Today's post on what I am watching on television has not one but FOUR series making their Tuesday TV Touchbase debut.
Brilliant Minds
This series wormed it's way into our awareness with frequent promos while Andrea and I were watching the Summer Olympics on NBC.
Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf, a super smart neurologist who doesn't play by the rules. Which is why he winds up near the bottom of the hospital hierarchy at Bronx General Hospital.
OK, this may remind you of House and that's a good call. Brilliant doctor with a cadre of interns work super hard to find a solution to a patient's super hard condition. You know the drill.
But Dr. Wolf does differ in some ways from the cantankerous Dr. House.
Wolf is immediately drawn to get to know the patient, to see the world from their perspective, to understand how they are experiencing their symptoms.
Wolf has a condition known as "face blindness" (we all look alike to him) which causes him to appear brusque and dismissive of others which makes his deep dive into empathy for his patients particularly ironic and compelling.
NBC has put out a series with a gay lead. It's not a big deal. Wolf explains to a patient who is also a basketball coach his lack of sports skills stems from being in high school as "the short skinny gay kid who got picked last for team sports".
Brilliant Minds may be formulaic but so far it's worth watching for Zachary Quinto's intensity and charisma on screen.
From solving medical mysteries to solving crimes...
High Potential
Blame Tik Tok for making want to watch this one. The video of a mini-skirted cleaning lady dancing around a police station likes she's in "da club" when she stops and makes a correction to a cop's murder board and then keeps on dancing.
Kaitlin Olson (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) is Morgan, a single mother with three children. She is also a high potential intellectual with an IQ of 160 and a wide range of knowledge. Morgan is poor because having an IQ of 160 and a wide range of knowledge is not quote the boon you might think it is so she has trouble holding down a job.
Her brain is always on and she has no way to shut it off. She sees something wrong and she has to fix it or it keeps her from getting any sleep.
LAPD Police Captain Salina (Judy Reyes from Scrubs) decides to take a chance on this wackadoodle cleaning lady to help her Major Crimes Unit to solve some damn crimes.
Think Sherlock but in this case, the crime solving genius is capable of human empathy and looks better in short skits.
High Potential has (dare I say?) potential for being an intriguing addition to the genre of the crime solving procedural.
From solving crimes to committing them...
The Penguin
This series picks up on the aftermath of the Matt Reeves directed DC film The Batman. Still reeling from the Riddler's destruction of Gotham City's sea wall, the city is in chaos and not helping matters is the conflict between two major crime families, the Falcones and the Maronis.
In a moment of anger when crime boss Alfonse Falcone was laughing at him, Oswald Cobb*, our erstwhile Penguin, shoots the bastard.
*A show this serious was not going to call him "Cobblepot" as he is in the comics.
The series involves Oswald's efforts to play the Falcones against the Maronis as he waddles his way up the ladder to keep out of jail and out of the grave while bolstering his power and influence on Gotham's organized crime.
When all of this over, Oswald expects to be the kingpin of crime of Gotham City.
This is a graphically violent and intensely profane show. If all you know about Batman is the Adam West TV show, you will not recognize this series.
I am really fascinated by this take on the Penguin and I am very much intrigued to see where this goes.
Now from DC to Marvel...
Agatha All Along
The enchantment Wanda Maximoff put on Agatha Harkness at the end of WandaVision has been broken.
Agatha is pissed!
She wants her life back! She wants her power back!
Gathering a coven of misfit witches, Agatha leads a quest down the mythical Witches' Road and...
Damn!
I know it's been what 20 or 30 years since WandaVision ended but Agatha All Along quickly asserts itself as it's own thing.
By the way,I hope you like "The Ballad of the Witches' Road" because it is instrumental (ha! ha!) to the plot. Here it is being performed in episode 2.
The look and style of this show is awesome and Kathryn Hahn is just so damn good! Agatha All Along is at turns scary and funny and sometimes at the same time. If you've gotten bored with Marvel journey, this series might be enough to get you back on the road again.
And that is that for this week's touchbase.
Next time we go from new things to returning things,
Next week's Touchbase, we've got...
- Superman & Lois
- Law & Order
- Abott Elementary
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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