To start of, I need to tell you that I have always been a fan of House M. D. And that is in some sense strange, since I have totally no appetite for watching other hospital drama series. The "ingredients" of House just make it so much more appealing, that I found it an addictive watch. House is just so much more different than the prototypical view we all have of a doctor... Instead of being a "gentleman" he is more like a distraught Einstein.
So when I heard about this new show called Brilliant Minds, I immediately recognized several traits of House in it. And this caused me to just give it a try! And yes, it appears to be an attempt at creating a show that has many traits similar to the ones that you find in House! First of all, the main character, dr. Wolf, is as awkward as House. Like House, he has a severe medical condition: instead of a pain syndrome with a corresponding painkiller (Vicodin) addiction, Wolf has facial blindness. And like House, there is also a team of young people - called "interns" instead of "residents" - which consists of also a group of brilliant, but akward people. And yes, we see Wolf also faced with challenging puzzles lin finding out what rare condition a patient shows up with (and how to treat / improve it).
The setting is though somewhat different than what you are accustomed to see in House. Instead of the very prestigious "Princeton-Plainsboro" (fictious hospital) where House is working as a doctor, we see Wolf work in "Bronx Hospital". The latter is clearly a hospital on the lower end of the "prestiguous-scale". You won't see expensive offices with glass walls, but more the layout that we as common people are accustomed to seeing in a hospital. So in that respect, many more people will see a hospital environment that they are more used to seeing. At least, that is my personal experience when watching Wolf.
It is further not difficult to see that the producers tried to make it fit with the trend of making socially responsible content (ESG). On the topic of "inclusion", you see that they chose to make Wolf a gay character. Further, they show successful women in business. Wolf's boss is not only a women, but also his team of interns consists of genial women. And last but not least, we see many coloured people. So on ESG, all boxes seem to be ticked on inclusion: i.e. LGBTQ, coloured people and "women in business".
Finally I need to of course mention the main actor, which is Zachary Quinto. This excellent actor - with a pretty impressive slate that includes e.g. Star Trek's Spock - most certainly has the skills to make this show a success. For the Trekky-fans like myself, it takes some time though to get accustomed to a character that all of a sudden has emotions;)
All-in-all, I think this show has many things that can make it a success like House. From what I have seen in the first 2 episodes, it most certainly has a lot of potential for the future episodes. Overall, I am going to score it 7.1/10, which is in my way of scoring a pretty decent score.
