Numb3rs - oh yeah, this'll be a hit

Cafe Society
21

The choice of theme song – “Once In A Lifetime” by The Talking Heads – is oddly bouncy.

I, too, am pleased to see Sabrina Lloyd as a cast member. I can only hope that she doesn’t wind up consigned to the same fate as, say, Kathryn Erbe on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” i.e. The Girl Who Stands Around Telling The Boys How Smart They Are.

I’m wondering if the hot math student is destined to get it on with Morrow’s character? They did share an interesting look.

22

I thought there were some interesting things, and interesting possibilities going forward, but there were a number of REALLY annoying things that have the potential to completely ruin the show.

I would watch it the next couple of weeks to see which way it goes, but if anyone didn’t notice, it’s being consigned to Fridays at 10pm. Uh-huh. Right.

23

I thought it was weird that they used the San Fernando Mission as a college campus. Or at least that’s what it appeared to be.

The LA Times review of the show said that the best thing the show will accomplish is prevent there being a “CSI: LA”.

I wonder how the bad guy could afford living in Century City.

24

It’s worth noting that the initial or pilot episode of any show usually has a different vibe than the show ends up with. I saw the pilot episode of CSI recently and it was a totally different dynamic than what we see now.

Give Numb3rs a few weeks then we’ll see.

(Oh, and Sabrina Lloyd can show up on my TV any time she wants!)

25

My tv guide said they were using Caltech for the college scenes.

26

Mr Blue Sky
*“DROP IT!! I’ve got a quadratic equation and I’m not afraid to use it!”
*

Oh yeah ??? Well two can play at that game copper !!!

www.1728.com/quadratc.htm

27

Yep, definitely Caltech. I went there, and I recognized the campus.

Ed

28

Watched the first episode. Not impressed. I thought it was hilarious when the math guy said something about getting all the pieces of data related to the serial killer case into a spreadsheet! Yep, that’s the trick, a spreadsheet will figure out the location of the killer. When he explained the stupidity of buying lottery tickets because the laws of basic probability are against you, I had to grimaced again. It seemed so contrived to let him show off some math. This series will go down.

29

There was a MAD parody once , where they tried to make shows more educational. One of 'em was (paraphrased from memory):

M.A.T.H.– a group of mathematicians are drafted to serve in the Korean War. In this episode, B.J. and Hawkeye put a trapezoid in Frank’s bed, and Col. Potter finds a parallelogranm in his shoe. Guest star: Isaac Asimov

30

Civilian (humanities type) checking in here – I thought it was interesting, and plan to watch again. I liked the characters, and though even I thought “spread sheet? are you sure?,” I so welcome the appearance of intelligent people on TV that I’ll give it another chance or two.

31

Peter McNichols as the video-game playing philisophical physics guy? Count me in!

32

I’ll watch it again. The Death Slot it’s going into won’t help but maybe CBS has learned not to expect miracles.

Supposedly they have some people from Caltech checking the math.

Oh! David Krumholtz (the math guy) is in Serenity! That’s a point in his favor.

33

Apparently it’s this guy.

34

Anthony Heald. Although his IMDB résume doesn’t yet include his Numb3rs gig. He was also the self-important assistant principal in Boston Public.

And btw, it’s Dr. Chilton, according to IMDB.

35

I think the regular timeslot will be Fridays at 9c/10e. Where the competition is NBC’s Medical Investigation and ABC’s 20/20. It just can’t be worse than Medical Investigation. Can it?

36

In retrospect, it did look like Caltech. And it’s likely a whole lot easier to get permission to film there than at a mission.

37

I got some definite Real Genius deja vu with certain scenes.

38

Just the other day, whilst channel hopping, we came across a programme who’s premise was crime fighting postal inspectors. We joked as to what they’d do next. Scarily enough, even in our wildest, most outrageous thoughts, crime fighting mathematicians never occured to us.

39

I watched it last night - not great, but not horrible (IMHO).

The Good - -

  • Peter McNichols & Sabrina Lloyd are both back on television.
  • Actually the whole cast was fairly well chosen.
  • The math angle is interesting, and the fact that the mathmatician deals with chaos theory and probability makes it more interesting than most CSI clones.
  • The “genius-character” (Patent Pending) is neither a geek, ultra-hip, or an obsessive compulsive Monk clone (I love Monk, do not try to replicate it). The fact that he was a fairly normal guy with a highly advanced skill makes me have hope for future shows.

The Bad - -

  • Crime of the week crap, once again. I prefer shows with an overarching story -line.
  • What the heck is Peter McNichols role here? The mentor, the clue-less sidekick, the Xander? He shifted from being the obviously inferior math guy to the wise profound advisor a couple of times during the show. And since when does being good in math equal having good enough hand eye coordination to play almost extinct 80’s video games.

The Ugly - -

  • IAACL (I am a criminal lawyer) and the legal part of the show was horrible. The writers clearly need someone to advise on FBI search protocols just as much as someone to check the math. I counted at least five times I could have gotten any case against the bad-guy-du-jour laughed out of court. And I’m waiting for the case when probability theory is the evidence against a guy - probability theory vs. reasonable doubt is always an interesting debate (we run into occasionally with DNA testing.)

My verdict - I’ll watch it if it’s on (which is a good recommendation as I generally avoid cop-lawyer-doctor shows like the plague), but it isn’t "appointment television.

40

He is a physicist/cosmologist; someone who is a little better able to deal with the abstract than the mathmatician apparently.