Things To Make and Do

March 16, 2005

Alright! So it's been well...months...since I did this. Let's see if I can still remember how it works, eh?

I'm going to talk sports on the other blog some time soon, but right now I'm going to talk about a TV show that's airing here on Saturday nights, and it's called "Numb3rs".

The stars of the show are Rob Morrow, David Krumholtz and Sabrina Lloyd. The premise is that FBI agent (Morrow) enlists the help of his math-genius kid brother (Krumholtz).

Yes, on first glance it looks like it might just be a quirky-but-formulaic cop thriller. But under the surface it's actually pretty well written and the relationship between Morrow and Krumholtz is particularly well done (as a guy with a much smarter kid brother, I can identify with a lot of Morrow's motivations and neuroses). Lloyd turns in good performaces every week as the profiler in the group, but it's the way in which the solutions always come back to the numbers that is fascinating. Variously they track down a counterfeiting operation and a killer toxic agent using dispersal theories and crack a case of the murder of a corporate whistle blower with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal (that the act of observing something changes the behaviour of the thing being observed). It should be dull as any one of the Data Commuications classes I doodled through in college, but it's not. It's captivating, amusing, poignant and a little corny.

And it uses a loop from Once In A Lifetime y Talking Heads as its theme, so bonus points for that, too.

The US version of The Office begins next week so I might have to check that out, but since I a) hated the UK version and b) blog twice a year, I would not be holding my breath were I in your shoes.

4 Comments:

  • You hated The Office and like Once in a Lifetime. Once again proving that shared genes are no indication of coming from the same planet. Hope all is rocking stateside.

    By Blogger Mister Connor, at Tue Mar 29, 08:31:00 AM  

  • I downloaded it...it was crap. I have no witty or genius literary comments. It was a blah as the original. I much prefer his stand up stuff.

    Howver, is it worth watching House MD which is due to start on Cable here?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Sat Apr 16, 10:14:00 AM  

  • House MD is okay...if you can stand Hugh Laurie with an American accent. Me, I just keep expecting him to do this:
    "If this man doesn't get a full organs transplant he's going to be dead within minutes...and, dammit, Bladders, I can't find my most extravagantly enormous trousers anywhere!"

    Which is, as you might imagine, somewhat contrary to my enjoying the show to its fullest.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Wed Apr 20, 10:05:00 AM  

  • I read an interview with Hugh Laurie the other day. It's crushingly disappointing that the man isn't a hybrid of Prince George/Bertie Wooster. He was talking and making sense and didn't once say "Now I may be as thick as a whale omelette..."

    Terrible to see.

    By Blogger Mister Connor, at Sat Apr 30, 08:26:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home