PERCEPTION
(Season 1)
***
Life is one big puzzle!
FILM: After making such giant strides in his camp breakthrough role as lawyer Will Truman in the long-running TV series, Will & Grace, it is refreshing to see Eric McCormack tackle such a complex character as Dr Daniel Pierce in Perception.
Sporting a rugged beard and more dishevelled in appearance, Pierce has a brilliant mind.
But there is one problem – he struggles to separate his paranoid delusions from reality and often has conversations with imagi- nary characters.
Despite this drawback, the eccentric neuroscience professor helps FBI Agent Kate Moretti (Rachel Leigh Cook), who is also his former student, solve an array cases that are reliant on his area of expertise.
Amid trying to live with his medical condition, which often sees him distract himself by listening to music and drowning out the real world, viewers get a glimpse of his dysfunctional relationships with Max Lewicki (Arjay Smith), his super-efficient, live-in teaching assistant; Natalie Vincent (Kelly Rowan), Pierce’s imaginary best friend and adviser, and Paul Haley (LeVar Burton), the university dean who is also Pierce’s close friend.
Some of the cases this season involve the death of a pharmaceutical executive, a mail order bride, an ex-junkie, a judge and a therapist who tried to “cure” his patients of their homosexuality. That’s not forgetting a serial killer running rampant and a killer confessing to his planned murders through a series of letters to the editor.
Perception relies on a very out-of-the-box premise – and, funnily enough, it is genius.
FEATURES: None. – Debashine Thangevelo