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Worried about the new season of Numb3rs...
BlogToday I had the chance to watch the season premiere of Numb3rs and I’m pretty worried about where it’s going this season.
Here’s what made the first season work:
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Mathematically / scientifically competent technologists (nerds)
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#1, portrayed by hot women
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A really interesting family dynamic between genius Charlie (David Krumholz), FBI big-brother (Rob Morrow), and Dad (Judd Hirsch). What’s it like to be the older brother while your younger brother is at Ivy League?
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Assuming that the audience might actually be smart
It was for all these reasons that I was sure such an inventive show would be cancelled. It scraped by, but I’m sure the no-talent, formulaic bozos up in CBS management had some ideas on how to “improve” things.
- Sex it up more.
In the first episode I saw the addition of Diane Farr as psychology sexpot. This has the real advantage of her being office-based and being able to wear more form-fitting stuff versus that bulky FBI gear, or FBI-formal suits and skirts that was more commonly worn by the (lamentably departed) Agent Lake (portrayed ably by Sabrina Lloyd).
- More needless frame cuts so that the audience gets vertigo and concludes hours later that they just saw “edgy” television
Hm, it is a Ridley Scott associated endeavor, I suppose that was unavoidable
- See 1
More inclusion of single episode hotties: All bad guys’ girlfriends shall henceforth be strippers.
- Fix horrible intro with Talking Heads track
Good idea, no complaint. Intro sucked
Ideas for Improvement
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Cut Krumholtz’ hair. Man I know what you’re going through. You think it’s hep and happenin’. It’s not man.
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Why must everyone at the FBI act like they don’t get what Charlie is saying? Has anyone done a reality check on how freaking difficult it is to get a job at the FBI? Most people have graduate degrees, or bachelors degrees in (multiple!) highly technical fields. Here’s a sample:
Charlie: “We can use Baysian statistical filters to…”
(any character): I’m just a cave FBI-agent, I don’t understand your math with its pluses and minuses, what talk you about?
How about this, you lazy script writers (just because you don’t understand the concept of df/dx doesn’t mean you don’t have to do some research)
Charlie: “We can use Baysian statistical filters to…”
(any character): “Oh I heard about that, they use that to filter spam based on “key words” that, more often than not, denote spam: refinance”
Charlie: Texas Hold ’em
(any character, preferably female, a bit of a winking moment): Viagra?
Charlie: (rogueishly) I wouldn’t know
- Charlie should develop his romance w/ Amitra (Rawat’s character).
Anyway, I’m worried that it could be the beginning of the end.