Walter Sherman's life was devoted to the military until an explosion took it all away. Once known as a solider who could find the most elusive of insurgents in Iraq, Walter (Geoff Stults, J. Edgar) finds himself taking up residence at the End of the World bar in sunny Florida to start a new life in FOX's Thursday drama, The Finder.
His pre-accident talent of rooting out insurgents receives a brain-injury-induced upgrade and transforms him into a man who can find anything from missing people to trinkets lost decades ago. Don't worry though, it's not as mystical as it sounds – it's just another eccentric detective working outside the system and asking the right questions.
In the super-saturated market of sleuth dramas, The Finder's creator, Hart Hanson (Bones), roots around the Florida Keys to put together his very own island of misfit toys. Leo Knox (Michael Clarke Duncan, Green Lantern), a once heartless lawyer turned gentle giant, serves as Walter's right hand man while Deputy U.S. Marshal Isabel Zambada (Mercedes Masohn, Common Law) adds the obligatory sexual tension. Meanwhile, gypsy and juvenile delinquent Willa Monday (Maddie Hasson, God Bless America) wrestles with the idea of serving out her court-ordered parole work at End of the World or disappearing back into the criminal underworld.
Although introduced in last spring's self-titled episode of Bones, Finder should not be viewed as an uncreative knock-off of its relative, as is the case with the CSI and Law and Order franchises. Instead, Hanson creates a new universe that relies on an intellect different than that of physical anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan from Bones.
Despite similarities in character personality between the two shows – Walter now plays the quirky social inept and Isabel embodies the justice seeking agent – Finder relies less on standard procedure and tangible evidence. Stults brings to life the unique character of a man marred by a past life he can never recapture who uses a combination of intellect, illuminating dreams and reckless fearlessness to find a new purpose for living.
Hampered by a slow-moving initial episode, The Finder must rely on the lure of its complicated character's slowly unraveling personalities to keep potential fans tuning in. Entering the line up midway through the standard season, the series only has a short time to establish the rating needed to hold onto its competitive time slot. With a basic premise that has seen the screen before, Hart Hanson needs to trawl the depths to turn this detective drama into a more compelling series.
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