A New Drama From Filmmakers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, Premieres Friday, Jan. 21, 10:00-11:00 PM

A drama about an FBI agent (Rob Morrow, "Northern Exposure") who recruits his mathematical genius brother (David Krumholtz, "The Lyon's Den") to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles, premieres Friday, Jan. 21 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

From two very different perspectives, the brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases. Inspired by actual events, the series will depict how the confluence of police work and mathematics provide unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions.

NUMB3RS also stars Peter MacNicol ("Ally McBeal"), Judd Hirsch ("Taxi"), Sabrina Lloyd ("Sports Night") and Alimi Ballard ("Dark Angel") and represents the first dramatic television series from three-time Academy Award nominated director Ridley Scott ("Black Hawk Down," "Gladiator") and Tony Scott (Emmy Award winners for the "The Gathering Storm").

I'm drawing a rare blank here.
On the one hand, it looks like it has a good cast (nice to see SL back especially; I remember her more for Sliders than SN though), and has a good if aging leadin in JAG, so it may stand up to Medical Investigation at least a little better than dr.v did.
And it'll get lots of promotion (well for the premiere anyway) during the CSIs, TAR, WaT, Survivor Whereverwe'llbethisspring to boot.

But that title---"numb" followed by a 3---may make it a juicy target for critics, especially if the scripts turn out to be MI caliber. (well, thirtysomething did OK for itself)
Plus no CBS show has worked in the Friday 10 PM EST slot (or successfully debuted midseason anywhere) since the aforementioned Nash (which ran from 1996 to 2001; Numb3rs will be the fourth or fifth show CBS has had in this slot in the four seasons since it kicked Don Johnson & Co to the curb).

Could go either way; not sure myself, given history cited above

Edited to remove a silly though interesting 6 Degrees game involving CBS Friday 10 PM shows

I may give this a shot since Medical Investigation seems to be grating on me lately. (They can't wear masks since it would cover up the pretty faces).

Will Krumholtz play a rainman type character or someone who is fully functional in society with occasional quirks?

A show where math is used to solve crimes? As a current math major, I am SO there. Anyone else vaguely reminded of that show Square One? I loved that show.

Most definitely fully functional. He plays a university professor who was a mathematical child prodigy.

I've seen the pilot and, while not really compelling, the characters are reasonably engaging and it looks as though it might develoip into something interesting. However, one trap that they've well and truly fallen into is trying to illustrate thinking and calculating by camera leaps and jerks sometimes extreme enough to risk vertigo.

I understand the pilot was made some time ago, so its quite possible that there will be some changes before the premiere.

Thanks for the info, Onlooker and the bonus info regarding the series.

Illustrating higher mathematical concepts to the layperson is tricky territory since the only numbers the CBS execs will be looking at are ratings.

Bump.

I'm very curious about what finally brought Rob Morrow back to a) CBS and b) an hourlong format. I have always liked DK so that's a bonus. Even though it's not a CSI, with the Scott Free banner behind it, CBS should at least air the entire initial order regardless of ratings, right?!?! Ahem.

I'm in for the first few anyway.

The premiere of Numb3ers will be held back a couple of days.
From Zap2It:

I hadn't even thought of that. I used to love Square-One. I would eagerly await the last ten minuites which were devoted solely to Mathnet. :0) I actually have the theme song from Mathnet downloaded on to a CD along with like 3 opening monolouges. "My name's George Frankly and this...is Mathnet" Heh!

Sorry, back on topic. I'm not sure how this show is going to have the average audience member get all the mathmatics that they are going to have on this show. I'm really great at Algebra and Statistics but once you throw Trig at me my mind revolts. It won't retain any of the information and just bounces off. I would imagine that most of the population has some sort of problem like this with math and I'm not sure how they are going to put it into laymens terms for all of us.

Its a good sign for me on CBS' part that Numb3rs is getting a Sunday post-AFC title game sneak peek before moving into its tough Friday 10 PM EST slot. If the premiere puts up good numb3rs (sorry), who knows?
In 1999, Judging Amy got a Sunday debut preview, and has gone on to become a Tuesday night staple for CBS ever since.
With JA showing signs of slowing down both creatively and ratingswise this year, a new Tuesday staple is clearly needed and if Numb3rs does well enough on Friday nights this coming spring, who knows..?

On the other hand, That's Life got its own Sunday sneak launch the year after JA's, and that sadly fizzled out after less than two years (ggrrrrrrr........), so who knows.........

At least if nothing else, it'll be fun to see just how much math kudzu (TM Sars) makes its way onto this thread.

Just saw a preview commerical on CBS. But the thread title needs to be changed--the "3" doesn't seem to be substituting for the "e" anymore.

I am incredibly excited about the premiere of this show because I like Rob Morrow, I LOVE David Krumholtz (I stuck through The Lyon's Den for him, he's so cool), and I like the idea of mathematics being used to solve crimes.

That being said, the title of this show annoys me greatly, as I've stated in the TV Titles thread. What is the purpose of the "3" inserted into the word? We get that the show is about numbers; that's the title. Should the show title be pronounced "numbthreers" now?

Actually, the "3" IS still there. I saw the commercial again. So I can see the irritation. For one thing, it's impractical if you hear about the show and look it up somewhere without the idiotic "3".

I just saw the preview for this, while watching The Amazing Race. I'll only be watching for the mathematical genius, who is cute. Well, the plot does look like it could be interesting, but my hopes aren't too high. I was anticipating Medical Investigation...And I don't want to feel that disappointment again.

I'm kind of grossed out by David Krumholtz's hair in the promos. It's all greasy and curly and very much party in the back, business in front. Hopefully his character makes up for it.

I've started referring to the show as Numbthreers all the time now.

Guess CBS didn't want to call it CSI: Harvard. Or CSI: Wherever the Mathematical Genius Teaches.

Now I feel kinda guilty about the snark, so I'll consult the CBS webpage:



Okay. CSI: So. Cal Tech.

And you know, part of me really wants to watch this, because I find Rob Morrow so darn likeable.

But David Krumholz? He's always going to be The Guy Who Stabbed Dr. Carter and Lucy to me. I've tried to shake off that particular TV trauma, but I just can't. And the guy's a good actor. (I've tried, I've really tried!)

I love math. I am so ready for this show. I loved MathNet, too, 18matt. It's terrible that I am over 40, yet I can still hum the little tune where the kidnapped rock star sang the crooks' phone number ("Please do what these people say.").

I think they over-thought the title to make it "catchy" like the movie Se7en. At least the "3" looks more like an "E" than a "7" looks like a "V." Numb3rs has too much thought in the title where Medical Investigation has way too little. I'm just wondering how they can come up with enough math-related crimes to fill a season, much less a multi-season run. Anything has to be better than MI, though.

Saw a preview. Looked vaguely interesting. I'm not much for crime procedurals, though, so if they don't bring the math-geek quirk I probably won't make it to the 30-minute mark.

The premiere for this show always seems to be advertised in the main area at cbs.com. Not sure if that's a good sign or not.

At first I thought "Who's gonna watch a show about math?" But then I remembered that people said the same thing when The West Wing started. Well, except they said "Who's gonna watch a show about politics?"

I'm looking forward to seeing the show because a) it's something a little different, b) Rob Morrow is in it c) Sabrina Lloyd is in it.

He's always going to be the "best friend" in 10 Things I Hate About You to me. I think it sounds intriguing enough to give it my usual 3 episodes to grab me.

Me, too! I always think of his line when he and Joseph Gordon Levitt go into the bar: "Don't touch anything. You might get hepatitis." From then on, my boyfriend and I have called him Hepatitis Boy.

That and "the guy who died while taking a piss" in The Mexican. Heh.

I think I'm the only one who saw that movie. :-P

Plus his rant about the blue cake afterwards sticks in my head. It'd be funny if he had some line in the episode about "taking a stab at it".

In case anyone is keeping score, I changed the subject title so that a search on "Numbers" would hit this thread.

No, I saw it too! Despite what people said about it, that movie was awesome!

But even now, when I see him, he's still the guy who stabbed Carter. It's sad, because he's pretty freakin' cute and I will likely watch at least once because of him.

Ok, I saw David Krumholz on ER, and in The Mexican, and in 10 Things I Hate About You (one of my all time fave movies), but he will ALWAYS and FOREVER be the elf from The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2 to me.

Not Wednesday's boyfriend from summercamp in Addams Family Values?

David Krumholz sure seems to be everywhere, doesn't he? At this rate, he'll soon be replacing Kyra Sedgwyck's husband as The King Of Six Degrees.
The possibilties for "inside jokes" could be deeper for this show than one might think.

BTW, Sabrina Lloyd will always be Wade Wells from Sliders to me (never quite felt the love for either Sports Night or Ed----hides under rock)

How could I forget! And he also has the same curly hair now (that I am a fan of).

So I'm a mathematician and my coworkers and I (all mathematicians, but not of the crime-solving variety) are planning on watching this show and making fun of it. I'll be interested to see if they manage to get some of the math right.

Did anyone else notice that they added a "graphic violence" warning to the commercials for this show? I never noticed them before. Have they just been added to generate more interest for the show? Or was CBS just late in assigning a warning to the show?

I didn't know this was a real show until I saw a commercial. They filmed at my work for two days and I assumed our boss was pulling are leg when she said that "... this is a new and exciting show!" I thought she said that so we wouldn't go wandering around where they were taping. I'll watch solely to find out where exactly they filmed and why it was apparently necessary for me to trip over film cords as I stepped outside. As for spoilers, I don't have any, I don't even know in what area they filmed. Unfortunately, I didn't even see any of the actors. I'm of no help, I know.

The Toronto Star has an article by Vinay Menon. I don't think it is too spoily.

Since a former professor of mine was the math consultant for this show, I'm definitely tuning in. I don't really remember much from his class, so I'm not sure if that bodes well for the math explanations in the show or not...of course, I took the class 7 years ago.

Darn, after reading this thread I really miss Square One.

Me too. Oh, the shame. AND I STILL HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM OH. THE. SHAME.

Feel no shame, Sars. David Krumholtz is hot, in a geeky sort of way. We can crush together!

Okay, this is the most awesome show ever. When a show is showing me summation symbols and x-sub-i and phi, and then the Biscuit is talking about Galois (to which I immediately exclaimed, “Oh! The guy that died in a duel!”), the show has me forever and I will never leave it. Furthermore, David Krumholtz is extremely hot, although that could just be because he’s doing totally hot math. And could anyone read what was written on his shirt? Also, is that Anthony Heald with way more hair than he had on Boston Public? And Wade Wells?! (Right there with you, yesman6764; no other roles exist for her.) The brunette girl is gorgeous, though I had no idea that she was supposed to be Indian until she talked about the arranged marriage. I’ve never in my life seen such an Anglo-looking Indian girl, and that includes an Indian girl at my high school who was half-Caucasian. And then I realized that it was Theresa from The O.C., where she plays Hispanic, and it had never occurred to me that she was anything other than that. But with a name like Navi Rawat, I guess she really is Indian.

My only issue is with the supposedly complexity of this “hot zone” thing. I mean, isn’t it just roughly in the middle of the attack sites? It’s just your basic ((summation from 1 to number_of_attacks of (x-sub-i, y-sub-i)) divided by number_of_attacks), like finding a centroid, right?

Not bad, even with the weirdo "A Beautiful Mind" math graphics floating around. Also, the yummage factor is high with BOTH Sabrina Lloyd and Navi Rawat in it. It's interesting to see Rawat play completely against type of what she did in The OC--a genius now instead of a dummy. Also, wow. Playing her OWN ethnicity!

Even Judd Hirsh and Peter MacNichol didn't piss me off. Imagine that. I mean individually each in the past has been like a quirk circus, but not so much here. Which is good.

Anthony Heald though is not lookin' all that good. Ick. Guy's looking pretty worn.

Plotwise it was a good fit. Interestingly as much of the angst was mathematical as character-based, which seemed smart. Some early parts were annoying in their CSIishness, but what can you do about that these days when that kind of imagery has become de rigeur for crime dramas?

Also. Hee. Dr. FleischBI wasn't a perfect shot. I appreciate that as an interesting way to ensure he wasn't some unrealistic SuperFed.

Looks like somebody picked up the script to The Silence Of The Lambs and said "There should be more math. This could be mathier."

This show was pretty good but Hirsch's schtick could get real old real fast. It was a little stereotypical that they're sitting around watching Shawn Green play baseball.

And it's nice seeing Sabrina Lloyd and Anthony Heald back on TV.

So far, so good.

I liked that the Rob Morrow character wasn't resentful about having someone assigned to report back on him to the boss. Being a maverick in the face of authority and bucking departmental politics has become something of a cliche.

I also appreciated that they didn't dismiss the brother's theory or go with it like the newest wonder drug. Testing it out on past cases was such a sensible thing to do that I'm surprised it happened on a network crime drama. Another nice touch was showing all the manpower and scutwork that had to go into something like trying to find a missing car.

HEE!

I liked it as a drama. It had interesting angles and I wasn't too confused by all the mathematical symbols and such. I'll watch it again.

She WAS gorgeous. I think it's some combination of better makeup and lighting, and maybe also the absense of the burden of playing a fake 17 year old.

As for looking non-stereotypically Indian, that's a tough call. Indians vary a lot in appearance.

I liked it, and I think I'll tune in again. I just they hope they don't have David Krumholtz interrogating perps or going on take downs I'll be okay.

I liked it a lot. It seems that they're going to play a little bit with the theory vs real life idea, with the slightly sheltered brain seeing how his ideas play out in the world. I don't have a lot of appointment tv, but I think I'll make some time for this one.

Damn blizzard. I was watching weather reports and missed this. *le sigh*

Can someone send me a quick and dirty recap so I'll know what's going on? Thanks.

I think that the serial criminal data indicated that the location of the more intense crimes would be closer to "his" location, I think, than the less intense crimes were.

I thought it was an interesting show and will definitely give it another try.

Well I thought that was the most boring thing I've seen in a while. I was just........confused. I'll be sticking to Medical Investigation. At least in that show I know what I'm making fun of.

I love him, too. He was so cute on The Santa Clause. I'm only watching this show for him...;-)