That gives “Missing” several things in common with ABC’s breakout hit of the season, “Revenge,” another show approved by the network’s new entertainment president,Paul Lee. They share a theme of vengeance at almost any cost. And Mr. Lee appears to have a taste for prime-time genre fare — soap opera, action thrillers, fantasy, horror — without the jokey, self-reflexive humor of an earlier generation of ABC shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty” and “Pushing Daisies.” To the extent that “Revenge” and “Missing” exhibit senses of humor, the jokes aren’t stitched in but develop naturally out of the sheer preposterousness of the shows’ situations.

It’s amusing, and perhaps a little arousing, to watch Ms. Judd do violent battle in her full-cotton-sweater soccer-mom outfit — pink cardigan, sensible white T-shirt, gray khakis — after her nurturing suburban character, Becca Winstone, has been revealed as a deadly and relentless former C.I.A. officer. (The show, scheduled for just 10 episodes, doesn’t waste time, pulling the curtain back within 15 minutes of the pilot.) At several points she’s delivering roundhouse kicks and running down European alleys in comically tall wedge sandals, a domesticated version of Angelina Jolie in stilettos.

“Missing,” created by the screenwriter Gregory Poirier (“National Treasure: Book of Secrets”), isn’t a particularly good show. The dialogue is mostly wooden, and the plot, through two episodes, is standard spy-story stuff. It doesn’t try for anything like the juicy excess of “Revenge,” and it has no sheerly enjoyable performance like Gabriel Mann’s as that show’s needy billionaire.

But it has its pleasures and grace notes, like those practical yet impractical sandals, or Becca’s taking time out from grilling her son’s Italian girlfriend to lecture her about the evils of smoking. (When the woman says that he left her because he was “just like all the other American boys,” Becca knows he’s been kidnapped — because of course her son is not like all the other American boys.)

The fights and action sequences are good by TV standards, and there’s a bit of classic international thriller ambiance, courtesy of location filming in the Czech Republic and a few scenes that actually appear to have been shot in Rome and Paris.

Mostly it has Ms. Judd, who, with a mightily clenched jaw and the help of some excellent stunt doubles, is surprisingly credible as a starched, middle-aged action figure battling unknown kidnappers, every intelligence agency in Europe, her former C.I.A. handlers and, most critically, her own maternal instincts, which alternately help and hinder her. It’s a buttoned-down but oddly moving performance not quite like anything else on television at the moment, and it might be enough to pull you through 10 episodes of formulaic mayhem.

Missing

ABC, Thursday nights at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.