There ARE no unhappy endings on "The Locator," the reality program in which families and friends are reunited after years apart. All ruptures can be healed. All past sins forgiven.
The show, which will conclude its first season Saturday (WE, 9 p.m.), has taken charity-driven reality television to its next logical step: the formation of the self. Most programs of this sort address consequences: how a person dresses, where a person lives, etc. But "The Locator," which revolves around the private-investigator practice of Troy Dunn, is interested in causes. Everyone who receives the gift of Dunn's services -- these are angel cases that he takes on free of charge -- believes that the person he or she seeks holds the key to resolving a difficult part of his or her life. These are people weighed down by ghosts and memories. Or, as Dunn puts it in the show's intro, "You can't find peace until you find all the pieces."
At least, that's the hope. For a show about reunion, "The Locator" is curiously incurious about reconciliation. Episodes follow a simple arc -- a person requests Dunn's services with an affecting sob story; Dunn and his team work the phones and use other methods to track the target down; a tearful reunion is sprung upon the client, often at a family gathering.
As for Dunn, he's a hardy guy, tall and broad. He sports boxy blazers and a choirboy haircut. His bearing is certain, but gentle -- decades of imposing on other peoples' lives seems to have left him incapable of offense. In each episode, he flies in a private plane -- a motivational speaker, radio host and author, he has wealth from other sources -- from one town to the next, navigating bruised relationships. At the end of each episode, as the reunited pair reacquaint themselves with each other, Dunn literally sneaks away, his work done.
"I believe he's everything that you have wanted," Dunn told Nicole, a woman about to be reunited with the brother she was separated from as a child, in an episode a few weeks ago.
Seeing people receive a chance at healing themselves is unfailingly moving. But given how much of an impact the feelings unearthed on "The Locator" have, it's notable just how unremarkable the show feels. Even though the payoff moment is gripping, everything else is predictable -- there are no cases in which Dunn can't track the person down, or where that person, once found, doesn't consent to the reunion.
