Double the Pleasure

I am now officially hooked on Find! the PBS show that follows antiques experts Leigh and Leslie Keno as they travel across America, searching for treasures in people's attics, living rooms, and basements.

Find! debuted in the fall of 2003 and looked like yet another reality show about experts coming to your house and going through your things to critique them--and you. While Find! may at first blush appear to be a public television version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or Extreme Makeover, it would more aptly be described as the Antiques Roadshow in reverse: the appraisers come to the collector, and quickly assess the value of various furnishings and collectibles.

The Kenos are articulate, handsome, intelligent, nattily dressed, and wildly enthusiastic about antique wood furniture. They were by far the most telegenic of the appraisers on the Roadshow. Add to that the extra kick that they are twins who dress alike and talk alike--it was only a matter of time before they got their own series on which to shine. In fact, one has to wonder why it took so long for Find! or some version of it to be made.

Find! joins together what Roadshow unwisely put asunder. The Kenos' tag team appraisals garnered them attention in the early episodes of the Roadshow, but later the brothers were relegated to solo appearances. (Whose idea was that?) On Find! they are together again, bringing their engaging dual presence to what could be snoozeville TV in other hands. Each episode is high-energy from the snazzy, quick-cut opening sequence to the brotherly ribbing at the end.

But it is what is in between that makes Find! so very entertaining. Looking at dove-tailed drawers and turning over vases hardly sounds like riveting stuff, but the Kenos are so exuberant and genuinely pumped up, you'd think they were going to a boxing match. After a brief introduction, we see them racing up the steps or the walkway into someone's home. Upon entering, the twins almost immediately take out their flashlights and get to the task at hand. Grabbing, snatching, and almost constantly chattering--my television's captioning picks up only about half of what they say--the Kenos are dizzying to watch. Dana Stevens of Slate calls them a "virtual blond tornado." The brothers have no qualms about putting their hands all over valuable objects. On Episode 113, Leigh and Leslie actually play around with two old firemen's stove pipe parade hats. After they take jabs at each other about looking like Abraham Lincoln, a fire house memorabilia expert announces that the pair of hats is worth $25,000! Two episodes later, Leigh dives under a chest of drawers while Leslie talks about its origins. Leigh emerges none the worse for wear, but I keep waiting for one of them to break something or bump his head.

Stevens takes the brothers to task for not living up to one of the most tired expectations of reality shows--that the hosts/experts be catty toward the people they are supposed to be helping. I think the Kenos' appeal lies precisely in their oodles of charm. They kid each other constantly, but know better than to make fun of the people who invite them into their homes. Had the Kenos been cutting people down to size and gleefully deflating expectations on Antiques Roadshow, they would hardly have qualified for their own series--at least not on PBS. Stevens speculates that the Kenos must kiss up to people because that is what keeps furniture flying in and out of showrooms. It is more likely that the twins are simply nice guys whose parents taught them to mind their manners. And, unlike the unknown hosts of other reality shows, the Kenos do not have to enhance their celebrity by being snarky.

Find! has a few flaws. For one, it is only a half-hour show. Time flies when you're watching the Kenos upend furniture. Maybe the producers were afraid that an hour with the twins would exhaust viewers. Sometimes the show sends only one of the brothers to look at decorator show houses and restored older homes. While each one is engaging on his own, the show is much more fun when the two are together. My biggest complaint is that the captioning service does a lousy job of keeping straight who is talking. Much of the time, viewers can see only the brothers' legs or hands. Leslie's and Leigh's voices sound so much alike that it is often impossible to tell who said what when the camera does not show which one is speaking. Interestingly, the twins are fairly easy to tell apart on sight. Leigh's hair is wavier than Leslie's and parts just to the right of center. Leslie's hair is parted on the left side. Leigh is also broad in the shoulders; Leslie is visibly slimmer. The observant viewer will also note that Leslie wears a wedding band, while Leigh's left hand is bare.

If you haven't seen Find!, it is worth catching up with the reruns over the summer. The series does not have a permanent time slot on the PBS schedule. From what I have seen on the website, most PBS stations do carry the show. To find Find! in your area, go to the show's website. Stevens' article for Slate can be found here.