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Photo courtesy of Peter Skadberg
I finally watched the first episode of The Finder on Hulu last night. The program will air weekly on FOX and, as is usual for me, I’ll catch episodes more sporadically as they appear online. I enjoyed the show. The characters and dialog were compelling enough to go back for another episode, even if some of the plot logic was a bit sketchy. The thing that really caught my attention though, was the flavor of Christianity running through the dialogue.
One of the show’s main characters, Leo, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, is the owner of a restaurant/bar in south Florida. He is the business manager / lawyer / friend to Maj. Walter Sherman, played by Geoff Stults, who was medically discharged from the U.S. Army with a brain injury that enables him to find things in a supernaturally non-methodical manner. A teenage girl, Willa, played by Maddie Hasson, lives in a trailer on Leo’s property.
Willa comes from a “family of criminals.” She is currenlty on probation from juvenile custody, working for Leo as one of the conditions of her release. It is intimated in the dialogue that Leo has a shady past of his own, but is reformed, and sees potential in Willa although Walter does not agree that Willa is able to go straight.
At one point in the show Walter is explaining to Leo that there is a problem to only seeing the best in people. He says that when we do, we miss the presumably not-so-good parts. To support his point, Walter tells Leo that Willa will run away. Leo responds by saying that he has had his own time as a ruined man and that it didn’t stop Walter from having faith in him.
“That’s because I think you’re one of the finest men that ever lived,” Walter says to Leo, “tied with Jesus and Cal Ripken Jr.”
Later, Leo is trying to explain to Willa’s probation officer why the girl should not be placed back in juvenile detention. The probation officer gives Leo a long list of Willa’s crimes and declares her a sociopath. Leo, though, counters with the notion that Willa “is redeemable” and therefore not a sociopath.
Clearly, Leo perceives humanity through the eyes of a reformed sinner archetype! Leo is a Christian! I hope the show does well and continues to portray positive, loving examples of interpersonal interactions.
That dialogue led me to wonder, though, about the roots of the word “redeem” and the problem of severe mental disorders in our society. How do we as Christians handle someone who may be diagnosed as manifesting behaviors that are beyond the help of our known therapeutic methods?
In researching my questions, I found two roots of the word in the Koine Greek and two roots in Old Testament Hebrew. I also discovered several lively discussions between pastors, priests, and psychiatrists regarding APD, antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy). I will discuss my findings over the next few days. In the meantime, check out The Finder. It airs on FOX at 9pm est. on Thursdays. I’ll be watching tonight!
A Christian Life 
Hello would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a fair price? Cheers, I appreciate it!
Hi John, I’m brand new at blogging and just started this one on WordPress.com – it’s the free version 🙂
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really know what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Please also visit my site =). We could have a link exchange agreement between us!
Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any recommendations for beginner blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Oh my goodness, Kasha, I’m brand new at this, myself! I’m a mathematics and creative writing university student and have wanted to be able to try my hand at blogging for awhile. I mentored a freshman student to do her own blog (from an editor’s perspective) during an internship last semester and thought that I’d like to try one of my own. I’m really enjoying it, but I find it quite difficult to curtail each post into a casually readable length. I see a comment below that indicates my leaps of logic in this post were difficult to follow. I understand that frustration. After writing the post, I’d like to write a much longer, documented essay for a peer-reviewed journal on the subject of Christian themes found in popular culture, but that will take some time!
I wish I could have seen your original comment. Thank you so much for reading! I look forward to seeing your comments.
The root of your writing while appearing reasonable at first, did not really sit perfectly with me after some time. Someplace within the paragraphs you managed to make me a believer unfortunately only for a while. I however have got a problem with your leaps in logic and you would do nicely to fill in those gaps. When you actually can accomplish that, I could definitely end up being fascinated.
Ah, thank you for your comment, Gilma! I understand completely your frustration. It is difficult to make a salient point in under 600 words and with limited time. I wonder if the point I lost you was at “Clearly, Leo perceives humanity through the eyes of a reformed sinner archetype! Leo is a Christian!” That is quite a bold statement for me to make without some supporting logic.
I am a creative writing and mathematics undergraduate student and trying my hand at writing publicly for the first time with this blog. I appreciate positive, constructive criticisms such as yours and welcome your input in the future. It helps me to hone my skills.
Thanks for reading!