Walter Sherman
Created for Richard Greener
Developed for television by Hart Hanson

The Winter 2012 mid-season promises a new P.I. series by Fox, and it's a Bones spinoff, of all things!

Well, sorta...

Loosely based on Richard Greener's book series, The Locator, Geoff Stults stars as WALTER SHERMAN, a former military policeman and Iraqi vet turned high-priced private eye who specializes in finding people when nobody else can. Helping him out are Ike Latulippe, his confidante and sidekick (played by Saffron Burrows) and Leo Knox (Michael Clarke Duncan, the big dude from The Green Mile).

Sherman was introduced in an April 2011 episode of Bones, and proved to be quite popular, which gave Fox the idea to spin him off into his own series. Unfortunately,

I'm not sure how closely the series followed the books (I haven't read them yet), but if it's the same people who brought Montreal crime writer Kathy Reich's books to the tube, people who loved the two novels written by Richard Greener shouldn't expect too much fidelity to the original source.

The show itself was allowed its thirteen episode run, and was promptly cancelled, which should have come as no surprise to anyone who tried to watch it. The Girl Detective and I tried, and only made it through two commercial breaks.

It was a mess; a classic example of trying too hard. In trying for something hip and colourful, the producers tried to make every scene, every action, every character quirkier and more off-beat than the previous one. They slathered it on so thick there was little chance of anything resembling real life showing through to ground it, and the results weren't so much funny as they were wearying.

Too bad. Businessman turned thriller writer Greener wrote the two Locator books while awaiting a heart transplant. Surgical complications caused him to slip into a coma, and he lay motionless for a month. He detailed his experiences -- and some through-the-looking-glass dreams involving a ruthless, rifle-toting Dick Cheney -- in his personal memoir Trapped (2011).

TELEVISION

• BONES (2005 --, Fox)
  Created by Hart Hanson
  Based on characters created by Kathy Reichs
  Starring Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance 'Bones' Brennan
  and David Boreanaz as Special Agent Seeley Booth

• "The Finder" (April 21, 2011)
  Created by Hart Hanson
  Written by Hart Hanson
  Directed by Daniel Sackheim
  Additional characters based on 'The Locator' books by Richard Greener
  Also starring Geoff Stults stars as WALTER SHERMAN
  Saffron Burrows as Ike Latulippe
  and Michael Clarke Duncan as Leo Knox

• FINDER (2011, Fox)
  Created by Hart Hanson
  Based on The Locator books by Richard Greener
  Starring Geoff Stults stars as WALTER SHERMAN
  Michael Clarke Duncan as Leo Knox
  Maddie Hasson as Willa Monday
  and Mercedes Masöhn as Deputy U.S. Marshal Isabel Zambadaï 

• "An Orphan Walks Into a Bar" (January 2, 2012)
• "Bullets" (January 19, 2012)
• "A Cinderella Story" (January 25, 2012)
• "Swing and a Miss" (February 2, 2012)
• "The Great Escape" (February 9, 2012)
• "Little Green Men" (February 23, 2012)
• "Eye of the Storm" (March 8, 2012)
• "Life After Death" (April 6, 2012)
• "The Last Meal" (April 13, 2012)
• "The Conversation" (April 20, 2012)
• "The Inheritance" (April 27, 2012)
• "Voodoo Undo" (May 4, 2012)
• "The Boy with the Bucket" (May 11, 2012)

NOVELS

• The Knowland Retribution (2006)...Buy this book...Kindle it!
• The Lacey Confession (2006)...Buy this book...Kindle it!

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.