Roush Review: Jesse L. Martin Solves ‘Irrational’ Crimes in a Rare Scripted Fall Original
Review
The Irrational
So what’s new?
That’s a question being asked this month by many viewers, surveying a fall TV season of patchwork lineups on the broadcast networks, which have been disproportionately affected by the production shutdown during the writers’ and actors’ strikes. A fresh scripted series (not counting imports from other countries) is almost as rare as a camera-shy Kardashian, but NBC bucks the numbing trend of wall-to-wall reality and game shows with the premiere of The Irrational.
This unconventional crime drama would be worth a look in any season, with a charismatic star (Law & Order veteran Jesse L. Martin) and an intriguing premise. The puzzles are also unusually perplexing, posing questions like why someone would confess to a murder he didn’t commit, or why a pilot would intentionally crash a plane in a way that lets half the passengers survive.
Enter Alec Mercer (Martin), a professor and expert in behavioral science, consulted by authorities in moments of crisis to interpret why people do inexplicable things. As he puts it, in elaborate voice-overs that sound like lectures, “People are irrational, but predictably so. … We rely on instincts which are almost always wrong, sometimes dangerously wrong. One error in judgment leads to another, which is why eventually someone ends up calling me.”
We first see him in action using a technique he calls “paradoxical persuasion” to defuse a dangerous hostage situation. (In next week’s episode, the best of the three made available for review, a dying journalist who once tried to debunk his “junk science,” played by Bosch alum Amy Aquino, asks Mercer to find out who poisoned her, and why.)
Employing psychological tricks to trap his quarry — too often the most obvious suspect — Mercer uses these cases as teaching moments for his team of young research assistants, spouting observations like “Memory is the great con man of human nature.” He should know, because he still struggles to remember details of the church bombing that scarred him 20 years ago. Surely you didn’t think he’d be spared a tortured backstory.
Thankfully, Martin rarely sheds his cool-cat persona, even when, to the dismay of his FBI agent ex-wife (Maahra Hill), he risks his neck to crack a case. Sounds irrational, but that’s how Mercer rolls.
The Irrational, Series Premiere, Monday, September 25, 10/9c, NBC
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2023 Returning Favorites issue. For more first looks at fall’s returning shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.
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R
Sounds exactly like "professor T." Exactly
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G
I Love this show!!!
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G
Love the show and hate to see it go. It had a different twist then the other crime shows. They always take the good ones off.
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A
I was looking forward to this series because I really liked his character on Law & Order and the premise of solving crimes using logic and learning appealed to me, but so far the stories have been disappointing.They are bland, and easily figured out, and the supporting cast is meh. If he had a little more edge and wit I might be able to overlook the other deficiencies, but I’m not optimistic.
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D
He was on The Flash almost as long and certainly more recently than on L&O... Even in these times of no new shows due to strikes, I would pay atttention..
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O
Started out great but now I just cannot watch due to the new girlfriend who seems to talk with.a fake whisper accent. The rest of the cast are fine. I really like the sister.
Needs to go back to stories without this clingy girlfriend.
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O
I watched S1, E1 tonight. I don't care for the narration. I don't need to know what he's going to do before he does it. I can work that out myself. It's like someone telling you the ending before you get to it, ruins the whole thing!
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