I had no idea, when I saw NBC's Brilliant
Minds last fall, that it was going to be a forerunner to the basic medical
drama that I'd thought had been permanently cast aside after twenty years of Grey's
Anatomy. In the winter of 2025 we got two separate but equally exceptional
medical dramas: Fox's Doc which was as much about nuts-and-bolts medicine
as the story of the psychology of its title character and of course HBO Max's The
Pitt which found a mass audience but ending up claiming Emmy glory just a
few weeks ago. The common thread between
all three shows was a refreshing focus on patient care in the world of today's
medical community. Minds and The Pitt both dealt with a greatly
underfunded hospital trying to do the best for its patients with almost no resources:
Minds and Doc centered on a demanding physician who nevertheless
cared for other people and patients. I responded to all three shows very positively
and waited for the two network dramas to return ever since they both ended.
After three episodes of Brilliant
Minds I have somewhat mixed emotions. In many ways it has lost none of the
things that made it so enjoyable during its first season. One of the biggest
was Zachary Quinto's still spot-on portrayal of Oliver Wolf the exceptional
neurologist frustrated with the administration and not having the freedom to do
what he thinks is best for the patient – more because he genuinely cares about
them rather than sees them as a puzzle to be solved. Oliver's character went
through a brilliant arc during the first season as we saw just how horrible his
past was after his father disappeared as a child and he spent the next thirty
years certain that he had died. Over the course of the season we saw him come
to grips with this reality, slowly begin a healthy relationship with the top
neurosurgeon Dr. Nichols (a remarkable Teddy Sears) and slowly come to terms
with the troubled relationship he had with his mother (Donna Murphy) who was
also the chief of staff.
Then in the season finale it was all
blown to hell when his father reappeared, very much alive and suffering from a
diagnosis that might kill him. As we learned in Season 2 premiere Oliver spent
much of the next month trying to figure out how to treat his father and simultaneously
spending as little time as possible with him. Oliver has never been great at
dealing with his emotions but has always been amicable about the flaws others
have. In every scene Quinto's in you see that he is basically a good man trying
to do the best for everybody despite his own physical and mental road blocks.
(He suffers from face blindness but in Season 2 it's far less put in play then
before.)
When Brilliant Minds deals with
the medicine and the case of the week, it is just as, well, brilliant as ever.
For all the issues Oliver is going through in his personal life he still
handles the practicality of medicine just as well as before. Quinto has shown
his compassion just as much and frequently allows Quinto to puncture his own balloon.
This was best shown in the second episode when he had to deal with a patient
suffering from what he referred to as 'Truman Show disease' the perception that
everything around you is fictional. The woman involved believed she was in a
reality show and Oliver went out of his way to meet her halfway by pretending
he was a fellow contestant. The dialogue that went back and forth was funny on
a meta-level, particularly when she said: "I know you're not a real
doctor." And Oliver said: "You're right. I just play one on TV."
But it is also showed how Oliver is far better at revealing what is going on in
his personal life to complete strangers than those around him, often a good
source of humor.
The show also works superbly when it
deals with Oliver's fellow attending. Dr. Nichols has grown from someone who
appeared to be an adversary as well as a romantic relation to someone who is
very good at his job and knows how to deal with how the administration works in
a way Oliver just doesn’t'. Unfortunately they sort of broke up when Oliver was
dealing with his father and neither is coping with. Nichols was more denying,
which is understandable now that we know he is going to be the new chief of
staff.
Equally fascinating is Tamberla Perry
as Carol Pierce, the head of psychiatry. Last year she learned that she was a
treated a woman who was having an affair with her husband but didn't disclose
it even after the patient became unstable and eventually suicidal. She was
placed on administrative leave and spend the season premiere in private practice.
(As a fascinating in-joke, two of the women she were treating were former
reality show stars who talked about the kind of problems they had on their
programs with the same life-or-death attitudes as everything else. Hard to
blame her for wanting to come back to a hospital where the paint's peeling and there's
no espresso machine.) Pierce was put through the ringer by the board and it was
only because Dr. Landon resigned out of frustration with the process that she
kept her job. Dr. Pierce is still trying to figure out who reported her to the
board, which we learned at the end of last night's episode but she still doesn't.
So why am I still not quite as
enthusiastic about it then when it ended last season? Oddly enough it has
nothing to do with the flashforward we saw at the start of Season 2 where we
learned that in six months' time Wolf will end up being committed to a psychiatric
facility having undergone some kind of break with reality that is still
undefined. Normally I object to these
kinds of things as part of dramas but in the case of Brilliant Minds its
more plausible then before. The show spent all of Season 1 established that
Oliver's father suffered from an advanced bipolar disorder that did much to
destroy his childhood and affect his adult life. Given his family history and the way he has
always pushed him I find it a near probability that it would happen at some
point down the line.
Rather my problem is with the
residents who Wolff surrounded himself with last season. In Season 1 all of the
actors did much to establish themselves as dynamic individuals defined as much
by their histories as who they slept with (there are some love triangles in
play but sex is not nearly as important as it is Shondaland). Now the residents
are done with their rotation in neurology and are moving on to other parts of
the hospital. They still work with Wolf but in twos or threes at most. I respect
the writers for wanting to shake things up and not go back to the formula right
away.
My problem is more with so many of the
backstories that are now in play. The most trouble is Ashleigh LaThrop's Dr.
Kinney. At the end of Season 1 her building collapsed while she was in the
elevator and she has been dealing with trauma ever since. That's understandable
but she's now essentially addicted to various medications and is taking them in
the hospital. This is a cliched plot at best and I'm never happy when any drama
decides to go with it as one.
Dr, Nash has spent most of Season 2 in
trauma so far and at this point the only reason to do so is to have him clash
with one of the trauma fellows Dr. Thorne. It really seems like Thorne is there
solely to butt heads with everyone on staff and its forced. Dr. Dang has
been dealing with her relationship with a paramedic which is interesting until
last episode when she revealed she was the one who'd reported Pierce. That she
spent all of that episode basically gaslighting Kinney was bad enough; that it seemed
to be there more to stop Kinney from revealing her addiction was worse.
But worst of all is the arrival of the
new intern Charlie Porter who in three episodes has not even developed a single
dimension. This is the kind of doctor
who even Shondaland would never let set foot in a hospital because there's no
evidence he has interest in being anything but an adversary. All he needs a
mustache to twirl. Minds had gotten through Season 1 by giving all of
its apparent adversarial characters some reason for their attitude by at least
their second appearance. Three episodes in, the only reason Porter seems to be
on screen is to make you wish he'd go away.
I should add none of this has done
anything to make Brilliant Minds unwatchable or even more difficult to
watch: in three episodes the good stuff far outweighs the parts that seem
flawed. But it’s a more troubling sign for the long term health of the series
that any diagnosis that might await Dr. Wolf in a few months' time. Perhaps the
show will manage to overcome these symptoms by the mid-winter break and I'll be
more inclined to upgrade the show's condition. Right now the doctor doesn't
worry me so much as the staff around him. These physicians really do need to
heal thyself more than Wolf will.
My score: 3.75 stars.
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