Despite its record-setting climactic finale and some developments in its master plot, “The Fugitive” was largely an episodic affair on television, with its wrongly convicted hero traveling around, helping people as he attempted to maintain his anonymity. It was only when translated to a now-classic 1993 blockbuster that the title became more synonymous with a breakneck yet intelligent thriller, and a model movie-star vehicle for Harrison Ford.
The new Netflix miniseries “I Will Find You” is technically not another version of “The Fugitive”; it’s actually an adaptation of the book of the same name by thriller novelist Harlan Coben, also credited as an executive producer here. But it feels very much like the kind of well-cast, far-fetched, neo-Hitchcock material that would have flourished (or at least done OK) in ’90s multiplexes.
While it’s no surprise that this material is now more likely to be made as a streaming miniseries, nor is it guaranteed that a 110-minute version would represent a guaranteed improvement, “I Will Find You” feels designed to spin its wheels as fast as possible, for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, rather than offer anything more substantial than momentary (and lightly preposterous) thrills.
It would be easy enough to snark that star Sam Worthington is no Harrison Ford (or, for that matter, David Janssen). Drawing on the tough-guy protectiveness that has made him such a surprisingly effective lead in the “Avatar” movies, however, he acquits himself well enough, even if his character David Burroughs cannot. “I Will Find You” opens with David already in prison, several years into a life sentence for the murder of his young son. David’s narration informs the audience that he is innocent, yet also has trouble begrudging his brutal punishment; on some level, he feels he deserves it, for failing to keep his child safe. (This is a clever psychological wrinkle to the wrongfully-imprisoned-good-guy narrative, but not one that the show really develops with much interest.) It’s not just the jury that found David guilty; most of his family and friends seem convinced, too.
But when his sister-in-law Rachel Mills (Britt Lower), a former reporter, comes to David with the impossible possibility that his son could be alive, David comes back to life, hoping to atone for his parental guilt by finding the truth about what happened. Rachel, we’re to assume based on her journalistic instincts, wants to help, seemingly regardless of the personal cost to her. Showrunner and frequent episode writer Robert Hull sets this pair off on a sprint to solve this mystery, starting with an unlikely if entertaining prison break.
In this chase-driven construction — the close calls are frequent and ridiculous — it’s age-mismatched FBI partners Max Williams (Chi McBride) and Sarah Greer (Logan Browning) who jointly serve as David and Rachel’s Sam Gerard, the U.S. marshal who pursued Dr. Richard Kimble in both the TV and movie versions of “The Fugitive.” They’re also the point where “I Will Find You” really wheezes through its TV conventions, with the agents’ half-hearted personal lives providing extra padding to make sure this miniseries can fill up eight short episodes. That’s not the fault of McBride, always a welcome presence, or Browning, convincing with what she’s given to play (and her piercing eyes!). It’s just hard to get invested in their characters when a far wilder mystery unfolds in the show’s primary plot.
Worthington and Lower have the opportunity to carry this material, but it can’t help but feel beneath them in interestingly different ways. Worthington should be a good choice to headline a TV show; he never really made the leap to full-fledged movie star in his own non-motion-capped skin, while he’s often been well-used in big-screen character parts. Yet the range and believability he brings to Jake Sully in those “Avatar” movies makes this equally tough and determined dad seem far less interesting by comparison. Lower, on the other hand, has a more cerebral energy associated with her tricky turn on the sci-fi sensation “Severance,” so having her keep a straight face during an outlandish (yet not quite ridiculous enough to qualify as over-the-top) investigation, with so much blandly perfunctory dialogue, feels like more of an occupation of her time than a truly inspired use of it.
It’s not really fair to the series at hand, but both performers would probably be better-served by a closer knockoff of the “Fugitive” TV series, with a little more opportunity for episodic thriller.
As an eight-and-done go-go-go thriller, “I Will Find You” certainly passes the time; it’ll be a decent-enough weekend binge for plenty of Netflix subscribers. As the seemingly intended meditation on what parents will do for their children, it’s too slickly, generically amped up to have much real-world resonance.
“I Will Find You” is now streaming on Netflix.