How far would you go to save your son? That is the question David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) must confront in Netflix’s “I Will Find You,” an eight-episode adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller.
It is refreshing to see Worthington apply his talents to a role that does not involve portraying a Native American Smurf alien (“Avatar,” for the uninitiated). Convicted of murdering his three-year-old son, Matthew, Burroughs has spent five years in prison, and Worthington convincingly embodies the defeated posture of a man who has accepted his penance and no longer imagines a life beyond his cell.
The prosecution argued that Burroughs, suffering from night terrors, bludgeoned Matthew to death with a baseball bat and buried the weapon without remembering either act. The body was mutilated beyond visual identification. The legal logic is questionable at best, and the supposed night terrors strangely never recur. If Burroughs committed the killing unconsciously, his criminal responsibility would hardly be straightforward, and the series never explains why he is serving his sentence in a federal penitentiary. Still, the setup produces some of the most gripping fugitive suspense since “Prison Break.” Both series revolve around innocent men discarded by corrupt authorities, though “I Will Find You” carries greater emotional weight through its father-son relationship.
The plot kicks into gear when Rachel Mills (Britt Lower), Burroughs’s former sister-in-law and a disgraced investigative reporter, visits him with a photograph discovered on social media. In the background is a boy who looks uncannily like Matthew might five years later, down to the birthmark on his cheek. Taking an abducted child to a crowded amusement park without concealing such an obvious identifying feature is an extraordinarily careless plot contrivance, but it gives Burroughs his first reason in years to hope. Resigned to dying in prison, he suddenly has renewed resolve and a reason to escape.
Lower brings a harried, quick-thinking energy to Mills, whose motives blend guilt, familial loyalty, and professional ambition. Matthew’s possible survival offers Burroughs salvation; for Mills, it may resurrect her career. These competing motivations give them engaging chemistry as they improvise their way through the conspiracy.
Like “Prison Break,” however, a story powered by conspiracy must keep adding layers to sustain itself. “I Will Find You” piles on police officers, trial witnesses, prison officials, FBI agents, mobsters, wealthy benefactors, and compromised medical personnel whose connections to Burroughs remain obscure. By the midpoint, the plot begins to resemble a Candace Owens podcast, minus the monologues about Jews.
Among the expanding cast is sharp-witted, tech-savvy FBI investigator Greer (Logan Browning). There is also Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia), Rachel’s extravagantly wealthy former boyfriend, whose affluence the series emphasizes by having him place a $1.5 million bid at an art auction and stroll out as the gavel falls, like an action hero walking away from an explosion. Other characters arrive with similar fanfare, hover suspiciously, and then evaporate.
The series also depends on its characters failing to ask obvious questions. A neighbor’s testimony that she saw Burroughs bury the murder weapon helped secure his conviction. Once it becomes clear that she lied, the case should begin collapsing. Why did she lie? Why does law enforcement display so little curiosity about perjury in a child-murder prosecution? The revelation becomes another clue in an overcrowded scavenger hunt, and the series rushes onward.
Despite its Swiss-cheese plotting, the holes never overwhelm the suspense. Hull and the series’ directors maintain such relentless forward motion that Burroughs seems one mistake away from capture. From rooftop pursuits to Scorsese-style street shootouts, the series packs so much action into eight episodes that there is scarcely room to breathe. Whenever the conspiracy threatens to buckle under scrutiny, the show accelerates. You may get lost in its web of corruption, but you will never be bored.
Amid the pulp machinery, “I Will Find You” raises a more serious question: What happens when institutions entrusted with maintaining order are corrupted?
As a criminal-justice hawk, I support tougher and longer prison sentences, more restrictive bail policies, and capital punishment in at least some cases (brutal child murder being one). That makes the series’ subtle warning especially relevant. Conservatives distrust government in nearly every other sphere yet often grow deferential when the state puts on a badge. We all want safe cities. But the same power used to punish the guilty can be corrupted and turned against the innocent.
Midway through the series, Burroughs is urged to question his assumptions about those closest to him: “Start asking yourself questions you’re too afraid to ask.” Beneath eight episodes of unnerving tension, this becomes the story’s lingering libertarian lesson. Institutions wielding coercive power demand scrutiny, and families cannot outsource their duty of protection to systems vulnerable to corruption. We cannot blindly trust institutions to keep us or our children safe. That is what fathers and families are for.
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Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at BetweenBottles.com.
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