Summary : Convincing Eric McCormack and audience magnet protagonist,
fascinating and refreshing neuroscience, reality-bended story but
disappointing Rachael Leigh Cook, episodic format and slight
impression of déjà vu
Score : 7/10
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
medecine 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.
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