way to kick things off — no wondering what happened between then and now.

As fans already know, Mary is a dedicated U.S. Marshal who gets results on the job, despite the perpetual conflicts with her family, mother Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren) and sibling Brandi, and her significant other Raphael (Cristián de la Fuente). Just when you think things can’t get any worse, however, a necessary act leads to mandatory administrative leave until a psychological evaluation deems you fit for active duty.

The forced vacation is why Mary’s partner Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller) heads the investigation when one of her witnesses is murdered, resigning Mary to the observer backseat after her understanding boss Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor) allows her to tag along.

As it happens, the case — which concerns a scummy biker, events from 17 years ago, and some hidden plunder — isn’t that interesting or action-packed. It’s the wry interaction between frazzled Mary, suffering from post-traumatic stress, and the other characters, including Holly Maples‘s new office assistant Eleanor, that makes the episode worth watching. Glad to have the show back for the warmer months.

The second season of In Plain Sight, USA Network’s most recent runaway dramedy hit, begins this Sunday, April 19, at 10pm ET, with the premiere episode “Gilted Lily.”

To help the show’s many fans get ready for the latest adventures of U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack)), series star Cristián de la Fuente recently took the time to answer writers’ questions, all the way from his native country Chile. How’s that for dedication and graciousness?

Continue below to learn what’s on the horizon for de la Fuente’s character Raphael Ramirez during the new season, as well as a bit about the actor’s background. If you think Raphael is a great guy, just wait to you read how great the man who brings him to life is, too.

How did you come to get this part and why did you decide you were going to take it?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: I auditioned for it, and my agent sent me the script, and I read it and I loved it. But Raphael was first written as Devin and was supposed to be an American. And I called my agent and I said, “You know, I love this role. Can you call them and see if they could see me, because you know I think I can play this role?”

Besides, nowadays if you look at all the baseball players, probably 70 percent of them have Latino names. So, then it’s not a big stretch to go from Raphael Ramirez to Latino.

But I said, like, maybe let’s try to give it a shot. And then I got this job, and then they changed it from Devin to Raphael because it had to be more believable than me named Devin. I don’t think it would have worked.

What do you like most about your character?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: Raphael, I think, goes against all the stereotypes. It’s like he’s not the typical Latin lover. He’s not the typical Latino. As a joke always I think we’ve made history in television and film, because on the last episode of the first season, on the season finale, I think it’s the first time that you see a Latino character with a lot of kilograms of drugs and instead of starting dealing them, he threw them away.

I think that’s the first time that’s happened in TV, that Latinos are not portrayed as drug dealers, but people that you know they have good hearts and they want the best for their family and their loved ones. And I think that’s the beauty about Raphael. He’s really in love with Mary and he’s a nice guy, and I think he’s going to do always the right thing, and it’s great to play those kinds of roles nowadays.

Do you ever get to offer input on your character?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: We do a meeting before the season. We meet with all the writers, and there are a lot of things about myself that are in the character. And one of the things that I really appreciate and I’m very thankful for from the show and especially from David Maples, the creator, is that in many jobs that I’ve done, they always say, “Okay, you have to take care of your accent.” And I can work on it. I can go to an accent coach and speak more Mexican or speak less Mexican or speak normal or try to even do a neutral.

In this case, In Plain Sight, David was like, “No, you can embrace your accent.” And even though there are some episodes that other characters— Like, especially Brandi, played by Nichole Hiltz. She makes fun of my accent and she doesn’t understand some of the things that I’m trying to say. I was able to embrace that and to let it go and be more natural instead of trying to hide it. That’s something that I really appreciate from the show and from David especially.

What has been your favorite scene to film so far, either past or future that we haven’t seen yet?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: Well, from the first season, there was this scene in the last episode when I go to Mary’s house and I’m drunk. And I’m trying to convince her to have a better relationship with her sister, with Brandi. That scene I think especially was challenging because to play drunk is tough, and also it was very emotional.

And on this season, there was a very beautiful scene in one of the episodes towards the middle of the season where I proposed again, and where I explain to Mary why I want to marry her and why I feel the way I feel towards her. I think that was really nice, mostly like the scenes when the character is vulnerable. I think those are beautiful scenes that you can really open yourself and do a better job.

What’s the biggest difference between the first and the second season, either with the show on the whole or just in your character and your relationship with Mary?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: Well, with my character, he’s going to switch his career. He’s going to start working with something different. And in the relationship with Mary, we’ll get to a point that Mary’s going to have to decide if she wants to get married to Raphael or not. So, I think those are two big changes that is going to happen to Raphael in the relationship and to Mary also.

Where are you hoping to see Mary and Raphael’s relationship go? Are we going to see him kind of run out of patience with her indecision with things?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: Mary’s very hard to deal with — Mary the character. Because Mary McCormack, I love her.

I also love the other one in different ways. But Raph would like to marry her and have a family, but it’s tough. Mary is hard to get, and she’s a little bit afraid of commitment. In the ideal world, which doesn’t exist, not even in fiction, Raphael would like to marry her and have children and be happy. But he’s going to try to do everything in his power, and hopefully Mary’s going to try to do something, too.

Mary is very headstrong, confident, independent. Raphael really loves Mary, but do you think that marrying Mary would ultimately be good for Raphael?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: I don’t know what’s really going happen in the future because one of the things that David likes to do is keep the show like real life.

We kind of have an idea what’s going to happen tomorrow, but we really don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and the same thing happens in the show. We kind of have an idea what’s going to happen in the next episode, but we have no idea really what’s going to happen.

I think Raphael really wants to marry Mary, but in order for that to happen, Mary would have to change. And I don’t think she’s really willing to do it. Because many times in relationships — and that has happened to me myself in personal life — we fall in love with somebody, and there are things we don’t like about that person and hope that they’re going to change at sometime and it never happens.

That, at the end of the day, is the reason why you end up breaking up with them. So, I learned that the things that you don’t like about somebody, they have to really be so little that you’re willing to live the rest of your life with them.

That’s what needs to happen. At this moment, the things that really bother Raphael about Mary are not that big, and at the end of the day, he knows that she’s this beautiful, sensitive woman under that tough uniform and the tough job and the tough personality. So, if she allows [herself] to be loved, then I think they can be really happy.

How did you get started in acting?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: I got started 17 years ago in Chile, where I am right now. Thanks to the technology, I’m having this conference from Chile.

I’ve always wanted to be an actor, and my dad wanted me to be a civil engineer because actors don’t make money here in Chile. They don’t ride in limousines and live in big mansions. Actors here, we live in normal houses, and sometimes there are actors that have to ride the bus because they don’t have a car. You do this because you love it. It’s not, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to get to make $20 million a picture.” So my dad was really afraid of me being an actor.

But then I got to a point that I decided, “Why am I going to be an engineer if that’s not what I really love to do?” And that’s when I decided to go to a network and apply for a job doing a show, and I was part of the show. And then after that, they offered me the option of studying [acting] all the afternoons while I was working in the mornings, and I did that. And that was how it really started.

Did your father ever turn around and become proud of you? What does he think now?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: I think one of the biggest compliments that I had from my father was the day that he died. He was in his bed, he was sick, and they asked him, “Do you want me to turn the TV off?” And he said, “No, I want to watch Cristiàn and then I want to fall asleep.”

So, he watched my show, then he turned off the TV and he passed away. So, I think that, at the end of the day, was the biggest compliment that I can have from my father.

Do you have any new projects coming up?

CRISTIÁN DE LA FUENTE: Not yet. My biggest project after the show is done is vacation with my wife and my daughter, try to spend some time with them, because, thank God, I’ve been working a lot.

And then start looking for the next one. Try to see if we can squeeze in a movie or two and keep our fingers crossed and hopefully have a third season of In Plain Sight. But that depends on the viewers. So, hopefully, they’ll watch the show, they will like it, and then we’ll have a third season.

USA’s Newest Dramedy Is Here

If you’re into USA Network’s entertaining lineup of crime dramedies, don’t forget there’s a new one, In Plain Sight, scheduled to premiere tonight with West Wing alum Mary McCormack in the lead role.