PURE GENIUS starts off on a bit of an odd note this week: instead of some sort of medical emergency, the first few minutes consist of Dr. Brockett asking Angie to delete security footage of Dr. Verlaine kissing her the day before.
No, you did not miss an episode (I confirmed as I madly scrambled to search the show’s Imdb and Wikipedia pages). For some reason the writers are just choosing to be coy about this whole security footage thing – could it be some secret twist to be revealed before the end of the episode? (On a side note, why would you tell someone to delete the footage? If you didn’t say anything, they wouldn’t know about it, so why even bring it up? The only person who’s going to see it is a security guard, who’s probably just grateful for some mild entertainment.)
Then we get into our medical cases for this week. Thankfully, the show has whittled down its normal number of patients per episode from three to two. The first is Melissa Remy, a diabetic who needs a life-saving surgery to remove a tumor, but is too overweight to undergo said surgery without serious risks. Bell sets her up with an app that monitors her calorie intake, so she’ll know when she’s reached her limit and thus can safely lose weight. A lot of the technology in this show seems to exist more in technobabble rather than in actual science, but if we really have something like this possible in the near future – I mean, I’ll take one.
Our second patient is Ryan Hamilton, a police officer who has lost his memory in a car accident as well as regressing to the mind of a seven-year-old. Bell tries to play therapist with him, which is amusing, considering he has trouble talking to people anyway, and gets punched in the face for his troubles.
The problem here is, Bell has hit a plateau as far as character development. In the pilot, we got a sense of depth, as we discovered his diagnosis with GSS and how Bunker Hill is his way of coping with his own looming mortality. But since then, there hasn’t been much change – he’s just the so-called genius who’s way out of his depth, surrounded by smarter people who are forced to carry out his ramblings, where he manages to just pull through even though he’s flying by the seat of his pants.
He had the dream and the drive and the money to create this place, but the reality of it seems to be beyond him. During Ryan’s surgery, he’s the alien in the room, squealing about “I’m reprogramming a brain!”, in a moment that I’m guessing is supposed to come off as child-like wonder, but mostly comes across as irritating. Unless he finds a way to feel like he’s contributing something meaningful to the team, Bell is starting to feel less and less relevant to the show – not a good sign for a main character.
Unfortunate character writing aside, the episode does have a genuinely affecting moment. Melissa, needing an MRI for the surgery, is forced to use the MRI machine at the local zoo, as the machine at Bunker Hill can’t accomodate her weight. You can feel her humiliation as she gets up on the machine, and her sister has to shoo away a zebra and its keeper who are waiting in line behind her. It’s a strange scene, kind of funny in a horrible way just because of how bizarre it is, but feeling that shame and embarrassment along with her is an effective moment in the show. Even with how awful it was, I was just glad to finally feel emotionally engaged.
Meanwhile, Ryan is on the mend after surgery. He is acting like an adult again, but only partial memory has been restored – he remembers his time at the police academy, but not his wife Kayla or anything about their married life. This is the first time the show hasn’t fixed everything by the end of the episode, which I thought was an interesting turn. What an arresting and complex thought to reflect on. Maybe even the most advanced hospital in the world isn’t magic; even the most tragic of ailments can’t always be cured-
-until they are, with a parting stab at romanticism, as Dr. Wallace and Dr. Channarayapatra help Ryan and Kayla recreate the beginning of their first date, and he starts to remember. Yes, okay, it’s cute; I just wish it didn’t feel so tacked-on.
On top of all that, some potentially awkward romances are shifting beneath the surface. Angie likes Scott, but it turns out he is a priest, and thus celibate. I’m not sure I like what they’re setting up here; it feels like a trope, but then again it could be kind of interesting, if written the right way? I just really, really want something to surprise me about this show.
Then, we find out Dr. Brockett’s secret – she was the one who kissed Dr. Verlaine, not the other way around!…Not really a huge twist, but I’ll take it.
I mean, this could work, right? As long as there’s not some stupid love triangle – OH NO.
Bell and Brockett and Verlaine. This show is just determined to hit all the tropes.
I hate love triangles.
There isn’t even chemistry between any of them – the characters aren’t defined enough to know how they work off of each other. Though there’s more chemistry between Brockett and Verlaine than Bell and Brockett…but they’re still all just awkward – not even the cute awkward, just uncomfortable awkward.
Maybe they’ll get better. I don’t know. The problem is, like the development of Bell and pretty much every other character on the show, Pure Genius is in a plateau. It’s not better than last week, and it’s not worse – it’s stuck in the doldrums and, contrary to the premise of the show, it’s playing it safe. If it wants a reason to exist, it needs to find a way to define itself and make itself distinctive within the Thursday night line-up. Otherwise, in a short time it might find itself on its way out.
Season 1, Episode 3 (S01E03)
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
