ICYMI: Found Is the Craziest Show You’re Not Watching

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What if I told you the craziest, most outlandish, completely out there series airing today can’t be found on Netflix or TikTok but on NBC? That’s right, the network your grandparents watch for the nightly news has the most outrageous and entertaining show currently on television.

On the surface, Found looks like the familiar case-of-the-week drama NBC has built its entire schedule on. Think of your Law & Orders or the Chicago oeuvre. Public relations mastermind Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton, who also serves as one of the show’s executive producers) runs a company aptly titled Mosely & Associates (M&A). Ostensibly a crisis management firm, what Gabi and her employees really do is find missing people. There’s Margaret (Kelli Williams), who has an incredible sense of observation and can read people and know whether or not they are telling the truth. There’s Lacy (Gabrielle Walsh), a compassionate and kind law student who is able to help the team avoid any legal complications. There’s Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta), who never met a computer program or security system he couldn’t hack into. And there’s military veteran Dhan (Karan Oberoi), who has a way of, shall we say, convincing people to reveal the truth.

Showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll builds each episode around M&A’s search for a missing person. Sometimes it’s a child. Sometimes it’s an elderly person, or a college student. Gabi and her team look for the people who don’t make headline news, those who have been forgotten, maybe because of the color of their skin, maybe because of their career choices (the show’s second episode focused on a missing sex worker), or maybe because of their circumstances in life (Gabi has searched for activists, recovering addicts, and unhoused people). M&A demands the police and society pay attention, turning every case into major news. Gabi, who has the most fabulous outfits and even better hair, always holds a well-attended press conference. Detective Mark Trent (Brett Dalton) always gets frustrated that M&A is withholding information or obtaining information in ways that aren’t exactly above board. “You are such a pain in my ass,” he tells her. “You wouldn’t have it any other way,” Gabi replies. By the end of each episode, the missing person is found, the team puts their framed picture on the wall and toasts them with “welcome home.” It’s a tried and true formula, just as you’d find in any episodic procedural. And that could have been enough of an engine for a show to run for countless seasons.

But here’s the kicker: Every member of M&A has a direct connection with the experience of being a missing person. Gabi and Lacy were kidnapped as children. Margaret’s son Jamie disappeared at a bus station when he was six-years-old. She spends every night at the bus station handing out flyers and looking for him. Zeke was taken as a child and now suffers from agoraphobia and is unable to leave his home. Dhan was MIA for three years while serving in the military and has deep rooted trust issues. He also doesn’t get along with Zeke who he believes should just put mind over matter and get over his agoraphobia.

You would think that would be enough. But wait! There’s more! So. Much. More. Gabi was kidnapped by a man she calls Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). Flashbacks reveal the details of this traumatic and life-defining tragedy. Over the course of two seasons, viewers have learned how she was kidnapped, how she escaped, and what her captivity was like. Sir believes that he and Gabrielle (as he insists on calling her) have a special connection, that they are family. After she escaped and basically rescued herself 20 years ago, Sir was never found and has never paid for his crimes.

But here’s the real kicker of the series: The final minutes of the pilot episode reveal that Gabi has kidnapped Sir and is keeping him locked in her basement. That’s right, the time-freezing schemer from Saved by the Bell is in a makeshift jail cell in her house, making Gabi into the kind of kidnapper she’s dedicated her life to busting. And yet somehow there is STILL even more: Sir advises Gabi on her cases because he can think like a kidnapper. He thinks they are now partners. And, as much as she hates to admit it, she needs his input to crack the cases. So their dynamic is seriously messed up.

There’s also the will they/won’t they sexual tension between Detective Trent and Gabi. The burgeoning romance between Zeke and Lacy. Margaret’s fractured relationship with her family. Zeke’s daddy issues and Dhan’s in-crisis marriage.

All these things converge—the compelling case of the week, the heartfelt personal stories, and the absolutely wild idea that a grown woman would find and kidnap her kidnapper and make him work for her—to make Found one of the most interesting and compulsively watchable shows on television. It’s utterly and completely outrageous. I would never try to tell you that it wasn’t.

But what makes Found really work is that beneath the shocking plot twists and crazy central premise are authentic characters viewers will want to invest in. As a woman who has been searching for her missing son for 13 years, Williams is palpably believable. Amid the chaos, she is the show’s emotional center. Come for the wild plot twists, stay for the stories you will find yourself surprisingly invested in.

It’s time for you to discover Found.

New episodes of Found air Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. All episodes are currently streaming on Peacock.

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

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