I Will Find You: Find It!

I probably say this about every Harlan Coben series I review here (11 and counting so far) that it's the best of all the adaptations of Harlan Coben novels I've had the pleasure to see (I haven't read any of them), but (a) it's true, and (b) I Will Find You, just up on Netflix, in its high-powered got-you-by-the-throat action and intricate moebius-strip complexity of the characters and their loyalties, is in a class of its own.

In fact, I don't recall ever seeing such a roster of characters with questionable loyalties to the man in prison for killing his son, except in some earlier Coben works, and those characters were far fewer in number.  As you'll know from seeing the trailer (and there'll be no other spoilers in this review other than what's in the trailer), David Burroughs (the father) didn't do it.  And when a current photo turns up in which his son Matthew is alive and well, I  Will Find You is off and running.  Everyone is suspect in one way or another for doing what really happened, just about every friend and relative and supporter has conflicting interests, and may or may not be part of why Burroughs landed in prison.  Even the villains may or may not be responsible for what happened to Burroughs.  The Boston police are riddled with bad guys -- nothing new about that -- and the FBI, with a father and daughter somehow working together, bring what we see in the excellent FBI series on CBS to a new level.

A story like this takes great acting, and I Will Find You has it.   I haven't seen much if any of Avatar, but I did see him in Titan, and Sam Worthington as David Burroughs does a fine job.   I have indeed seen and much enjoyed Britt Lower in Severance, and she's dynamite in this new series.   Jonathan Tucker, whom I first saw in The Black Donnellys and then in Debris, brings his usual intensity as Adam, one of the complex cops. Milo Ventimiglia, whom I first saw in Heroes, and Madeleine Stowe, whom I first saw in 12 Monkeys (the movie), play crucial roles.  Chi McBride, whom I first saw who knows how many years ago in I, Robot, and Logan Browning, whom I don't recall seeing before, were memorable as the father-and-daughter FBI team.  And it's interesting, at least to me, that everyone other than Browning have major science fiction roles in their past.  If there are any science fiction producers reading this, I'd recommend they cast Logan Browning for a major action role.  She's equally adept at leaping tall buildings and sassy conversation.

Today is Father's Day, and I'm looking forward to seeing my family.   I Will Find You was put up on Netflix just a few days ago.   In addition to its other virtues, the series makes a good testament to a father's unbending devotion to his son.

 

Debris 1.9: Resets 1

Whoah -- a brilliant game-shaking episode 1.9 of Debris on NBC tonight, in which the piece of said Debris shifts those who come into its presence into alternate realities.  That is, what clearly is not one but what seems to be an unlimited series of alternate realities.  That would be a cool centerpiece of this narrative.  But the story that plays out for our characters is an ingenious piece of work in itself for just an episode of a television series.

The hour starts off conventionally enough (that is, conventionally enough for Debris).  A diver comes into contact with a piece of Debris off the coast, and finds he's in an alternate reality minus his sister.  And the narrative stays conventional enough (that is, for Debris) throughout most of the rest of the hour.  Bryan and Finola investigate what's going on, now with the help of Finola's sage father.  But the diver, desperate to find his sister, keeps jumping in the ocean and swimming towards the Debris to enter yet another new reality.  We see everything from the diver's perspective, including Bryan having different partners in some of the realities.  Finola's father says colors are important in understanding what's going on, especially the color orange.  In an especially nice touch, it even looks like one of the Bryans has orange reddish hair.  (Did they dye Jonathan Tucker's hair, or just changed the lightning, or maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.)

But all of that is just prelude to what happens near the end.  Bryan tries to stop the diver from swimming towards the Debris -- the repeated resets of reality could "damage the universe" -- and Bryan gets sucked into an alternate reality himself, where, among other things, Finola is not his partner.

And this turns out to be just Part 1 of a two-part story about alternate-reality resets.  I've seen some good alternate-reality episodes on various science fiction series over the years -- those on Star Trek: TOS and Star Trek: TNG are especially memorable -- but this episode of Debris is something new, very different, and right up there with the best.

See you back here next week in what I hope is our same reality with my review of the conclusion of this story (or these stories).

See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces ... Debris 1.2: Clones ... Debris 1.3: Trapped Out of Time ... Debris 1.4: Suspentia Belief ... Debris 1.5: Fine Tuning ... Debris 1.6: Fountain of Youth and Its Complications ... Debris 1.7: Ferry Cross the Moebius Strip ... Debris 1.8: Resurrection and Its Hazards

Debris 1.1: Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces

Debris debuted on good old NBC tonight -- a fast-paced, surprisingly deep piece of science fiction, which has real potential.

The set-up: in an alternate-present or near-future reality, an extraterrestrial ship, wrecked, shows up in our solar system.  Debris rain down on our planet.  And they have a bizarre series of unnatural effects, including allowing someone holding a piece to "phase" through matter, having the effect on others of bringing the dead back to life in a way that (of course) has profound consequences on the survivors, etc. The coming attractions advertise more of these effects to come.  Jonathan Tucker plays CIA agent Brian Beneventi, Riann Steele plays MI6 agent Finola Jones, and they are cooperating, for the most part (also of course), in an effort to find out what's going on, how to get on top of the extraterrestrial tech, etc.

So there are a lot of pieces in motion at the beginning of this narrative, and some of them are obvious, but all together the pieces could make for a compelling piece of television.  For one, the story picks up speed very quickly, which is always a good thing.  For another, the various powers that come from pieces of the wrecked ship have no apparent connection, and that's a good thing, too, because there's lots of room for development at this point.

I think it's become tough for a network to put out a good science fiction story, given the advantages that streaming services have in making original leaps.  But anything is possible in a weekly showing riven with commercials, especially when the tableau is science fiction, so I'll be watching and reviewing at least the next few episodes.

first starship to Alpha Centauri ... and they only had enough fuel to get there

Tyra on Criminal Minds 6.13

Nice coincidence ... just as I was putting the finishing touches on an essay about Friday Night Lights (which I'll tell you more about as we get closer to the publication date this summer), and whom do I see on Criminal Minds but Tyra (played by Adrianne Palicki), who is always good to see, whether as a tough girl with a good heart on Friday Night Lights, or a psychopathic killer on tonight's Criminal Minds 6.13.

Yeah, good ol' Tyra (her name is Sydney this time around) is on a killing spree with her boy friend/husband who's played by Jonathan Tucker of The Black Donnellys, another superb NBC show, which unfortunately lasted less than one season a few years back.   Tucker (Tommy on the Donnellys, Ray on tonight's CM) has a certain amount of sensitivity, as did his much better character on the Donnellys.   I would've liked to see Riggins jumping into this, but no such luck, and our gun-happy couple predictably end up dead, but not quite as you might have expected.

Of more lasting significance is a thread introduced about  Emily, who quotes Nietzsche about suffering at the beginning of this episode.  She's on the verge of suffering an unwanted reunion with some unfinished business from her past just out of prison in Russia.

This makes the second wriggling back story for one of the BAU team introduced in the past two episodes, the first being Spencer losing some part of his mind in episode 6.12.

Interesting stuff on this highly intelligent show, which will no doubt play some major role in or before this season's finale.

See also Criminal Minds in Sixth Season Premiere ... Criminal Minds 6.2: The Meaning of J. J. Leaving ... Criminal Minds 6.3: Proust, Twain, Travanti

And Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book