Take Three: The Finder

The Finder: Season 1, Episode 3 “A Cinderella Story” (B+)

This show continues to be a blast, featuring genuinely intriguing and complex cases, with Walter using his token peculiar methodologies to uncover a surprising villain in this shoe-centric serial killing spree. I’m thrilled to report that this show is improving steadily in the ratings, and I do hope that FOX deems it worthy of staying on the air since I’m definitely enjoying it immensely. I was pleased to see Ian Reed Kesler, usually cast as a womanizing slimeball, as numbers geek Ira, and I didn’t even recognize Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, seen in the later seasons of “Prison Break” as bad girl Lisa. This episode was functioning on multiple levels, which made the search for Cinderella hardly the most interesting part of the hour. Leo is a great comic character, especially as played by the deep-voiced Michael Clarke Duncan, evident in the reenactment of what happened on the boat, but I like the fact that he also has some depth to him. His chance encounter with the man responsible for the death of his wife and daughter led to some real rage on his part and an elaboration of his relationship with Willa. Her literal “going to bat” for him was endearing in its own violent way, and I like that Walter is fully aware that she’s only sticking around until she figures out how to get into his safe. If I’ve learned anything from this episode, it’s that saying your password out loud while typing it isn’t a terribly good way of preserving security.