The movie LIMITLESS starred Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra,
an out of work writer on the down side looking for a way to make it in the
world. An old friend turns him on to a new lab created drug called NZT and it
opens his mind. I’m not talking expanding his visions ala LSD but literally
opening up areas of his brain untapped by his conscious mind and allowing him
to see, know and experience things completely different than he ever could. The
movie did fair at the box office and apparently enough to warrant this series.
This time around we’re introduced to Brian Finch (Jake
McDorman), an underachiever from a family of overachievers. When his father is
diagnosed with a rare disease with no known cure, Brian tells a friend he’d
give anything to be able to save his father. As in the film his friend presents
him with the drug NZT-48 which allows him to use 100% of his brain cells. The
thing is the effects of the drug only last so long and taking more than one
dose at a time could leave him brain dead.
The drug wares off as he’s about to find a solution so he
goes to contact the man who provided him with the drug only to find him
murdered as the FBI shows up to investigate. The only way he can avoid being
convicted is to find the real killer and with a limited supply of the drug and
the FBI looking for him he applies all he can to that task.
If he failed then there would be no series so it’s obvious
that he succeeds in this task. In addition to that two things happen. The first
is that he is approached by Eddie Morra, now running for public office and a
wealthy man. Cooper returns to this role and is a nice addition to what could
have been just a remake series. The drug has a nasty side effect that requires a
counter drug that prevents users from dying. He agrees to supply Brian with the
drug as long as he never reveals what is going on and does an occasional job
for him.
At the same time Brian is brought in by the FBI. It turns
out they’ve been investigating the usage of the drug and trying to track down
who is distributing it. They’re curious as to how he can survive the drug
assuming he has a natural tolerance for it. Rather than allow him to roam the
streets willy nilly they decide to use his talents while under the drug to help
them solve crimes.
He is put in a special task force headed by Nasreen Pouran
(Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a no nonsense bureau chief in New York. The two
main agents in the group she supervises are Spellman Boyle (Hill Harper) and
Rebecca Harris (Jennifer Carpenter). Harris has a personal reason for wanting
to find out where the NZT-48 is coming from as her father was one of the
victims of the drug. Also among the team are two agents assigned to watch over
Brian, now living in a furnished apartment designated by the FBI. These two,
who he calls agents Mike and Ike (Michael James Shaw and Tom Degnan) begin as
side characters but as the season progresses are welcome members of the team as
well.
The show is a nice combination of the film with that special
tie to it in the form of Cooper and a new police procedural with a twist as
Brian works the cases the FBI presents to him. Beneath it all is the motivation
for Morra to provide the cure for Brian, what reason he has for using him and
why the amount of secrecy that goes with it.
McDorman makes the series work as the neer do well Brian, a
young man who has yet to find his inspiration in life at age 28 but who truly
wishes he could. As the series progresses he discovers that while he may not
have the knowledge on tap all the time using NZT-48 gives him the potential to
help others which may end up being that calling he seeks. McDorman’s
performance here is exceptional as he conveys all of those emotions, the clever
cocky smart aleck who turns Brainiac, the black sheep who dreams of making his
parents proud. That’s not an easy task to pull off and yet he does.
The bad news is that the show only lasted one season. If you
were like me you didn’t catch it at that time which is unfortunate. I have a
feeling of CBS had had more faith in the show it would have caught on. Reruns
and word of mouth might have given the show new life had they done so as would
have the public having access to the series in disc format and on streaming
channels. Remember had NBC not stuck with a half hour comedy called CHEERS it
would have only lasted one season as well.
Unfortunately we’ll never know for sure. Perhaps the series
will find a new group of dedicated fans at some time calling out for it to
carry on. My guess is by now that’s not going to happen or Netflix, Hulu or
Amazon would have done so by now. So those of us who enjoyed the show will at
least find solace in that it was put out on disc to enjoy at our leisure. Give
it a shot and my guess is you will have a good time.
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