Current:Home > InvestReview: Zachary Quinto medical drama 'Brilliant Minds' is just mind-numbing -WealthMindset Learning
Review: Zachary Quinto medical drama 'Brilliant Minds' is just mind-numbing
View
Date:2025-04-15 08:00:16
Zachary Quinto once played a superpowered serial killer with a keen interest in his victims' brains (Sylar on NBC's "Heroes"). Is it perhaps Hollywood's natural evolution that he now is playing a fictionalized version of a neurologist? Still interested in brains, but in a slightly, er, healthier manner.
Yes, Quinto has returned to the world of network TV for "Brilliant Minds" (NBC, Mondays, 10 EDT/PDT, ★½ out of four), a new medical drama very loosely based on the life of Dr. Oliver Sacks, the groundbreaking neurologist. In this made-for-TV version of the story, Quinto is an unconventional doctor who gets mind-boggling results for patients with obscure disorders and conditions. It sounds fun, perhaps, on paper. But the result is sluggish and boring.
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Dr. Oliver Wolf (Quinto) is the bucking-the-system neurologist that a Bronx hospital needs and will tolerate even when he does things like driving a pre-op patient to a bar to reunite with his estranged daughter instead of the O.R. But you see, when Oliver breaks protocol and steps over boundaries and ethical lines, it's because he cares more about patients than other doctors. He treats the whole person, see, not just the symptoms.
To do this, apparently, this cash-strapped hospital where his mother (Donna Murphy) is the chief of medicine (just go with it) has given him a team of four dedicated interns (Alex MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, Ashleigh LaThrop) and seemingly unlimited resources to diagnose and treat rare neurological conditions. He suffers from prosopagnosia, aka "face blindness," and can't tell people apart. But that doesn't stop people like his best friend Dr. Carol Pierce (Tamberla Perry) from adoring him and humoring his antics.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
10 best new TV shows to watch this fall:From 'Matlock' to 'The Penguin'
It's not hard to get sucked into the soapy sentimentality of "Minds." Everyone wants their doctor to care as much as Quinto's Oliver does. Creator Michael Grassi is an alumnus of "Riverdale," which lived and breathed melodrama and suspension of reality. But it's also frustrating and laughable to imagine a celebrated neurologist following teens down high school hallways or taking dementia patients to weddings. I imagine it mirrors Sacks' actual life as much as "Law & Order" accurately portrays the justice system (that is: not at all). A prolific and enigmatic doctor and author, who influenced millions, is shrunk down enough to fit into a handy "neurological patient(s) of the week" format.
Procedurals are by nature formulaic and repetitive, but the great ones avoid that repetition becoming tedious with interesting and variable episodic stories: every murder on a cop show, every increasingly outlandish injury and illness on "Grey's Anatomy." It's a worrisome sign that in only Episode 6 "Minds" has already resorted to "mass hysterical pregnancy in teenage girls" as a storyline. How much more ridiculous can it go from there to fill out a 22-episode season, let alone a second? At some point, someone's brain is just going to explode.
Quinto has always been an engrossing actor whether he's playing a hero or a serial killer, but he unfortunately grates as Oliver, who sees his own cluelessness about society as a feature of his personality when it's an annoying bug. The supporting characters (many of whom have their own one-in-a-million neurological disorders, go figure) are far more interesting than Oliver is, despite attempts to make Oliver sympathetic through copious and boring flashbacks to his childhood. A sob-worthy backstory doesn't make the present-day man any less wooden on screen.
To stand out "Brilliant" had to be more than just a half-hearted mishmash of "Grey's," "The Good Doctor" and "House." It needed to be actually brilliant, not just claim to be.
You don't have to be a neurologist to figure that out.
veryGood! (34)
Related
- 'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
- ROYCOIN Trading Center: Reshaping the Future of Financial Markets with Innovations in NFTs and Digital Currencies
- AP Race Call: Democrat Frederica Wilson wins reelection to U.S. House in Florida’s 24th Congressional District
- Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Explains Impact of the Show on Her and Ex Kody Brown's Kids
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Walmart Employee Found Dead in Oven Honored With Candlelight Vigil in Store’s Parking Lot
- Donald Trump’s Daughter Ivanka Trump Shares Her Life Lessons in Honor of Her 43rd Birthday
- In Hurricane-Battered Florida, Voters Cast Ballots Amid Wind and Flood Damage
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Mother charged after reportedly giving missing child to man during drug exchange
Ranking
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Christina Milian Reveals Why She Left Hollywood for Paris
- Why Travis Kelce Says He Couldn’t Miss Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Milestone
- Republicans easily keep legislative supermajorities in Kentucky
- Family of explorer who died in the Titan sub implosion seeks $50M-plus in wrongful death lawsuit
- AP Race Call: Trahan wins Massachusetts U.S. House District 3
- Seizing Opportunities in a Bear Market: Harnessing ROYCOIN to Capture Cryptocurrency Investment Potential
- AP Race Call: Moulton wins Massachusetts U.S. House District 6
Recommendation
DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
Influencer is banned from future NYC marathons for bringing a camera crew to last weekend’s race
CAUCOIN Trading Center: Opening a New Chapter in the Cryptocurrency Market
Donald Trump Elected as President, Defeats Democratic Candidate Kamala Harris
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
Damon Quisenberry: The Creator Behind DZ Alliance
Trump’s election could assure a conservative Supreme Court majority for decades
CFP rankings reaction and Week 11 preview lead College Football Fix podcast