Brilliant Minds

So in a number of ways "Brilliant Minds" is similar to "The Irrational." A super smart dude with weaknesses with super smart friends and a gaggle of smart but sort of clumsy interns goes around solving mysteries. In the former (Brilliant Minds") they are largely medical mysteries; in the latter it is... um... more of a detective series where a University professor solves murders and such.

One BIG difference is that in the former we have Zachary Quinto. He is a wonderful actor and he is really, really good in this. He plays a very interesting character who has "facial blindness". He's quite quirky and after a few episodes the show becomes less like "The Irrational" (which let's admit it, is kind of dumb) and much more like "House". The episodes leading up to the middle of this the first season have been really good.

I believe that the main character (which Quinto plays) is based on the late Dr. Oliver Sacks. Sacks wrote a (classic) book called "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and some of his cases have been reimagined as episodes in this series. I find that very interesting.

I recommend this if you like medical dramas. I think you need to get past the first 4 or 5 episodes and that's only fair... Series like this often take a while to kick in and you need to be patient. It was at Episode 7 where I was really knocked over. It is excellent - the writing is fantastic and it and has an unexpected (at least for me) ending.

So my message to you is to ignore those people who wrote a review after watching just one episode. Sheesh.

There are for sure a few things that bug me about this series but my hope is by the end of the first season those will be ironed out.

I should admit I enjoy medical dramas and that I totally loved House. I think it may be one of the best network TV shows ever made in the U. S. So comparing this show to House is a compliment.

I just now realised after watching Awakenings for the first time, that the show is based heavily on real life doctor Oliver Wolf Stacks and some of the medical cases are based of real medical cases that doctor Sacks wrote about just like the amazing case that Awakenings is based on.

I went and searched the Internet and read about him and it gave me a whole now perspective on the show.

The biggest difference is that the show takes place today rather than in dr Sacks lifetime and in my opinion it would have been more interesting to keep the story in the 70s and 80s. Nevertheless the show worth watching.

I really like Brilliant Minds, but please don't pass on incorrect information. You cannot get a dishonorable discharge after you are discharged. And your activity after discharge cannot alter your discharge type. If your behavior is threatening or exposing military secrets that's criminal not impacting their military performance. And if they are being seen by the VA hospital then they are "veterans" which means out of the service. If they were still active than they are service members. The information should be as truthful as possible. I know this was just added to further the storyline, but it very harmful to any honorably discharged person!

The first episode kept me so interested!!! A lot of doctors truly don't see the person they sometimes see a helpless person with an illness to the brain. I love that this serious digs deep into who they are not what they're become. My uncle had a stroke the doctors were saying he won't understand speech, won't walk or talk. Truly discouraging it's been 3 months and he understands language, is trying to speak and stand. All n all it proves doctors aren't god they don't know everything. I really like how this series portrays this message. To not give up because of the patients condition. All n all I'm excited for this series. I hope we get a season 2.

Love that this show focuses on making a persons weakness their strength. Showing that what makes them different might be what gives them power. I look forward to the potential story lines and characters with this cast. It's refreshing to see a new idea when there are so many medical shows today. The fact that this show has decided to take risks and talk about subject matter that is potentially taboo is refreshing. I wish more shows would spend as much time developing the characters as the show put into the pilot. You truly understand where this is coming from and it is so important to him to fix the patient and not the diagnosis.