CBS’ new medical drama Pure Genius is a fun mix of House, Grey’s Anatomy, MacGyver, and FOX’s short-lived Red Band Society.
Dermot Mulroney stars as the brilliant (old-school) Dr. Walter Wallace who reluctantly takes a position as the Chief of Staff at Bunker Hill – a hospital on the cutting edge of medical science, led by a young Silicon Valley tech titan, James Bell (Augustus Prew).
Although this drama is part “story-of-the-week”, it’s also part romantic-drama (a la Grey’s Anatomy and Red Band Society). Augustus Prew’s performance as the eccentric, and medically ignorant, James Bell is perfect and makes me miss living in the Silicon Valley myself. I could absolutely see this show lasting a couple of seasons, if (and ONLY if,) they start airing the episodes in order.
The character progression and over-arching storylines get lost when episodes air out of order, and it’s infuriating to the fans. We not only notice inconsistencies in character growth, but there are actual plot-lines that get lost!
Odette Annable plays the young ingenue Doctor, Dr. Brockett, who is torn between two potential loves, one of which played by Aaron Jennings. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Brenda Song – who is great in the role of Angie Cheng – and the good-looking Ward Horton as former Monk, Dr. Strauss.
I’m really enjoying this show, but will not be able to continue to enjoy if the love triangle gets reset every few episodes.
Pure Genius aired Thursdays at 10pm on CBS, but moves to Sundays on January 1st.