Not So ‘Pure Genius’

“No red tape, Doctor. We’re pairing the most brilliant minds in medicine with the most brilliant minds in technology, and we’re going to take out the middleman. We’re going to get stuff done. This is the revolution, Dr. Wallace,” promises young Silicon Valley billionaire James Bell (Augustus Prew) to the infamous surgeon Dr. Walter Wallace (Dermot Mulroney) in the pilot of CBS’s “Pure Genius”. Though the pilot sets up an exciting premise, it fails to impress because its highly implausible plot feels over the top and ridiculous.

This new series created by Jason Katims and Sarah Watson focuses on the opening of a new hospital called Bunker Hill (funded by Bell) in Palo Alto. Bunker Hill is a revolutionary hospital at which patients receive the most advanced medical care at no cost. The opening scene uses flashbacks to piece together the story of Wallace, who was fired from his job as a surgeon for trying to save a cancer patient using a non-FDA approved drug. Bell admires this dedication and decides to hire him as his new chief of staff.

From the start, the audience is dazzled by an array of flitting computer screens that project patients’ blood pressure, MRI scans, CAT scans, and a wide variety of other unlikely medical information. The hospital even contains a beautiful Japanese zen garden with a waterfall where patients can meditate amongst the flora and fauna, begging the most important question of all: Why does this hospital look like a yoga retreat? Ultimately, Bell’s world of technology and the hospital itself are too ridiculously over the top to be believable, best exemplified perhaps by the ability of one doctor to wave a glowing scanner/iPad over a woman’s growing womb and instantly generate an ultrasound of the baby across a screen.

Prew plays Bell in a fanciful manner reminiscent of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, but unfortunately his acting cannot save his character. Bell is as unbelievable as the glowing iPad, promising all the patients long life and good health despite his lack of a medical background. His interest in Dr. Zoe Brockett (Odette Annable) seems to play into the clichéd bantering relationships of many medical dramas, promising very little new material in that direction. The character of Wallace is also problematic because of how little he is fleshed out. Considering he’s one of the main characters, it seems bizarre that we know so little about him besides his incredible work ethic and mesmerizing surgery skills—apparently so impressive that when he practices removing a tumor from a model heart, the whole office will gather to around to watch while eating popcorn.

Besides its absurd and improbable elements, the show does not seem to bring anything new, despite its array of Silicon Valley gadgets. Though the plotlines are not totally egregious, they are not particularly captivating either. We are left with a “revolution” that falls drastically short of expectation.