I really like the show too, the brothers dynamic is well done, and in general its a good mix of funny, family and "woah cool math solves FBI crimes!"
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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It's an extremely good show. I watched all of the existing episodes in a week (final exams, y'know?) and I was never disappointed. My usually rationing system (of restricting to myself to a certain number of shows a week) failed.
In a nutshell it's a crime show, but each episode there's some kind of mathematical/scientific thing involved in solving the crime(s). I find it not only entertaining and satisfying from a plot/crime show POV, as it has likeable characters and varied and interesting stories, but also the mathematical and scientific element is fascinating and just adds the extra thing for me... usually I don't really go for straight crime shows especially.
I fairly sure each episode pretty much stands on its own, although I did watch them in order.
Yeah, I really like it.
Oh, it's also set in LA, which is nice contrast to my present snowstorm . Yep, gets to this time of year, I regress to California.
EDIT: And what Lyrhawn said more more succinctly than I.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote: If you mentally replace "math" with "magic" in your head, most of the plots make more sense.
I love that, it pretty much sums up how I approach the show although I never would have thought of describing it that way! I don't even try to understand the math--wish I had the background to be able to grasp some of it.
But the characters are what make it. Judd Hirsch is fantastic as the father. All the principals do a great job, but it's the family relationship that's the most compelling.
I'm just starting to like the new female FBI agent who came on this season--missed the girl from last year for a long time.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I like Judd Hirsch. Honestly, I think he's about the only thing that makes the show watchable. The bringing in of the math brother every weeks seems extraordinarily contrived to me, to the point where I get kind of disgusted with it.
I think Bill Nye is a guest this week, but if you're talking about who I think you're talking about, it's not Quark. It's Peter MacNicol, who played Janosz the art restorer in Ghostbusters 2. The first time I saw him on the show, it threw me, because I kept expecting him to speak with some goofy generic Slavic accent.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I haven't had the chance to see it much, but my mother (who is 68) is totally addicted to Numb3rs. And she doesn't watch much TV any more -- only one or two programs a week. But that is always one of them.
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It's a must watch at my house. My 12 year old has the biggest crush on Charlie.
I don't know if the math makes sense or not, I know it's contrived (what tv show plot isn't?) but I love it nonetheless. The family interactions are priceless and Peter MacNichol is wonderful in his role.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote: If you mentally replace "math" with "magic" in your head, most of the plots make more sense.
I love that, it pretty much sums up how I approach the show although I never would have thought of describing it that way! I don't even try to understand the math--wish I had the background to be able to grasp some of it.
More than half of the ways they use math in that show set off my BS detector.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:More than half of the ways they use math in that show set off my BS detector.
A lot of it I find is not math-math, persay, at least in the traditional sense, although I am a humanities student. Like Game Theory, for example; I studied that in my International Relations class. It's mathematical, but usually applied to people and interactions between people. In the episode it was used, the theories behind Game Theory were applied, as far as I can tell, perfectly correctly, if not in a totally orthodox fashion.
I agree that there are implausibilities in the general plots, but I do think that they intend to get the math idea itself right, even if the actual application seems a little fuzzy. This is probably due to the fact that mathematicians aren't used to having their ideas applied to real situations like this by non-mathematical writers, which causes the math itself (the actual reason for it) to become lost in the general principal or theory of the math itself.
As far as I can tell, from a quick bit of online research, all the math is real and all the math is applied in at least a semi-real and plausible fashion. The results are idealized but nothing is totally invented, as it were.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: I'm just starting to like the new female FBI agent who came on this season--missed the girl from last year for a long time.
Last year, every time I saw her, all I could think was "Hey, that's Wade from Sliders!" This year, I keep doing "Hey that's Amy DeLuca from Roswell!" and "Hey, that's Alicia from Smallville!" Then again, I also do "Hey, that's Alex from Taxi", and my partner does "Hey, that's the doctor from Northern Exposure!"
We definitely watch too much TV.
Oh, and I can't stop thinking about John Cage every time Larry shows up. <sigh> It's pathetic.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Oh, also, the actor who plays Charlie Epps is the same actor who played Mr. Universe in Serenity- David Krumholtz. Which is enough of a recommendation for me, although if it wasn't for imdb I never would have guessed, even having seen Serenity twice and the entire series of Numb3rs.
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Krumholtz also played Bernard the elf in The Santa Clause.
When I saw the trailer for Serenity there was a quick glimpse of Mr. Universe and I was like, "Hey, it's the Numb3rs guy! Now I really have to go see it!"
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well, I saw Serenity first and then Numb3rs (or at least, I saw enough of Numb3rs to get a handle on the people's faces after I had seen Serenity), so perhaps it works one way and not the other so much because the Mr. Universe role isn't that big.
But I am terrible with faces- they are not my strong point at all! I usually recognise people on screen first by the way they move or by their voice, not by their features and since Mr. Universe just kind of sits, mostly...
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That makes total sense to me, Teshi. If I'd seen Serenity first I don't think Mr. Universe would have been imprinted in my memory, and I might not have recognized him in the series. Having seen Numb3rs almost every single week (hmmm, not sure I like what that reveals about my life), though, it would have been odd had I not recognized him in Serenity.
Then again, I think I'm fairly good with faces.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I forgot that he was in 10 Things I Hate About You.
It was the biggest mental itch trying to figure out where I had seen Mr. Universe before when I saw Serenity the first time around. It was the most bizarre thing when I saw The Santa Clause vhs at my parents' house and it all came together.
He really seems to be getting around.
Is it just me, or does have a nicely unique voice?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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