Spoiler Alert: For those who haven’t watched Limitless Episode 1.
Brian Finch (Jake McDorman) has had his fair share of run-ins with authority. As the pilot for the new CBS series Limitless begins, we learn he is the veteran of five school expulsion, four misdemeanors, three fake IDs, two attempts at the eleventh grade, and a “partridge in a pear tree.” Now the FBI is after him as agents are on the scent of a drug ring that has national security implications.
If you saw the 2011 movie starring Bradley Cooper, who is a series executive producer and makes a cameo appearance in episode one, you know the premise. If you could take, just one single pill that would enable you to access not 40, not 50 or 60 percent but all of your brain, would you? With this pill you could remember everything you ever experienced or learned and all the tools necessary to solve any problem would be at your fingertips. You could go from someone who’s been told all there lives that they are stupid or, if you’re like Finch, a slacker and screw up to a genius. Who wouldn’t want to increase their IQ and their ability to become an instant success?
Trying to make ends meet amid a musical career that’s going nowhere fast, Finch takes a temp job at an investment firm, where he runs into his former band mate Eli, who is now a star employee. Finch is brain-dead tired so Eli offers him a pill that he promises will change everything. And with that, we’re off and running.
Brian’s brain jumps into overdrive, and he even correctly diagnoses an illness his dad (Ron Rifkin) is suffering from. But he also soon finds himself chased by the FBI after he finds Eli shot to death. Finch escapes their grasp after outsmarting FBI agent Rebecca (Jennifer Carpenter), who then questions Brian’s parents about his possible role in Eli’s death. But Brian has deduced that someone is murdering people to get his hands on the smart drug NZT, and with the help of Cooper’s character Sen. Eddie Morra, he convinces Rebecca and the FBI who the real killer is.
The day is saved, and the next thing we know Rebecca wants to bring Brian on as a consultant because he can do the work of 100 agents. How about that? Interesting that someone can go from being a loser, a total nobody to overnight being a huge asset to the FBI, helping them to solve crimes and the world’s problems. If you’re the smartest person in the world, why wouldn’t the FBI want you on its team?
The whole consultant angle reminds me of Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington’s (James Spader) character in NBC’s The Blacklist. Red, like Brian Finch, is a consultant for the FBI. They both have a bad boy past and they are all-knowing. Only Red doesn’t need to take a pill. But, neither does the highly intelligent and arrogant Jonny Lee Miller’s Holmes in Elementary. The Brian Finch character also reminds me of the genius geeky Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) of Criminal Minds.
Episode 1 of Limitless was slightly predictable and reminiscent of the movie, but that was precisely the point. At least it left me wanting to tune back in next Tuesday night. If the world had access to a pill like NZT, what would we do with the new-found power? The concept has always fascinated me, as others I am sure. It will be interesting to see where the shows writers go with it.