The irreverent new Fox drama “The Finder” follows Walter Sherman, an Iraq war veteran who can track down just about anything. But one thing that’s never lost on this show is a sense of humor.
Walter believes his gift as a “finder” is, in no small part, due to brain damage he suffered in an explosion while serving in the Army Military Police, which also left him with little in the way of etiquette. “It’s a great story engine for us to have a lead character who is never held back by social constraints,” series creator Hart Hanson said while promoting the show at the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif., on Sunday. “He says what he thinks. He blurts. He’s insulting.
Sometimes he will shriek when he sees things, and other times he will attack a hit man. It depends on how threatened he feels and how much he’s understanding what’s happening around him.”
Finding the right leading man to take on Walter’s quirky tendencies wasn’t an easy task, Hanson said — this definitely isn’t your straight-ahead, “CSI”-type detective. It’s hard to find “a guy as handsome as Geoff Stults who is willing to be a goof,” the producer said.
But Stults demurred the compliment, relishing in Walter’s offbeat ways. “The thing that drew me to the character and the show … was they created a character where a leading man can be quirky,” Stults said. “I love that Walter doesn’t take himself seriously.”
“The Finder” and his sidekicks
Walter doesn’t work alone in his quest to find what is lost. His team includes legal advisor Leo (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Isabel (Mercedes Masohn), his girlfriend who happens to be a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Both are concerned about Walter’s health and unbridled passion for the hunt.
“One thing that Leo and Isabel agree upon when it comes to Walter’s condition is that if he doesn’t find something, it could either kill him or put him in the loony bin,” said Hanson. “How to deal with that, they differ on. Leo says, ‘We have to help him find everything, and we can’t let him take any jobs where it’s impossible.’ Isabel would prefer that he went and got proper help.”
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