I went to check out some recent episodes of Bones and the oldest one on the On Demand selection was a repeat from early 2011. I hadn't seen it so I put it on. Turned out to be the backdoor pilot for The Finder. It's a new some odd ball characters solve a mystery type program from Hart Hanson the creator of Bones. Brennen and Booth are in the Everglades where there's a bunch of bones to look at. They find out they need to find a old map to find the killer and Booth knows a guy in the area who finds things. So they go see Walter. He's the guy in the middle, Geoff Stults as Walter Sherman, an ex-miltary guy who was blown up overseas. He survived and now he has some finding powers or some such. He's quirky and all that. I liked his character well enough. He's personable. Michael Clarke Duncan plays Leo Knox, Walter's lawyer and best pal. I'm a big fan of MCD, I just enjoy watching him, he's just a great actor and who can't admire that. He's got a low key part here but he adds a nice presence as Walter's handler. Walter is kind of quirky. It's his thing. In the Bones episode Saffron Burroughs played Walter's other pal Ike Latulippe. They all hung out at their bar and she was also the bartender. She didn't get a call back when the show started as a series. They replaced her with two gals, Mercedes Masohn as Deputy U.S. Marshal Isabel Zambada and Maddie Hasson as Willa Monday. Mercedes adds some gun totting muscle, possible romance for Walter, and police help. Maddie is a runaway that's been court ordered to work at the bar to get her act together. It's Florida so that makes sense to me. I've read Carl Hiaasen's books and columns. The scenery is nice and there's odd ball stuff going on. Walter is suspected of having some sort of brain damage from gettin' blow'd up but the closest we get to knowing is when John Frances Daley makes a cross over appearance in the second episode. He plays the psychiatrist on Bones and he comes to evaluate Walter for the FBI. Can't have any crazy people in the evidence chain.
That's John Frances up there on the left, with Geoff and Michael. In the second picture that's Michael, Maddie, Geoff and Mercedes. I like John's character Dr. Sweets quite a bit, he's an entertaining counterpoint to the rest of the group on Bones. Lucky for us he's written fairly well. I liked him in Freaks and Geeks, another well written show. I need to spin those discs again. Finding the time, huh. The stories in The Finder are your typical helping people out each week kind of stories, the kind of stories that you'd be familiar with if you watched a lot of this sort of programming. The hook to get you in is the characters and the sense of humor. The stories have a good bit of fun and don't take things to seriously. There are funny comments and goofy goings on every few minutes. The show's more like Psych than Bones in it's story telling. It's fairly quicly paced and the story moves along smartly. I plan to try to remember to take a look at some more. I got this damn cable and I should try to get some more value out of it. Lord knows I can use a good excuse to watch more tv.
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