I haven’t done any reviews lately, not so much be because of disinterest, but because I haven’t found much worthy of review. Luckily, that has changed.
From the creative mind of Hart Hanson, and a spinoff of sorts from his popular Bones series, comes The Finder. I say spinoff of sorts because the characters only appeared in a single episode and it’s hard to imagine two series with less to do with each other. In fact, were it not for a crossover visit in the second episode of Dr. Lance Sweet, you’d never know they were supposedly related. Honestly, I hope the two shows don’t cross very often because I’d rather forget that there is a Bones connection and just enjoy Finder on it’s own.
The Finder stars Geoff Stults as the war-injured Iraq vet, Walter Sherman, who, due to a brain injury, has compulsions to find things. If he takes a case, he won’t stop looking until he finds it or he dies trying. He also seems to have a distinct lack of tact, in a very humorous way, he says what he’s thinking, often without regard for how it may be taken. It’s honesty taken to a funny extreme and I appreciate that. It co-stars Michael Clarke Duncan as the former lawyer, Leo Knox, who left the practice and bought a bar after his family was killed. He plays the straight man who appreciates Walter’s brilliance, but tries to keep him under control. Mercedes Mashon plays Deputy U.S. Marshal Isabel Zambada, their legal contact, who sometimes comes to Walter for advice and help, and who between the two, something deeper clearly exists. Finally is Maddie Hasson, playing Willa Monday, the juvenile delinquent gypsy who Leo “hires” to keep out of juvenile detention. She’s rude, crass and would steal Walter and Leo blind at the beginning of the series, but as time has gone on, she’s realized she really does care about them, more than she lets on.
Now, I do like Bones. It’s not my favorite, but it’s consistently enjoyable. The Finder, though, is really good, exactly the kind of show I really enjoy most. It reminds me, in some ways, of a short-lived Jeff Donovan vehicle Touching Evil, about a detective who suffered a brain injury and as a result, lost a lot of his impulse control and was deadly honest with people, while having an incredible ability to solve crimes.
I think the reason I like this show, like Touching Evil, is that it demonstrates how far observation and logic can take someone. In both cases, the heroes had excellent observational skills, they picked up on the small details and were able to build logical cases based on those details that solved crimes. They were able to think their way through the problems and are always shown on-screen how their logic works. That’s impressive. They don’t just pull solutions out of their asses, there is always a method to their madness and it’s consistently intellectual. It’s a lot better than most shows where the heroes just stumble across the solutions by dumb luck week after week.
I also like the fact that Walter, for whatever his faults, is a truly likeable guy. He comes off as honorable and honest. He could easily be written as a creep, given his “problems”, but he’s not, he’s a really nice person, someone I could see myself liking as a friend. That’s rare on television. Even among the Bones crew, there really isn’t anyone I could say I’d want to know in real life, they all are creeps to some degree or another.
The Finder has 13 episodes as a mid-season replacement and I hope it goes on for many, many seasons to come. This is a show that’s fun to watch, clearly has a close-knit family feel with characters that are just downright nice. I highly recommend it.