Scorpion

Our Review

A CBS procedural about geniuses, written as if genius looked like shouting numbers at monitors. The premise (a team of high-IQ misfits solving homeland-security crises that regular humans can’t) should be fun; the execution is prime-time pablum: the science is indistinguishable from magic spells, the emotional beats are therapy-speak delivered on a schedule, and the genius behavior is played as either superpower or social disorder with no middle ground.

Elyes Gabel’s Walter is written so smart he reads sociopathic, then forced to learn feelings on a schedule. Katharine McPhee’s Paige, the normal-person translator, exists to explain the audience to itself. Robert Patrick collects a paycheck. It ran four seasons because CBS procedurals are cockroaches — viewers who want background noise with flashing screens loved it.

Verdict: Skip it. For consulting-genius-with-heart, watch Elementary or Numb3rs instead — that’s the good stuff.