Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays creepy kidnapper in NBC’s ‘Found’

“Found” offers a solid take on the procedural genre — with several novel twists.

The new NBC series, premiering Oct. 3 at 10 p.m., stars Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosely, whose high-profile, high-powered crisis-management firm, Mosley & Associates, finds missing people relegated to the margins of society (minorities, sex workers, etc.) and ignored by the public and by the press.

Gabi, who’s in her late 30s, knows from whence she crusades: she was taken at the age of 15 from her father by a creepy, bearded, impeccably-dressed man she called “Sir” (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) who held her captive in a locked, book-filled house while force-feeding her an education … on his terms (Shakespeare, science) and, literally, scripting parts of her existence with a healthy does of emotional abuse.

Sir eventually kidnapped a younger girl, Bella, after Gabi expressed her loneliness — and, together, the two hostages suffered under his psychotic rule until they were able to escape.

Flash forward to 20 years later. Gabi now runs her powerful firm in Washington, DC, with her crack crisis-management team, all of whom she’s helped in one way or another. There’s Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta), an agoraphobic computer whiz whose wealthy family is funding Gabi’s company; Margaret (Kelli Williams), who possesses an uncanny sense of detection after searching for her missing son the past 13 years; Lacy (Gabrielle Elise Walsh), who’s new to the team after graduating from law school (paid for by Gabi); and Dahn (Karan Oberoi), who (grudgingly) works with Zeke and who, himself, was taken as a child and uses that experience to fuel his outrage and his outlook.

Gabi et al. often work with the DC police — who don’t exactly appreciate their efforts — in the form of Det. Mark Trent (Brett Dalton), who’s got something of a romantic history with Gabi and, as per TV’s rules and regulations, sports the requisite stubble. Gabi, who’s not press-shy, will herself go undercover to help break a case or capture someone, and she’s not averse to skirting the law to do so … but she always gets results, often embarrassing the DCPD for ignoring her clients while focusing on “high-profile” cases (the white missing child of a US Senator in the series opener).

The Big Reveal here is that Sir was thought to have vanished into the wind after being whacked over the noggin with a frying pan by Gabi 20 years earlier. But he’s alive and sort-of well — and he’s been imprisoned and shackled in Gabi’s basement (his beard much bushier) for seven months where her get into the minds of those who have taken her clients.

Put it this way: he doesn’t have much choice. And the anniversary of Sir’s vanishing act in turn triggers more flashbacks regarding his treatment of Gabi (and Bella) during their time as his prisoners. I’m guessing we will learn just how he ended up as her personal Hannibal Lecter. But, hey, turnabout is fair play, right?

“Found” moves at a rapid clip and is able to sustain its momentum even while giving us the contextual picture and filling in the supporting characters’ back stories. I like how it takes a few didn’t-see-that-coming U-turns along the way but not just for the hell of it: these surprises add to the overall story arc and will fuel the “Found” engine as the series and Mosley & Associates chug along with their weekly caseload.

The acting is fine; everyone stays in their procedural lane with some personality quirks thrown in to add depth to the main characters.

The series does shine a light on a topical issue — missing persons ignored because they’re not “mainstream” enough. As far as I know, this has not been tackled elsewhere, on a weekly basis, by a scripted drama, so kudos to series creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll (executive producer on The CW’s “All American”) and Hampton (who’s also an executive producer here along with series veteran Greg Berlanti, among others).

“Found” won’t pummel you with a preachy mallet and will, by all indications, pack enough surprises to keep viewers guessing week to week.