Review: Limitless

Show: Limitless
Network: CBS

I absolutely loved the film of the same name starring Bradley Cooper from 2011. I thought it was a tight piece of writing with just the right amount of suspense, humor, and character. The show delivers all of this as well, but tosses in that pesky cop/civilian trope that is so overdone (I mean, three of the five shows that I saw this week used that format). The show not only takes place in the same world as the movie, but Bradley Cooper actually made a guest appearance as his character.

Pros:
I really like how this particular show actually utilizes science fiction to its advantage. It takes something like drug addiction, turns it on its head by asking the question: what if the drug didn’t get you high, but made you really smart? Who wouldn’t be addicted to being the smartest person on the plant?

Another tick in the positive column is how they actually deal with teaming up the cop with a civilian. The cop and her boss actually have a conversation about it, and while I still don’t necessarily buy it, the show at least spends more than a sentence on the subject. Actually, the reason the main character is teamed up with the investigator is hit on very early, and then cemented later. The government has tried to reverse engineer the drug, but their test subjects went crazy and died; the main character has not. They see him as a tool, which I’m sure will lead to all kinds of tension later when this is made apparent to the main character.

Cons:
Again, this uses the very issue that I have complained about in almost all of my reviews so far. I don’t like these shows where a well-trained investigator is thrust together with an average person who is their literal complete opposite. Enough! Find another gimmick! While Watson was not exactly equal to Holmes’s intellect, he was far from the great detective’s opposite.

At first I thought this was actually going to pull off a miracle and not have an overlying story arc that will surface in some way in every episode—but I was wrong. In the last few moments, the investigator turns to the main character and reveals that she believes her father may have been high on the same super-drug, but that he turned up dead days later. Now she wants to use her partner and his access to the drug to track down who actually makes it and avenge her father’s death. Yeesh!

Is it worth your time?
Absolutely. The pilot was strong and left plenty of room for growth. If they stay on track and follow everything they have laid down, it will be quite good (as long as CBS doesn’t pull out too soon and leave us with another Journeyman).

Will I keep watching?
Absolutely. I will keep watching this show until it starts going downhill—which can happen very quickly anymore.