Scorpion is about a group of geniuses who are being recruited by the FBI to assist on national security cases to save the world. I know what you’re thinking. This is the same procedural crime drama with different characters. In a sense, it is, but there are some reasons for you to give Scorpion a shot.
The first reason is actor Eddie Kaye Thomas who plays Toby Curtis. You may recognize him as Finch from the American Pie franchise, and he is just as much fun in Scorpion. He is the one genius that seems to have a better handle on interacting with people. He adds the much needed humor to a show about young men and women who struggle with emotions.
The second reason is the relationship between Elyes Gabel’s character, Walter O’Brien, and Katharine McPhee’s character’s son, Ralph. At first, it seems that Ralph is just shy until you see Walter interacting with him. Walter says he is sorry to tell her the bad news that her son is a genius. This is the first time that we get to witness Walter making a connection with someone outside of his friends and his former FBI handler. McPhee’s character, Paige Dineen, understands for the first time that she truly doesn’t know how to talk to her son.
The third reason to watch, that sets it apart from many of the other procedurals, is that this is based off of real life genius Walter O’Brien. O’Brien has an IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of 197. He wanted to make the show, in part, to get the word out about these mentally enabled people, those with IQs of 150 and above who can solve these seemingly impossible problems that no one else can. O’Brien wants to encourage these people to come out and join in to help the greater good.
Because the mentally enabled have such a high IQ, they often have a very low EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient). During the San Diego Comic Con panel, O’Brien spoke a lot about how he doesn’t feel anything. It made me want to care about these geniuses who have no idea how to act around people.  While there were many funny moments in the Pilot when Walter’s group doesn’t know how to interact with people, the show is not poking fun at them. Scorpion is all about celebrating genius and showing the truth in what they go through rather than poking fun at how clueless they are in some everyday interactions.
So far, my only con to the show is the character of Happy Quinn, played by Jadyn Wong. I felt that she was too disagreeing all the time to be very likable. She consistently seemed to be in a bad mood. She was very stiff but not in the sense that she is a genius and just uncomfortable with the situation. I’m willing to look past this and hope that Wong gets a better feel for Happy Quinn and can show more of her. I’m hoping I can come to like her as well.
Real life Walter O’Brien has many stories to tell, and the pilot episode was just one of the crises that his team helped to solve. While we all know that there is going to be a lot of Hollywood glamour added to these cases, it is exciting to know that O’Brien’s team has been out there solving these cases. When posed the question of whether or not Elyse Gabel’s character, Walter, will be faced with an evil genius nemesis, the creators did not have a clear answer. Real life Walter O’Brien told us in his own life, “not anymore.† He sure knows how to leave us on the edge of our seats. I, for one, am really hoping that we get to see behind the curtain of this nemesis that real life O’Brien faced.
Scorpion will premiere on CBS on Monday September 22nd at 9pm ET, 8pm CT.
