This week, PURE GENIUS starts out with what’s becoming a pattern for this show, and it’s only the second episode: a corny moment pulled from every drama’s Book of Cliches. The disgruntled son, Luke, is upset at his father, Dr. Wallace, for working too much. Every show needs family drama to give it a heart, but I know a genuinely good actor like Dermot Mulroney deserves better material than this.
Luckily, that cringe-worthy scene is immediately followed by easily the best comedic moment of the episode, as Angie Cheng speculates about co-worker Scott’s “mysterious” past. Brenda Song injects so much energy into her performance here, it’s a much-needed zap to the show’s dour atmosphere. I laughed out loud when she called Scott “Apple Man,” because her delivery was so perfect, and her rapid-fire, rambling sentences running over each other as she imagines his dramatic past is probably the most entertaining dialogue this show has offered up yet. Props to Song for making such a small moment so great!
Unfortunately, we then have to return to the medical part of the show, which the writers thus far haven’t been able to balance that well. This week we have a patient, Amelia Fisher, with a rare blood type who needs a liver transplant. The only possible donor? Her estranged father, who she refuses to see or accept a transplant from. Against her wishes, Bell invites her father to the hospital, predictably jump-starting his gradual descent into “unlikable character” territory.
We had some sympathy for Bell in the pilot, because he was the odd but endearing genius who wanted to help people. We were also drawn in by his status as a sufferer of a debilitating disease that will eventually take that genius from him. Here, though, we lose that humanity; in refusing to accept Amelia’s decision, he puts his plans above hers, and shows an arrogance and disregard for others that should frankly be concerning for someone who’s in charge of a hospital holding the world’s greatest technology. If he isn’t benevolent, if he chooses to ignore patients’ wishes and instead wants to use them as a testing ground for his own experimental cures, this is no longer a hospital – it’s a laboratory. And now suddenly this has become the prequel to the next Stranger Things; wouldn’t that be a twist.
Overall, Augustus Prew’s performance as Bell feels a bit off this whole episode; while his quirks were entertaining in the first episode, his awkwardness in this one has devolved into annoying. Perhaps it’s because of his arrogance that his quirks no longer feel like something to just go along with; he’s essentially a rich guy standing in the middle of a room, telling smarter people what to do and lecturing them about things they already know. If Bell is going to stand strong as one of our two leads, he needs to feel relevant to the plot; him coming up with ideas is great, but if he’s going to be down in the thick of it, he needs to be shown creating something or improving something himself, so his only abilities aren’t just fast talk and bags of money.
And let’s talk about one of the most cringe-worthy elements of this show: Bell and Dr. Zoe Brockett. Come on, writers – if they’re going to be the show’s main romance, does it have to feel like you’re broadcasting it with a megaphone? Granted, it did bring us a few chuckle-worthy comedic moments – I did love when Dr. Brockett asked Bell to build a park and he agreed. You could tell he would have agreed to build a skyscraper if she’d asked. How much is Bell going to end up building for her before he actually gets the courage to ask her out, I wonder? Dr. Wallace also got in a good line when Bell admitted he’d built six parks: “Most people just buy flowers.”
Who knows, though; maybe it’s a fake-out from the writers, as Dr. Brockett and Dr. Malik Verlaine were shown growing closer this episode. If you couldn’t tell, from all the arm-touching. That’s all they can do until episode five or six. Need to ramp up that sexual tension, I guess.
Dr. Verlaine actually brings us the most interesting part of the show, as spider silk is used to to support the injuries of a young boy whose legs were crushed by a car. It’s this kind of stuff I wish Pure Genius would focus on more – innovative treatments, new possibilities in science and medicine, just genuinely interesting stuff. Not that relationships between characters can’t be interesting, but the show needs to work on finding a balance between its characters’ emotional dilemmas and the medical problems of the hospital, or at least write characters and relationships with more dimension to them.
I’m still wondering why this show is called Pure Genius; I think it would be better named Bunker Hill. It shouldn’t be about Bell’s singular intelligence and what he can do; it should be about the hospital itself and what it stands for. Everyone in this show is brilliant in their field, but it shouldn’t be about their collective genius; it should be about the people they’re trying to help, and the hope for the future and the faith in progress that they can inspire. Maybe the show is wrong in focusing on Bell and Dr. Wallace; maybe if the focus was more on the patients, not just as an illness-of-the-week element, but characters we could get to know over a long-term stay at Bunker Hill, this series could finally have something worth sticking around for.
As it is, the episode ends on a dull note, when Dr. Wallace goes home to make up with his disgruntled son. I hope this tired family drama isn’t around every week.
While an improvement on last week, Pure Genius still has a ways to go. I’m hoping for a continued ascent from here, however gradual.
Season 1, Episode 2 (S01E02)
Pure Genius airs Thursdays at 10PM on CBS
Read all of our reviews of Pure Genius here.
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Cailin is a screenwriter and an aspiring TV writer. When not writing, she’s busy convincing random passersby that Firefly was the best show ever, converting her co-workers into Whovians, and waiting for the next season of Sherlock.
Follow Cailin on Twitter: @sherlocked1058
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Cailin Coane | Contributor
