4 out of 5

Created by: Craig Sweeny

The season finale was a bit cut and dry (and wasted a Pelican song), but this was a show I had _no_ idea how it was going to make it out of the starting gate – much less become weekly popcorn I’d really look forward to – so we can give that a pass.  And wrapping things up at end of season is preferable over the dumb cliffhanger method (not to be confused with the _smart_ cliffhanger method, and yes, I am the one who makes the decisions regarding which is which), so maybe that’s a pass and a half.

Limitless – based on the movie, which already took a seemingly limited idea (yuk yuk) and made it work at feature length – somehow gets us to look past its ready-made logic holes thanks to some great casting and writing that’s indulgent in all the right ways.  Picking up after the movie, Limitless quickly casts off its chains by setting us running in its own direction: now-Senator Morra (Bradley Cooper, the lead from the film) needs the right people in the right places to help him line up some right things, so he’s granting temporary miracle drug immunity for those that fit the bill.  Said drug – NZT – is the make-you-a-genius wish-fulfiller pill that helped drive Morra to greatness, including a way to ward off the horrible side effects of said drug, which is why everyone’s not running around as a genius, and why extending the cure is such a big deal for good-hearted Brian (Jake McDorman), who can use his good-heart to solve crimes and stuff when Morra arranges for him to work as a consultant for the FBI.  Wait, what?  Yeah, yeah – the feds know about NZT, and have a stash of it, and would love to have their agents on it, and see Brian as “naturally” immune – because naturally the Brian / Morra deal requires him to remain hush-hush about the cure – and zip-a-doo, here’s your badge.  It’s completely cheeky, and the show never stops treating it as such, which is its first and foremost charm.

Second and foremost: the cast.  McDorman is all the things you want in a leading man: handsome but approachable, believable dumb AND believable smart, with aw-shucks charm to boot.  His “handler” is the great Jennifer Carpenter, who’s already proven her ability to master all ranges of the emotional spectrum and here gets to be the stern straight man to Brian’s antics.  Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Hill Harper fill in some additional FBI roles, with every episode rounded out with a bevy of supporters who are all, sincerely, charming.

The aforementioned indulgence comes through as the writers abuse viewing everything through Brian’s POV, which is that of a… pretty average modern day internet-aware dude.  But having to filter that mentality through a veneer of NZT-gifted intelligence – and pointing it toward crime-solving – strips off a lot of the smugness that mars most modern day internet-aware dude mentalities, and just gives us all of the media references and jokes, with well-effected mystery hand-waggling solving.

Of course, we have to slow down every now and then to check in on the whole Morra connection, which is where the show occasionally loses its momentum.  For the most part, these check-ins are tied into Brian’s day job, so we can work with a smile, but there are more “serious” elements down the road – and character connections – that just never sold me.  Out of a 22 episode season, these moments are seriously few, but it’s the whole mythology / weekly episode struggle that very few shows can successfully do right all the time.

But all in all, just as I had expected the movie to be far less entertaining than it was, Limitless the show did the same expectation-exceeding and more.  It’s its own thing: its own attitude, style, and at this point, its own plot beats.  It’s impressive for that.  More importantly, though, it’s genuinely just a lot of fun.