S01.E01: Pilot

[BooBear]

I was fully expecting to hate this show, and when I first heard of the concept, I thought it would be a bad imitation of The Pretender, where he becomes someone different every week.  But, I did like this show, and will look forward to watching it

 

Yes I enjoyed it too. it was the best of the shows I saw this week. I don't love the idea of using him for procedurals but hopefully it won't be every week. I didn't see the orginal movie but I thought this kind of reminded me of "Lucy" but more restrained.

[sjohnson]

Racking my brain trying to figure out what procedural/detective show Thomas Jane is on before I realized you were referring to Simon Baker's Patrick Jane!

You are correct. I also agree that Jake McDorman is very pleasant company, which is one way the series is softening the movie. Cooper's Mora wasn't a particularly nice fellow. I'm not sure that I'd want to spend ten times as many hours with an Eddie Mora than a Brian Finch, though, so I wouldn't be sure the series is making a mistake going softer for the lead. Patrick Jane in my memory was always at his snottiest dealing with rich assholes, which was quite entertaining to me, but lots of people hated that. 

 

Considering how bad Dexter got, I'm puzzled as to why so many people seem to be resistant to seeing Jennifer Carpenter play something different. At this point I don't see any resemblance between Debra Morgan and this character. 

[MissLucas]

Well, I always thought Jake McDorman to be the best actor on Greek - so anything he shows up in gets at least a test-run. I liked it. It helps that I don't have a pathological hate for procedurals - but I do hope they add some of the twists mentioned in the discussion here. Also: the comparison to Intelligence is unfair as I never felt compelled to yell 'Get a damn haircut!' at Brian.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Will Your Interest In Limitless Be Commensurate With Its Name?
Another day, another sci-fi procedural based on a movie. Is this one worth your deep, intense focus?

[hnygrl]

So far, I like it. Don't LOVE it, but eh...pretty good. I see a couple different directions they can go with this, and I really hope they don't go the stupid, only one season please, direction.

 

If they make him go rogue? Like his dad/mom get killed and he has nothing left to lose?

NOW ya got a show.

 

But this working for the FBI thing could be good until season....2 and a half? They're going to have to make him go rogue before doing the FBI's Job for them gets old.

[Sandman]

I think the show's been been made over quite significantly in order to make it more palatable as network tv (CBS in particular?). Eddie Mora was definitely not a likeable guy in the movie -- possibly he would qualify as an anti-hero. Definitely a selfish ass for most of the story. The movie was also very clear -- and I suspect the novel was even more so, though I haven't read it -- that we're dealing with a destructive addiction -- addiction to the most spectacular performance-enhancing drug in pharmacological history, but an addictive drug nonetheless. That nasty aspect has mostly been handwaved away by Mora's intervention, but, haha, not THAT kind of intervention.

At the same time, CBS has a habit, it seems to me, of featuring protagonists who are actually first-class jerks or barely tolerable human beings and pretending that their nonsense is, if not heroic, certainly acceptable, without ever really acknowledging that their special qualities are not a license to behave like destructive toddlers. So far, McDorman seems likeable enough. We'll see, I guess.

[tanita]

Ok, so. Is this a direct sequel to the Bradly Copper movie or an adaptation of the film for tv ? Is it like Minority Report that I have to have previous knowledge (which I don't as I haven't seen the original) or I can start fresh and get everything from the pilot ???

[Netfoot]

You shouldn't need to be familiar with the movie, but it would fill in a few blanks in the early stages.

[Drummer Boy-Toy]

Let's see if I got this straight....The show CHUCK married the show FOREVER and they became the proud parents of the show LIMITLESS.   Jennifer Carpenter (love the moniker: "Not Deb") follows the footsteps of fellow Dexter alumnus Yvonne Strahovski and Alana De La Garza as the gun-toting, badge carrying, ass-kicking CIA/NYPD/FBI Agent-ette.  And of course, they ALL answer to a Female authority figure: Pentagon General Diane Beckman in Chuck, Lt. Johanna Reece in Forever, and now Special Agent in Charge Nasreen 'Naz' Pouran. Hey, this show literally writes itself.

[shapeshifter]

...Hey, this show literally writes itself.

"Literally"?

There's literally a thread for that: forums.previously.tv/topic/11652-literally-and-other-offenders-on-the-grammar-police-docket

;>)

But to your point: I'd say the lead boy here is more like Chuck, and the lead girl is more like Forever's. Is that what you meant too?

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

During the rewatch of the series premiere, I couldn't help but feel Boyle came off as a hypocrite toward Rebecca with the whole "had a clear shot at him and didn't take it (on the subway platform)".  If he was so worried about shooting Finch, why not take shots at him when they originally found him out on the fire escape & when the chase started?  There weren't any innocent civilians around then, so no real excuses.  He couldn't get a shot off by stopping and taking aim, instead of trying to get down the escape??

 

He was basically telling her that "You failed to do the same thing I didn't do, but you're the agent who screwed up here."

[Blue Plastic]

This seemed a little cheesy to me.  I haven't seen the movie so don't know if it was like this, but Bradley-Cooper-as-a-talking-fetus, the illustration of the lock picking, the diagrams and calculations that appear on screen when the hero is making intense mathematical calculations, talking to multiple versions of himself, etc., seemed super corny to me.  I was hoping the NZT would give physical superhuman capabilities like running faster or whatever, but since it's supposed to be enhancing mental abilities ONLY we have to get all these graphics and visuals on the screen to explain how the drug is enabling him to run around moving cars, stand right where a subway train will stop, or fall and catch himself on each balcony railing, all without being injured.

I'm also not sure that being able to remember everything you ever saw, heard, read, or did for your whole life would give you all the information you needed to do all this stuff.  I mean, yeah, it's sci fi so some suspension of disbelief is required, but for some reason I would believe this pill could enhance physical abilities before I would believe it could make you a genius just by allowing you to remember your whole life.  I mean, maybe if someone is already a trigonometry expert and they take NZT, they might suddenly get the extra burst of brainpower to solve a problem that was stumping them before.  But if you haven't used trig since high school just getting a brain boost to remember all your old trig lessons wouldn't mean you suddenly understood it better.