Irrational Season 1 Eps 1-6

[AnimeMania]

“The Irrational” is a 10 episode drama TV Series airing on September 25, 2023 on NBC at 10pm. The show is based on the 2008 novel "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely. The Irrational TV Series showcases the day to day life of Alec Mercer, a world-renowned professor of behavioral psychology with a unique insight into human nature, who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, law enforcement, and corporations with his unique and unexpected approach to understanding human behavior. 

 

Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer, a professor of behavioral science who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases. Mercer was injured in a horrific criminal act, but unfortunately, his memory was affected by it and he cannot recall who the perpetrator was. As he helps investigate other cases, he also tries to remember what exactly happened to him.

Travina Springer as Kylie, who is described as a creative free spirit and Alec’s younger sister, with whom he currently resides. 

Molly Kunz as Phoebe, a protégé of Alec and conscientious graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in psychology.

Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan, a grad student of psychology with a playful sense of humor and natural curiosity.

Maahra Hill as Marisa, an astute and intelligent FBI agent with a passion for her work who often finds herself teaming up with Alec in one way or another. She will soon become Mercer’s ex-wife as soon as they finalize the divorce.

Brian King as Jace Richards, an FBI agent who has become involved with Alec’s ex-wife. While he and Alec try and get along, they frequently butt heads over their different approaches to investigations.

[WendyCR72]

I still want to see this and decide for myself, but the TV Line review isn't that promising.

[AnimeMania]

[Trini]

Preview article at TV Insider (TV Guide) with quotes from Martin and the showrunner:

https://www.tvinsider.com/1103087/the-irrational-jesse-l-martin-nbc-series-preview/

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The AV Club's review:

https://www.avclub.com/the-irrational-review-tv-nbc-procedural-1850848723

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Review at Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/irrational-review-wact4jzf

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And of course NBC has a bunch of promo articles for the show:

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/franchise/the-irrational

[statsgirl]

I'm rather excited for it because it's based on the books of Dan Ariely and I've been a fan of his for a long time.

I mean, it can't be worse than Lie To Me (based on the books of Paul Ekman), can it?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, statsgirl said:

 it can't be worse than Lie To Me (based on the books of Paul Ekman), can it?

I read a couple of those articles @Trini linked above, and it sounds like Jesse L. Martin is the only decent actor on the show, and that the dialogue writing is bad.
The reviewers claim to have seen the first 3 episodes, but maybe the pilot was bad and they didn’t really watch the other 2?

Oh well. If it’s really bad, at least we can snark about something new?

[HyeChaps]

Worth taking a look at until Will Trent comes back.

[shapeshifter]

13 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

Worth taking a look at until Will Trent comes back.

Will Trent was too dark for me.
If this show has zero comic relief, I’m out.

[Trini]

I'm still willing to check this out because of Martin; but the consensus from reviews seem to be:  Jesse L. Martin's Charm Isn’t Enough to Save The Irrational From Procedural Predictability

[Cloud9Shopper]

It looks good from the trailer. I haven’t gotten to see Jesse Martin in old school Law and Order too much, so I’m excited to see him in his own show.

I’m also happy to see Amy Aquino guest starring since she’s one of my favorite character actresses, so that will also bring me in for at least whatever episode she’s in (couldn’t tell from the trailer if it’s the pilot or a different episode). I’m going to check it out tonight and see how it goes. I don’t put tons of stock in critic reviews unless they are notably bad. 

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I’m also happy to see Amy Aquino guest starring since she’s one of my favorite character actresses, so that will also bring me in for at least whatever episode she’s in (couldn’t tell from the trailer if it’s the pilot or a different episode).

Episode 2.

[AnimeMania]

S01.E01: Pilot

Professor of behavioral science Alec Mercer is called upon to investigate the murder of a fashion influencer whose boyfriend, a decorated soldier and son of a senator, has confessed to the crime. Mercer suspects there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

Premiere Date: Monday, September 25, 2023     NBC       10pm

Teach Grant as Clay
Caleb Ruminer as Dylan Hayes 
Kareem Malcolm as Harrison Tate
Vincent Delorme as Hostage Negotiator
Soma Chhaya as Jasmine Curtland
Ella Cannon as Lila
Ben Cotton as Wes Manning
Patti Kim as Parole Board Member
Leo Chiang as SWAT Officer

[Trini]

Well, Primetimer's own review is mostly postive (because it mostly talks about Martin).

[roseha]

I was interested after reading the Primetimer review  but it's already after 10 pm here, do you think they could have posted it a few days sooner?

I looked on Peacock and don't see the show.  Maybe NBC will put it there later in the week.  I do like Jesse L. Martin a lot and the premise sounds intriguing.

 

[chessiegal]

We've been watching it on NBC since 10 pm ET.

[WendyCR72]

Well...

It wasn't horrible. And Alec/Jesse is still charismatic.

But...Alec kept talking about his trauma and his burns, and...I don't know...he looked fine to me. I'm sure doing makeup for burns would be time consuming and tough [trying to keep continuity], but if you're going to go that route, commit to it or don't dwell upon it.

And while the memory tricks and such was interesting, I hope it can go a bit deeper, as - as it stands - it just seems a bit pat in explanation.

I did like Alec and his sister. The ex wasn't too bad.

So, to be reductive, it was entertaining enough and could have potential.

BUT...

I hope the "big bad" at the end does not eat the show as big bads have been known to do. [Hi, Nicole Wallace from Criminal Intent and William Lewis from SVU!] Or that will no doubt hurt this show going forward.

We'll see.

[Cloud9Shopper]

It felt a bit slow to me but I suppose some of that slowness is to be expected from a pilot. I’ll give it maybe 2 or 3 more episodes before deciding if I’ll stick with it. 

There were periods when I found myself interested, like when Alec was talking about his burns and we found out what really happened to him and the dynamic with his sisters. And then I kind of zoned out during the AA meeting scenes because I found them to be a little bland. 

[AnimeMania]

There was not a lot of fluff. Alec can be quite charming when playing off of other people. Everybody had really good chemistry, and I enjoyed the psych lessons. I wish the scar on his face wasn't so large, I think it might turn people off from the show. They should probably slow way down on Alec's past trauma or hurry up and put the real person behind bars.

I recognized who the killer was as soon as they appeared on screen.

[shapeshifter]

 

9 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I hope the "big bad" at the end does not eat the show as big bads have been known to do.

Ugh. I hate that too, the worst for me being the almost mythical, invisible Red John who, IMO, should have been nabbed in the first season ofThe Mentalist’s 7 seasons.
BTW: Didn’t Parick Jane drive the same make and model car as Alec does in this Pilot? — although not red?

The burn makeup was disturbing to me on the 54” screen my son-in-law passed on to me — both the super-sized disfigurement, and the way that older TV makes it look iridescent green at times.
So I guess I’ll watch any future episodes on the 23” TV.
A lot of scenes used shadows and angles to seemingly save on having to apply the makeup, but wound up just being distracting to me.

[Cress]

11 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

BTW: Didn’t Parick Jane drive the same make and model car as Alec does in this Pilot? — although not red?

What kind of car is it? It was really cute. He'll probably get something else now that it's totaled.

I liked the show. The sister was cool.

[Jenniferbug]

As something to watch while winding down before bed, this was fine. I'm fairly easy to please. But it didn't grab me as something I MUST watch live from week to week. 

[KeithJ]

Was bored throughout but my wife seemed to like it.  I'll probably end up watching with her since nothing else is on.

[chessiegal]

My husband zoned out after 20 minutes, putting in his airpods to listen to music. Other than the 3 main characters, I had trouble keeping straight other characters and where they fit in. I'll watch again next week.

I worked with a man who was badly burned as a child. He had multiple operations to get him as close to normal as possible, but his facial scarring was much, much worse than they were showing, so it didn't bother me. 

[sempervivum]

Jesse deserves better, but his name is in the credits as a producer, so I guess this was what he wanted. I didn't fall asleep, but while thinking about the show 12 hours later, I had to strain to remember the plot and secondary characters. Also, I prefer crimes being solved via evidence rather than some guy (even an 'expert') theorizing. And actually, he needed that 5-year sobriety coin to clinch the case, no?

Re. the scarrring, what little there was didn't bother me, but considering that he was burned over 60% of his body, it seemed odd that his neck, chest, forearms and hands seemed fine.

I was actually more puzzled by the timeline. The church bombing happened 20 years ago, but Jesse is 54, so why did he appear to be an early-20's college student in the flashback?

 

[peacheslatour]

I watched last night. The problem was, I also had my TV prev'd to Mothership and watching Ed Green's energy and the overall pacing of the show made his new show feel a bit glacial.

[statsgirl]

18 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I recognized who the killer was as soon as they appeared on screen.

Same here. I think part of the problem is that they have to show the killer early on in the episode or else the audience feels cheated so it's too easy to guess.

The first scene, I couldn't figure out what was going on (and I know Ariely's work). Didn't know who the man with the gun was, didn't know why he was taking the baby instead of the woman who would be a great deal easier to use as a hostage. Not a good opener. The only thing that it established for me was the connection with his ex. As TVLine put it, His insistence on bringing up obscure psychological concepts in every conversation is borderline obnoxious.

On the whole, I'll watch again but I'm kind of meh on it. There are more things that I didn't like (such as dumping his experienced female research assistant for the newbie male who I was not impressed with at all).  I liked his relationship with his sister although it's a big stretch that she just happens to be an expert hacker, but the relationship with his ex left me cold. I can see that this is going to be his main romantic relationship (he moved in with his sister rather than get an apartment because he wants to get back with his ex) but I didn't even see good friendship chemistry there much less enough romantic chemistry to hook me.

I liked the blonde (couldn't tell if she was police or the DA, bad sign) but she's only listed for one episode.

I don't hate it but it could be so much better than it was.

[EtheltoTillie]

FYI it’s on Peacock the next day after the NBC airings. I’m watching now.  It’s such a treat to have new content I’m being lenient. 

@shapeshifter I’m going to drag you back to Will Trent.  

[Rickster]

14 hours ago, Cress said:

What kind of car is it? It was really cute. He'll probably get something else now that it's totaled.

I liked the show. The sister was cool.

I think the car was a Karmann Ghia, was made by Volkswagen as their sports car. Would check, but we deleted this off the DVR.

My girlfriend and I found the show sort of meh.

[roseha]

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

FYI it’s on Peacock the next day after the NBC airings. I’m watching now.  It’s such a treat to have new content I’m being lenient. 

@shapeshifter I’m going to drag you back to Will Trent.  

Thanks for the update @EtheltoTillie, I will put the show on my Peacock list. 

[bros402]

Watched this out of boredom.

It wasn't bad, it wasn't anything amazing. I'll probably watch it as something to occupy my time until I get bored of it (coughcoughBullcoughcough).

[Trini]

I wish Jesse was in a better show. This had many of those procedural tropes I've seen before and better. The "working with the ex who they're still in love with" trope annoyed me in particular.

Maybe this could have been better with some better supporting characters/actors. Only Alec's sister stood out to me; although I was annoyed they cast someone young enough to be his daughter. (Yes, I know siblings can be a generation apart; I still think it was a bad choice.)

Isn't JLM going to get tired of getting that burn scar makeup every episode?

In any case this was very pilot-y; I'll see how the next few episodes are.

[torqy]

17 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

 

BTW: Didn’t Parick Jane drive the same make and model car as Alec does in this Pilot? — although not red?

 

Jane drove a Citroen DS. Alec's car is a Karmann-Ghia made by VW.

[Cress]

13 hours ago, statsgirl said:

On the whole, I'll watch again but I'm kind of meh on it. There are more things that I didn't like (such as dumping his experienced female research assistant for the newbie male who I was not impressed with at all)

I didn't get the impression that he "dumped" Phoebe. He said Phoebe was mad at him about something so he assigned her to do something else. He was just giving the newbie some experience (and it allowed audience exposition) Isn't her character still on the show past the pilot?

Thanks Rickster for answering my question about the car.

Regarding the age of the sister vs Alec, is it possible that Jesse's character is supposed to be younger than his actual age? Maybe he's supposed to be in his 40s to fit the timeline of the bombing years ago?

Edited September 27, 2023 by Cress

[12catcrazy]

This show struck me as being lightweight.  Almost seemed more like a CBS Sunday night show rather than NBC, which is ok, because not everything has to be heavy, heavy, heavy. 

I liked the actor playing the lead (I wasn't watching TV when he was on L & O) so I'm not familiar with him.  The actress playing the sister was good (but I also think that she is too young to be his sister - as somebody else said, she looks like she could be his daughter).   The soon-to-be ex-wife was good; wasn't too impressed by the students or the blond DA.  The writing needs to be punchier and less cliched.   So far, its one episode, we'll see where it goes.  

[Johannah]

I'm surprised by all the bad and mediocre reviews here.  I liked it.  A lot.  I found the psychology and "experiments" interesting.  I didn't know any of the actors, but I thought they were fine.  

I really liked the format and even the "away from the job" stuff didn't annoy me yet, like it usually does.  I'm still reserving judgment on the recurring bad guy, because I generally get fed up with that and sometimes stop watching if it takes over a show.

My biggest issue, and maybe someone can explain why this would happen, but the parole hearing...  The guy was in prison for 20 years and never used the fact that he could name a partner to get lenience, so why would that guy-in-the-door assume he would spill the beans after he was out on parole?  Prison-guy wouldn't gain any leverage after released.  Poking his head in the door just let others know that he even existed.  Even if he didn't guess that would be the result, what was the point?  He couldn't have been afraid that prison-guy would come after him and therefore want him to remain in prison, because, clearly, he knew that just poking his head in the door would scare prison-guy.  That part was so stupid, other than to start a plot point - one that I don't want to see developed for more than one more episode...although we know it will last the entire season.

(Had a hard time not using the same pronoun for everyone in that last paragraph, so hope it wasn't too convoluted.)

Other than that one issue, I really liked it and love the psychological stuff.  Looking forward to the next ep.

 

[sempervivum]

17 minutes ago, Johannah said:

(Had a hard time not using the same pronoun for everyone in that last paragraph, so hope it wasn't too convoluted.)

Made perfect sense to me, and you're right. It was very contrived and-dare I say- irrational.

[bluegirl147]

2 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

The actress playing the sister was good (but I also think that she is too young to be his sister - as somebody else said, she looks like she could be his daughter).

I thought she was his daughter till one of them said she was his sister.

I liked it and I will keep watching.  As someone else said this will keep me going till Will Trent comes back.  Whenever that will be.

The unknown big bad puts me in mind of Monk and the storyline that ran throughout the entire series of him looking for his wife's murderer.  Let's hope this mystery is handled better.

 

[chessiegal]

8 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

The unknown big bad puts me in mind of Monk and the storyline that ran throughout the entire series of him looking for his wife's murderer.  Let's hope this mystery is handled better.

I thought the way Monk handled that was very well done. It wasn't the focus of every episode. But then, Monk is one of my favorite shows.

[bluegirl147]

8 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I thought the way Monk handled that was very well done. It wasn't the focus of every episode. But then, Monk is one of my favorite shows.

My problem with that storyline was it seemed to change course so many times.  I always wondered if the writers mapped it out or if they made it up as they went along.

[12catcrazy]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

 

The unknown big bad puts me in mind of Monk and the storyline that ran throughout the entire series of him looking for his wife's murderer.  Let's hope this mystery is handled better.

 

The Grand Daddy of these shows with the search for the elusive  Big Bad was a show in the 60s called "The Fugitive"  where the hero spent like 3 or 4 years searching for the guy who murdered his wife (a crime which he was accused of committing). 

[statsgirl]

9 hours ago, Cress said:

I didn't get the impression that he "dumped" Phoebe. He said Phoebe was mad at him about something so he assigned her to do something else. He was just giving the newbie some experience (and it allowed audience exposition) Isn't her character still on the show past the pilot?

I should have made it clearer that it was the show, a contrived reason to sideline the chief research assistant so that he could take the male newbie along to prof 'splain what he was doing.

My eyes rolled so hard during those scenes -- my experience of being a research assistant consisted of photocopying (before journals were on line), making notes on articles, and running experiments. Never accompanying the prof to AA meetings.

[kaygeeret]

It's the pilot so lots of plot points to introduce and lots of characters to begin to get established.

I have great hopes for this one just based on the star whom I have always liked.

we will see if it can come up to Will Trent standards by the end of its first season.

[peacheslatour]

44 minutes ago, kaygeeret said:

It's the pilot so lots of plot points to introduce and lots of characters to begin to get established.

I have great hopes for this one just based on the star whom I have always liked.

we will see if it can come up to Will Trent standards by the end of its first season.

I really hope this show finds it's groove because I so much want to love it.

[bros402]

One thing I hope we get out of this show is some behavioral psychologist analyzing the episodes and pointing out how good/bad it is. Those breakdown videos for shows can be hilarious

[AnimeMania]

One potential problem with this episode, "Does the police test your blood alcohol level when you claim you committed a crime and were too drunk to remember what happened?" I would think that how drunk you were at the time of the incident would be important information if the case went to trial.

[EtheltoTillie]

The actress playing the sister looks so familiar, but I haven't seen any of her credits.  Oh, well. 

[shapeshifter]

33 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

The actress playing the sister looks so familiar, but I haven't seen any of her credits.  Oh, well. 

imdb.com/name/nm3661483/ ?

[EtheltoTillie]

32 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

imdb.com/name/nm3661483/ ?

Yeah, I looked at this the other day.  I have not seen any of these.  I just don't know where I've seen her. 

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

imdb.com/name/nm3661483/ ?

There's a Muslim Seinfeld?

[PrincessPurrsALot]

S01.E02: Dead Woman Walking

Quote

Prof. Mercer is approached by old friend CJ, a prominent investigative journalist, who asks for his help after she’s poisoned with a rare and deadly nerve agent. With time running out, Mercer pieces together scant clues.

Original air date 2023.10.02