{"id":483584,"date":"2026-06-18T11:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:55:09","slug":"i-will-find-you-review-sam-worthington-in-netflix-mystery-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483584\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Will Find You’ Review: Sam Worthington in Netflix Mystery Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNetflix<\/a>\u2018s I Will Find You<\/a> is the very model of a modern distracted-viewing show.\u00a0Back in January, promoting The Rip<\/a>, Matt Damon told<\/a> a podcast host that Netflix was accounting for multi-tasking, multi-screen viewership by asking creators to \u201creiterate the plot three or four times in the dialogue.\u201d\u00a0It became the subject of a joke at the Oscars and was, briefly, enough a part of the discourse that Dan Lin, Netflix\u2019s film chairman, had to deny the accusation<\/a> at a company press event, saying \u201cno such principle\u201d existed. \u201cI mean, if you watch our movies or TV shows, we don\u2019t repeat our plots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause Lin is the chief of Netflix\u2019s film operations, I assume he has not watched I Will Find You, the latest limited series adaptation from absurdly prolific hit-monger Harlan Coben<\/a>. There is no plot point that isn\u2019t repeated at least a half-dozen times and I put a heavy emphasis on \u201cat least.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tI Will Find You\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tCapably built to be watched while doing other things.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: Thursday, June 18 (Netflix)
Cast: Sam Worthington, Britt Lower, Milo Ventimiglia, Erin Richards, Jonathan Tucker, Madeleine Stowe, Logan Browning, Chi McBride
Creator: Robert Hull, from the book by Harlan Coben<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause of the book\/series\u2019 mystery structure \u2014 featuring stretches in which as many as four different subsets of characters seek the same information and thus follow the same breadcrumbs while announcing their progress simultaneously \u2014 I honestly don\u2019t think the avalanche of exposition was even the result of executive notes. I\u2019m equally confident, though, that the series\u2019 creative team never received a Netflix note saying, \u201cGuys, you\u2019re fitting two hours of plot into eight hours of programming, is there any other way we might use this time better?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI Will Find You is a disposable mixture of repetition, red herrings, narrative dead-ends and illogical resolutions, but in part thanks to a top-notch cast led by Sam Worthington<\/a>, Britt Lower<\/a>, Chi McBride<\/a> and Logan Browning<\/a>, even the rampant wheel-spinning remains generally watchable, amid the irritation.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdapted by Robert Hull (Gotham), I Will Find You stars Worthington as David Burroughs, a father serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his young son, a crime he vehemently denies committing. Nobody seems to believe him, including his ex-wife (Erin Richards\u2019 Cheryl) and his father (Hugh Thompson\u2019s Lenny, formerly a Boston cop).<\/p>\n

\n\tWe see in flashbacks that the prosecution claimed David committed the crime in the throes of chronic night terrors, a bizarrely introduced character detail that apparently played no role in his sentencing and then IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN IN THE SERIES. <\/p>\n

\n\tIs the unremembered and involuntary nature of the alleged crime supposed to reassure viewers, just in case he might actually be guilty? Dunno. It\u2019s also mentioned early-on that David was apparently a law professor at Boston University, another fact that IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. I Will Find You is chock-full of fleeting pieces of information that are tossed out with no consideration for what they might actually mean to the story. Chekhov would not approve.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnyway, David has been in a Maine prison for five years, refusing to have visitors \u2014 until his ex-wife\u2019s sister Rachel (Britt Lower), a former reporter with the Boston Globe, comes to see him. Rachel, who lost her job under circumstances that seem like they should matter but truly do not, has a friend who posted social media pictures from Six Flags. In the background, one of the pictures features a young boy who is roughly the same age as David\u2019s son would have been. He looks exactly like David\u2019s son probably would look, right down to a very distinctive birthmark on his face.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is a large coincidence. A very large coincidence. A ridiculous coincidence. Somehow, it ends up being only one of the three or four biggest coincidences driving I Will Find You.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid sees the picture and becomes convinced his son is still alive, even if DNA tests on the body found in his house \u2014 the murder was very, very brutal and required DNA identification \u2014 confirmed that it was his son. Soon, he\u2019s breaking out of prison, with the help of the friendly warden (Peter Outerbridge), who served in the BPD with Lenny, and the warden\u2019s son Adam (Jonathan Tucker), David\u2019s best friend and another Boston cop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce David is on the run, seeking the truth, this inevitably attracts the attention of the FBI\u2019s Fugitive Task Force, a team led by Bureau legend Max Williams (McBride) \u2014 another character says they studied Max in Quantico, though nothing we learn about him supports his worthiness of study \u2014 and up-and-coming agent Sarah Greer (Browning). Two other members of the task force are involved at the beginning of the series, one of whom just stops being mentioned halfway through, like the actor suddenly got a better job, while the other starts off relevant to the team and becomes an occasional errand boy. This too is odd.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt isn\u2019t even like the episodes of I Will Find You were too long, so anything semi-superfluous was cut. Most of the second-half installments come in under 40 minutes. Add some meat to these bones!<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon, David and Rachel are teaming up to get to the truth, going from Maine to New York City to Boston. In the process, they get assistance from Rachel\u2019s wealthy ex, Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia<\/a>), still very much in love with her, and they all begin to suspect a Boston crime boss (Clancy Brown<\/a>\u2018s Nicky Fisher) might be involved.<\/p>\n

\n\tOff to the side, but clearly relevant, is the enigmatic Gertrude Payne (Madeleine Stowe<\/a>), matriarch of a philanthropic-but-shady family that kinda resembles the Sacklers, though having a Sackler stand-in with the last name \u201cPayne\u201d might be too obvious. There\u2019s also something happening in Switzerland. Why Switzerland? Shrug.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo at some point, David and Rachel are following a clue, the FBI team is following the same clue, the warden and David\u2019s dad use their police connections to follow a tangential clue and everybody is repeating the same names and information that led to their respective investigation as if it\u2019s all new information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s here that I would like to revisit Dan Lin\u2019s comment about how if you watch Netflix\u2019s movies or TV shows, they don\u2019t repeat their plots, because yes they do, yes they do, yes they do. Sometimes, yes they do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor all the repetition, the ending of I Will Find You, which was not exactly what I expected it to be at any of the various points I made predictions in my notes, only makes sense if you don\u2019t ask some very important questions. I, unfortunately, am paid to ask questions both very important and very minor. I can\u2019t or won\u2019t spoil those plot holes here so I\u2019ll leave it at: The series\u2019 conclusion is generally fine, in the sense that it\u2019s very resolved, but it fails all logic tests.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the layers of overlapping exposition generating three to four separate plots of mini-momentum \u2014 in lieu of overall momentum \u2014 this trifurcated structure turns I Will Find You into a minimum of three different shows, each with different performance styles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most important from that group of almost standalone shows is the one featuring Worthington, Lower and Ventimiglia. Worthington has a dogged earnestness that plays well, but going back to that \u201cBU Law Professor\u201d thing, it\u2019s strange how little personality or backstory has been written for the character, who sounds like he\u2019s convincingly from Southie, assuming Southie is a suburb of Perth. <\/p>\n

\n\tI liked how intensely kind Ventimiglia makes Hayden and appreciated that Lower sneaks in traces of intentional humor, which makes it easier to deal with the unintentionally laughable nature of the series\u2019 journalistic subplot. Or maybe I\u2019m just assuming that the real-world Boston Globe doesn\u2019t often run knowingly fake news stories on the assurance of disgraced former reporters, while this fictional Boston Globe sure does!<\/p>\n

\n\tThe best of that group of almost standalone shows is the bickering law enforcement procedural featuring Browning and McBride, who quickly establish a familiar but likable rapport and one could easily imagine Max and Sarah as the focus of a Criminal Minds-type broadcast series. Maybe in that series, those marginalized secondary agents would get to be characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most Canadian of that group of almost standalone shows is the one with Thompson and Outerbridge, two very fine and very non-Bostonian actors whose presence here is a reminder that I Will Find You was primarily shot in and around Toronto and feels like it \u2014 regardless of the number of establishing shots of Fenway Park accompanied by an onscreen \u201cBoston\u201d chyron. Tucker, who has actual Boston bona fides, spends a lot of time adding authenticity to this plot thread.<\/p>\n

\n\tFaulty accents aside, the ensemble is really solid and, along with capable polish courtesy of directors including Brad Anderson and Maja Vrvilo, goes a long way toward making I Will Find You feel like less of a rush job than some of the string of Coben adaptations that have flooded Netflix and Amazon in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOr maybe it doesn\u2019t feel like a rush job because the show is in so little hurry to get anywhere. The brand and stars are sure to attract eyeballs, but I Will Find You is a show that ultimately is designed to be half-watched while keeping track of the World Cup, busy news headlines and other external stimuli. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2018s I Will Find You is the very model of a modern distracted-viewing show.\u00a0Back in January, promoting The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[231614,242822,242823,156,242824,231615,242825,242826,223567,1094,111,139,69,6817,437],"class_list":["post-483584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-britt-lower","tag-chi-mcbride","tag-clancy-brown","tag-entertainment","tag-harlan-coben","tag-i-will-find-you","tag-logan-browning","tag-madeleine-stowe","tag-milo-ventimiglia","tag-netflix","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sam-worthington","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}