I saw what you did there. It doesn’t appear anyone else did, but I did. 
I don’t know if he was a dopehead, but he was Eddie’s former brother-in-law, who says he works for the company which produces NZT, but whom we soon learn is a liar mixed up in some bad craziness that gets him killed. He phrases it as, “You know how they say that we only use 10% of our brain?” (emphasis added). So he spouts jive without establishing it to be true.
I’ve seen both of the episodes so far and enjoyed them, although I think it’s not as good as the movie. I appreciate the movie shoutouts: the protagonist is given his first pill over the table in a bar/restaurant by an acquaintance; the color shift when he takes NZT; the zoom effect on the street (wish they used that more); the multiple selves which appear while he’s on the pill; finding a dead guy in an apartment and hurriedly looking for more pills before the cops arrive; having a pair of big and mostly-silent guards, one white and one black; giving very astute medical advice to his parents; learning languages quickly, etc. Eddie certainly seems to be a bit more villainous, although it might just be that he has a big-picture, important agenda and is rather callously using Brian as his pawn. The implications of his possible Presidential campaign are interesting.
The movie was great. One of my favs that year.
Loving the series so far. I’m just going with the basic SF idea that our brains are capable of so much more if we had total recall and unlocked just the right parts to work together. It’s a fun premise for a cop procedural (which I usually avoid, I’m more of a serial TV kinda guy), and love the two leads in this role.
Especially Brian on and off NZT. He brings a playfulness to the role, and sort of reminds me of Peter from Fringe.
Am I the only one who keeps half-expecting Jennifer Carpenter to drop some compound f-bomb?
I like the fact that even on NZT, he’s not always the smartest person in the room.
While I knew the twist in ep3 had no choice but to happen, I wasn’t quite ready for it yet.
I’ve only seen a couple of commercials for it, but my impression of the pill-taking guy is that he reminds me of Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation.
I’m still watching the show, and still digging it, although I’m not crazy about Eddie Morra becoming (apparently) so villainous.
No, you were not.
And yeah, it’s weird watching Deb Morgan somehow go a sentence, much less a whole episode without dropping F-bombs all over the place.
Me too. But, I wonder if that’s what they want us to think. It would be against his character from the film to turn him into someone who has evil plans. He does have some plan(s), what they are though, I hope will ultimately be altruistic, though it may seem evil during his means to that end.
Not only F-bombs, but all-out crying in every scene.
Yep! I agree.
Like in episode 2, when he figured out there was a chip planted on the car between two identical bumperstickers. He notifies Deb, and she’s all like, “Uh yeh, we already found that.”
He may be sooper-smart, but he’s not omniscient. I like that they’re keeping his character grounded that way.
What’s annoying to me is he has rapid physical skills. Just because your brain works better doesn’t mean you can suddenly write with your off hand. That takes training.
Or working a rubik’s cube one handed. Or playing a cello.
I do like that other people are smart enough and know their jobs well enough that sometimes they get the same results. Like the hidden sim card or picking up the verbal slip about the intern.
Eddie is coming off awfully sinister. It’s one thing to put threats to protect his own secret about the shots, it’s different to throw threats around about “you must do this exactly or else” and such. Isn’t there a case to be made for persuasion? Especially since both Eddie and Brian are supposed to be generally nice guys, and the show is really emphasizing Brian that way.
Not just suddenly acquiring physical skills, he also acquired superspeed. Remember the thousands of papers he was supposed to stick into individual files? That was going to keep him busy for a week? And then he knocked it off in an hour or two.
That’s not a matter of processing power, that’s walking along ranks of file cabinets, opening drawers, flicking through to the right folder, inserting a sheet of paper. Over and over and over… He must have suddenly become the Flash.
I like the show, although I do want to smack Brian and Eddie both. Brian for not putting some brain power against the Eddie question (seriously WTF is going on), and Eddie for not being just a little more forthcoming.
I will say it’s clear that Brian is a nicer guy than Eddie, although I like Eddie. It’s hard to say how much of his reformation was growing up and how much of it was wanting to keep his girl. On re-watching the film he pulled some fucked up shit.
I liked it enough, but not recording material.
I wondered if the family gene (that was the cause of his Dad’s illness) was responsible for him not to suffer from the NZT negative effects…
Brian
He did, but it was all (or mostly) for self-defense or self-preservation. Now, at least from Brian’s limited (!) perspective, it’s just out-and-out controlling bullshit power plays. And that ain’t cool.
Eddie is sharing treatments that prevent the negative effects. It’s why the nurse is there, partly. They gave yet to address the fact that Brian should b able to figure out the treatments himself while on NZT.
When the mysterious and menacing “Mister Sands” showed up and got all mysterious and menacing, I wanted Brian to say: “Okay, I get that you’re all mysterious and menacing, but this is exactly the wrong approach to take. If you threaten me or my loved ones, my best response could easily be to kill you immediately, and now that I’ve seen your face and heard your accent and have access to FBI files, I’m confident I can figure out your real name and address in a matter of hours and then it’ll be simple for me to come up with way to take you out, and if I have to, take Morra out, too. I could easily conclude that taking my chances with NZT withdrawal is better than living with your threats, so tell you what - I have a strong incentive to do favors for Morra simply because he’s my route to taking NZT safely. He doesn’t need and should never again resort to this strongarm crap, and if you ever try this mysterious and menacing thing with me again, you’ll could end up dead in a matter of days. If you approach me with civil requests - call them ‘orders’ if it makes you feel powerful, whatever - we can satisfy Morra to everyone’s mutual benefit. Now goodbye, I have a date.”
The mysterious and menacing trope is overplayed, in my opinion.
I used the past tense “wondered”. I know now why he can handle NZT. Just when we were watching it was a theory.
Brian
As mentioned above, you don’t “figure out” biochemistry. You need equipment, testing and time no matter how smart you are.
That would be a brilliant response, and I agree on all counts. Well done.