The fall of the 2023 TV schedule was a lot lighter on new series than usual due to the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, but NBC delivered a new drama that puts a twist on a weekly procedural. Found features a team working to find missing persons who nobody else is looking for, with the complication that Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) is keeping her former captor (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) captive in her basement. The drama received an early renewal for Season 2, and actress Kelli Williams spoke with CinemaBlend about the good news... and the trauma that her character, Margaret Reed, is still processing.
Found was renewed for Season 2 in late November, along with fellow NBC series The Irrational. After Brett Dalton, who plays Mark Trent, addressed the show's "fantastic numbers" during an interview with CinemaBlend, I spoke with Kelli Williams. When I asked how it felt for her to get that Season 2 renewal before Season 1 even finished airing, she shared:
Unfortunately, television is now in an era of viewers not being able to count on their favorite shows having long runs or even returning after a season finale. Even hits like Law & Order: Organized Crime can have their episode totals cut down from the typical total of 20+, raising some major questions. For as much as Found has been one of the most compelling options on TV this fall, there was just no guarantee of a Season 2... until NBC delivered the early news.
Of course, it was even harder than usual to gauge how a show was performing this fall due to the strikes, which meant that the usual kinds of promotion just couldn't happen until the WGA writers and SAG-AFTRA actors received fair deals to resume work. I asked Kelli Williams about what it's like for her to finally be able to talk about Found after the 2023 actors strike finally ended, and she explained:
It's easy to understand why Found was an exciting project to work on during the first season, as Kelli Williams plays a character unlike any other than can be found in primetime. After a tragedy in her past that brought her to Gabi Mosely to join her mission, Margaret works to apply her trauma in a positive way.
While the trauma has affected her personal life insofar as she still sleeps at the bus station where her son disappeared years earlier, it enabled her to spot details and make connections that nobody else can in her professional life. Williams opened up about how she approaches Margaret's personal/profession balance in Found:
The sudden and inexplicable loss of her son took a very great toll on her personal life, cutting Margaret off from the rest of her family and estranging her from her other children. She does seem to be making some progress in recent episodes, after encountering her daughter again, but it remains to be seen if that progress can continue. Williams went on:
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It should be interesting if Gabi ever drops enough clues about her big Sir secret that Kelli Williams' character applies her 'Margaret Vision' to her friend and boss. Lacey has already become suspicious about what Gabi is hiding, and Brett Dalton shared that he thinks Trent is simply blinded to any signs that Gabi may be showing.
See what's ahead for Margaret in the rest of Found Season 1 now that you can count on a Season 2, with new episodes airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC after The Voice. If you've missed any episodes or have just been waiting on news of a renewal vs. cancellation before watching, you can find the full first season so far streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription ahead of the 2024 TV schedule.
Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer
Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).
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