Inside the Emotional Heartbeat of “Tracker”with Justin Hartley and Showrunner Elwood Reid

The TV landscape is crowded with procedurals, but Tracker stands apart—not just for its rugged action sequences or weekly mysteries, but for the deep emotional undercurrent that runs through its storytelling. In a recent interview with In Creative Company, actor and executive producer Justin Hartley and showrunner Elwood Reid offered a candid and fascinating look at how they’ve built Tracker into something more than a standard case-of-the-week series.

At the core of Tracker is Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who travels the country solving disappearances. Hartley, who plays Colter, was immediately drawn to the character’s rich internal world drawn from Jeffery Deaver’s novels. “There’s a complexity and a deep well to pull from,” Hartley said, explaining how he and Reid worked to bring that nuance to screen—especially the character’s habit, from the books, of calculating probabilities and scenarios in his head.. “We found a way to show him thinking, without making him look like a psychopath,” Hartley joked.

One of the most powerful dynamics on set is the creative shorthand between Hartley and Reid. “He knows where the emotional beats are without me having to say it,” Reid shared. That trust has led to a storytelling style that prioritizes subtlety. In Tracker, silence speaks louder than words.Reid emphasized how rare it is in network television to lean so heavily on visual storytelling and internal performance. “We script the quiet moments,” he said. “Justin can carry emotion just sitting in front of a mountain with a beer. And the audience leans in for it.”

Though Tracker is packed with suspense and physical danger, both Hartley and Reid are committed to keeping it grounded. Colter gets hurt. He fails. He doesn’t always win. “We’re constantly reminding the audience that he’s not a superhero,” Reid explained. That human fragility is intentional. Hartley pointed out, “The show’s not just about solving the case. It’s about the cost of doing so.”

One of the most compelling themes of the conversation was how little is sometimes needed to say a lot. Reid and Hartley both resist over-explaining through exposition. Instead, they aim for what Reid calls “lean-in television,” where the viewer is discovering clues and emotions alongside the character. “If Colter’s ahead of the audience, it’s only by 0.5 seconds,” Hartley said.

Though each episode of Tracker resolves a specific mystery, Hartley and Reid are playing the long game with Colter’s emotional arc. His past, particularly his relationship with his survivalist father and mysterious family trauma, slowly unfolds. “The biggest mystery is who Colter really is,” Reid said. “And when we fully answer that, the show will be over.”

Their shared goal is to reveal his inner life incrementally—earning each emotional beat. “You get to the season finale and see him crack in a way he never has before,” Hartley recalled. “And you realize—we earned that.”

Watch the full conversation below:

Q&A on the CBS series Tracker with actor & executive producer Justin Hartley and showrunner & executive producer Elwood Reid. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.

Colter Shaw travels the country in his old-school RV, helping police and private citizens solve crimes and locate missing persons--until his latest case changes everything.