- Title: The Irrational – Pilot
- IMDb: link
The Irrational is the latest entry in the long line of police consultant procedurals with college professor Alec Mercer (Jesse L. Martin) helping the FBI, and his ex-wife (Maahra Hill), on cases the first of which is a former soldier confessing to the murder of his ex-girlfriend (Soma Chhaya) who Alec is convinced is innocent. The setup takes elements from various detective and consultant shows over the years, who often explains to others (and the audience) what he sees that they are missing, while also including a dark personal mystery which haunts out genius professor and will likely be the thread woven in over the course of the series.
Martin is charming here in the playful but still serious professor, as are his various experiments. We also get Molly Kunz and Arash DeMaxi as his teaching assistants who help as much in his criminal work as in his teaching. If the “Pilot” has a weakness its how much it attempts to get done in a single episode from setting up all the major, and minor, players as well as the source of Alec’s trauma and already giving him new clues to follow, some of which could have be dispersed a little more over the show’s first few episodes rather than feeling so heavily crammed in here. I’m interested to see where the show goes but, based on what we’ve seen in the opening episode, I’m likely to enjoy the weekly murder of the week more than the ongoing personal mystery haunting our protagonist.
