Rachael Leigh Cook was the only excuse I needed to check out Perception. Indeed its concept sounded just like all these other cop shows trying to bend things with edgy characters and unorthodox experts. However in the end it's not the actress who stole my heart in 1999, the year She's All That was released, but Eric McCormack's performance as Doctor Daniel Pierce. As expected RLC was cute as a button but she didn't convince me at all as a FBI agent. So don't expect her to pull a Dana Scully or anything exciting because sadly her character, Kate Moretti, was written by the book and couldn't be more normal. However I suspect it was intentional because it magnified the Doctor's eccentricity but still it's definitely a lazy solution to design characters. Otherwise the story is really about Daniel, from his life as a teacher and how he deals with his condition. What's reality ? He asks the question to his neuroscience students and then give a quite shaking answer, as fascinating as the Allegory of the Cave. During the episode many other interesting and surprising topics are also covered, from lie human detectors to medicine side effects. Hallucinations are also part of the experience so you're constantly bouncing between realities. Add mind puzzles, special senses with a twisted investigation and you can't help comparing it to Mental or Person of Interest's pilots. It's also possible to associate attributes from the Doctor's profile to Benjamin Harmon from American Horror Story even if Daniel doesn't act like a psycho. Sadly I doubt following his unconventional adventure will make us forget that the series format can only be episodic. Sure his best friend has an undeniable potential and the ending made me very curious about what's coming but I don't have much hope. Therefore I'll give it an other chance and probably move on.
Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.
Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.