Numb3rs: The Complete First Season

My first encounter with Numb3rs was over 10,000 feet in the air somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean. I was halfway through a flight back from London and after suffering through an interminable marathon of Everybody Loves Raymond episodes, things began to brighten up when I was informed an episode of Numb3rs would be airing next. While I am not one to regularly watch detective shows, my interest was sparked by the two leading actors. Rob Morrow, who was so memorable as the cocky, determined reporter in Quiz Show is probably best remembered for another television series, Northern Exposure. David Krumholtz, meanwhile, is a very funny actor who gave a scene-stealing performance in the Edward Burns-directed ensemble, Sidewalks of New York in addition to minor roles in everything from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle to Serenity to Ray. Much to my relief, the show turned out to be a fun and exciting 42 minutes of escapist entertainment. However, I was curious to see if the show would still hold up without the aid of a pressurized enclosure.

Created by Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci, Numb3rs takes the standard cop drama formula and tweaks it slightly by using mathematics to solve the cases. Surprisingly, the writers manage to integrate the gimmick pretty consistently without feeling strained. Morrow plays Don Eppes, a hard-edged FBI agent who has devoted his life to fighting crime at the expense of any semblance of a social life. His brother Charlie (Krumholtz) is a mathematical genius who enrolled in Princeton at the age of 13 but when it comes to understanding human behavior, he's relatively clueless. Improbably, Charlie manages to juggle his position as a full-time University Professor with moonlighting as a constant consultant for his brother, using his mathematical brilliance to help solve crime.

Teamwork is emphasized throughout as the two oscillate between deductive reasoning (deriving the consequence of what is known) and abductive reasoning (explaining what is known). Charlie specializes in utilizing forms of applied mathematics and practical reasoning to predict why something happened or how it is going to happen, while Don uses his knowledge of human behavior to make up for the intangibility of the human mind. The subject matter of the crimes varies wildly, jumping around from kidnapping, bank robberies, flu endemics, student suicides and even potential UFO sightings. Judd Hirsch rounds out the primary cast in the effortless but essential role of the show's patriarch, Alan Eppes, who represents safety and stability for the two brothers.

While the episodes are largely self-contained (making it easy for one to follow after being thrust into episode 5 on an airplane), there are a few recurring themes established throughout the 13 episodes of Season One. The predominant issues are sibling rivalry, the loss of the Mother, pressure to achieve potential and importance of teamwork. Most of these

issues are only surface-deep; sibling rivalry is largely played for comedy, loss of the Mother is a way of reuniting the brothers, etc. These issues are occasionally interwoven into the cases themselves, as is the case in Episode 11 "” "Sacrifice" in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt guest stars as a young computer programmer faced with similar concerns about potential as Charlie.

Frustratingly, the show does not offer a linear progression in terms of character arcs. For instance, in Episode 6 "” "Sabotage," Don repeatedly tells Charlie how impressed he is by him, as if his crime solving aptitude is still a surprise even though in Episode 3 "” "Vector," Don found out Charlie was a consultant for the NSA, a more appropriate time for that sort of exaggerated backslapping between characters. This is not to accuse the characterizations of being inconsistent, just uneven in the flow between episodes. While the characters start out somewhat bland (Don feels particularly devoid of personality in early episodes) we are rewarded with snippets of backstory as the show runs on, which proves to be nice in that the writers don't force-feed us excessive amounts of information right from the get-go.

One of Numb3rs' most charming qualities is that it is family friendly. The cases are inherently grim but the level of jeopardy is kept at a manageable level. Foul language is kept to a bare minimum; Rob Morrow deserves credit for making it sound believable for a FBI agent to use words like "darn." Sexuality is almost non-existent, a few hints of romance flitter around periodically but nothing is ever pursued. There are consistent hails of gunfire and occasional explosions but the violence is never gruesome. Instead of the CGI-enhanced explorations inside of cadavers found in CSI, there are CGI-enhanced interstitials of sprinklers, piano keystrokes and games of minesweeper to illustrate the complex points that Charlie is pontificating.

This touches on the other unexpected feature of Numb3rs, its educational benefit. Even though it is somewhat difficult to swallow that Charlie has time to be a Professor, David Krumholtz is very good at explaining theorems in ways that are simultaneously complex and digestible. While one has to be weary of taking too much of the mathematical mumbo jumbo presented during prime-time television on face value, the show does offer enlightenment about various kinds of theoretical applications. Charlie's use of game theory to coax a confession in Episode 10 "” "Dirty Bomb," is delightfully fun and somewhat informative. Season One also boasts an array of talented character actors in guest starring roles including Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Bruce Davison (X-Men), Lou Diamond Phillips (The Big Hit), Ethan Embry (Can't Hardly Wait) and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man).

Watching all 13 episodes back-to-back may not be the best approach to the series. Even though the cases differ, the procedural structure can become indistinguishable, causing episodes

to blend together. But as single-serving, disposable episodes of weekly escapism that marvel with its mathematical ingenuity, Numb3rs is consistently entertaining. However, the emotional core is not fully realized. Episodes 6 and 10 exhibit the best synthesis of the two elements. On the other hand, Episode 4 "” "Structural Corruption," has a strong emotional resonance, the mathematical application is severely lacking. Perhaps by Season Two the creators will have come up with a better equation for balancing mathematics and human attachment.

Special Features

There are a healthy amount of special features that indicate how much the creative team enjoys working on the show. There are five episodes with audio commentary tracks by the co-creators and different creative talent including Rob Morrow, David Krumholtz and even guest star Lou Diamond Phillips. The commentaries are a bit less exuberant than one would hope for with the participants being more reserved and quiet on the whole.

Creating Numb3rs: Season One is a twenty-minute feature of composite interviews with key creative personnel including Executive Producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott discussing the conception and execution of the show.

Point of Origin: Inside The Unaired Pilot is the most interesting feature on the disc. It divulges information on the original, unaired pilot episode featuring a different cast, save David Krumholtz and Peter MacNicol, set in Boston with a less warm and fuzzy family dynamic. As people in Hollywood rarely ever show signs of weakness, the humility involved in discussing how they went wrong and showing snippets of the original footage is very admirable. As always, getting a chance to learn about the behind-the-scenes inner workings of network television is fascinating.

Audition Reels features grainy video footage of David Krumholtz and Navi Rawat performing their original auditions. The feature has optional commentary by the casting director, Mark Saks, which helps to invigorate this rather slow-moving feature.

Do the Math: The Caltech Analysis is a bit disappointing. We get footage of the show's math consultant giving a lecture in which he shows clips from a couple of his favorite episodes. One would hope he would show clips involving the mathematics and either debunk or confirm some of the procedures. Instead, he is merely showing scenes that he finds funny, relating to math adjacently. This is unfortunate; especially after hearing the creators discuss how some schools are using episodes as supplements to their math classes.

Charlievision: FX Sequences 1.0 features visual artist Brad Powell explaining the lengthy process that goes into designing the plethora of 15-second special effects sequences in every episode.

Finally, the Blooper Reel provides the standard line flubbing and goofing around on set, but the first clip involving Krumholtz tripping for no discernable reason is priceless.

Movie Grade: B+

DVD Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B+