Stakeouts and Strollers

Crime reporter Charlie Shaw becomes a private investigator after he’s furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic in the so-so debut from sports journalist Phillips. At the outset, Charlie struggles to balance his fledgling PI career with his responsibilities as a father to a six-month-old daughter, botching a routine assignment to take photos of a cheating spouse when his baby minder app drains the battery on his phone. Soon afterward, 16-year-old runaway Friday Finley asks Charlie for help finding her deadbeat father. Charlie quickly develops paternal affection for the traumatized teen, and his investigation reveals that Friday’s father has gotten mixed up with some dangerous Bay Area criminals. Soon, someone catches wind of his pursuit, and Charlie’s own family is threatened. Charlie’s incompetence as an investigator initially provides some satisfying narrative friction, but readers might have a hard time sympathizing with him as the stakes ramp up and his clumsiness starts to feel more like fecklessness. Phillips manages a handful of genuinely sweet father-daughter moments, but slack pacing and an undercooked explanation for Charlie’s pivot to PI work undermine them. For the most part, this misses the mark. (Mar.)