Over a strike-impacted TV season mostly filled with reality shows, NBC's show Found, one of the few scripted series that managed to get ready in time, has managed to garner a surprisingly strong following. People who weren't drawn in by just this being a new scripted show in Fall 2023 were often drawn in by either the big-name star-power of Mark-Paul Gosselaar or the promise of a new non-formulaic-feeling kind of procedural with the show's focus on missing people. However, what they got once they were drawn enough to start watching was perhaps what could be one of the most socially-relevant network dramas in years as a surprisingly-diverse (race, gender, sexuality etc.) team united by a shared particular brand of trauma they've all survived track down the kinds of missing people mainstream media/law enforcement wouldn't give the time of day (from the elderly to the undocumented to the addicted to the unhoused and beyond). This leads to not only the show having a wide potential appeal amongst the demographics who diverse socially-relevant shows would draw in but provides the opportunity for others (demographics who might be more inclined to watch primetime dramas and find this one of their only options this fall) to have their minds opened by its message.

While I'm not claiming Found being only one season would indirectly cause some sort of global social crisis, this show being allowed to continue would certainly have a strong ripple effect. For starters it would break the seeming-curse of anything Mark-Paul Gosselaar's been in opposite a black woman (like Pitch, The Passage etc.) getting cancelled prematurely (may be super-specific but I know it matters to someone). Next there's all the forms of representation the show provides and not just in the Missing-Person-Of-The-Week but in the team themselves on top of them all being trauma survivors dealing with the fallout of that in realistic ways from general kinds of diversity (like Gabi being a strong black female lead that isn't a Strong Black Woman iykwim) to specific ones (like Margaret being an older woman with the kind of gift most crime-fighting-adjacent procedural dramas reserve for younger men). While I wouldn't wish the backstory-traumas of the ensemble on anyone maybe seeing people like them on TV might influence those of similar diversities to do something/go into some field to take action on those issues or even just to start fighting the kind of crime they've never seen anyone who looks like them fight before. And boy what a lot of issues it tackles which I alluded to before but like Alaska Daily before it Found proves it doesn't just talk the talk by actually having pop-up-things at the end for information relevant to the real-world versions of the issues it covers (even down to showing the suicide hotline).

This ties to a reason why action should be taken now that isn't just the renewal of any TV show being a timed thing (but action on it should be thought about as soon as possible). That reason being the sooner people notice a capital r Relevant show like this making waves the sooner not only can it inspire more shows like this the way I feel like shows from Scandal to All Rise to Alaska Daily inspired it, maybe it can actually inspire movements to make change on real issues and our real media and LEOs can learn to fight for the missing people who slip through the cracks without needing a real life Mosely & Associates.

Therefore NBC should renew Found for a second season because this show does not deserve to be Missing [from our airwaves] While Trailblazing

#renewfound #foundseason2 #founds2