Are we here to save the world, or are we all here to save James bell?
Pilot
Dr. Walter Wallace (Dermot Mulroney) was fired for using trial-stage treatment to try to save an eight-year-old who didn't make it. Six months later, he's being Wooed by Silicon Valley tech and Billionaire James Bell (Augustus Prew), who has created Bunker Hill, a place for cutting edge medicine alone. At first, Wallace has no interest in working far from home in Ohio, but we all know he'll eventually cave. This is one of the problems I had with this pilot, it dedicated a lot of time to this will-he-won't-he accept the position as Chief of Staff, and as the answer was obvious, maybe they could've simplified that a bit. I don't think I'll spoil too much, since most of what I'll talk about is shown in the promos but, if you haven't watched any and you want to keep yourself fresh, maybe some details here could spoil that for you, so read at your own peril.
In Bunker Hill things work in a different way than any other place, people apply for a transfer and are brought by helicopter and treated with no cost whatsoever. This is if the staff decides their case is able to be reflected back to the general population and, if they make any breakthroughs, help other similar cases world wide. "Welcome to the revolution" is a phrase James loves to repeat, even though we find out he only created Bunker Hill to find a cure for GSS (Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome), a fatal neurodegenerative disease with which he was diagnosed and wants to keep a secret. The fact that this was shown in the promo, takes away some of the force it could've had. James makes the staff bring in Louis Keating (Cullen Douglas), a man who has GSS, even though the team thought it was too rare to help many people. After that Wallace figures out James' secret and confronts him.
Wallace: You see a lot of billionaire philanthropists but you never see them follow it up with an eighty hour work week. So if I can even think of uprooting my life to come here, I need to know why you're here, why we're all here. Are we here to save the world, or are we all here to save James bell?
James denies it but, later, he says it doesn't matter why he build the place, what matters is what Bunker Hill is capable of doing. As we meet the team we see Dr. Zoe Bracket (Odette Annable), who James has a crush on, Angie (Brenda Song), who's some sort of tech specialist and also Dr. Talaikha Channarayapatra, whom I hope gets a nickname soon, for now I'll go with Dr. C. There's also Dr. Scott Strauss (Ward Horton), Dr. Malik Water (Aaron Jennings) and Dr. Gilroy (Joseph Will).
Wallace: Do you think it's possible, what James is trying to do, what you're all trying to do? I'd like to think there's a place that can actually innovate but... I can't quite believe it.
Dr. C.: About 90% of the time that I'm here I think this can never work, but that leaves a 10% chance that we're actually gonna be able to do something, be a beacon for change, and I think that's 10% more of a chance than I have at any other hospital.
As for the case-of-the-week we meet Margot, played by The Walking Dead's Alexandra Breckenridge, who has cancer and is pregnant, but her fetus is not able to survive outside the womb yet, and she can't get the surgery while pregnant. It's not that the case wan't interesting, but this is one of the bigger problems this pilot had, the fact that it tries to introduce the characters and give them some backstory, but it also tries to show Wallace's reluctance towards Bunker Hill at the same time as providing a case-of-the-week AND a case that will probably stretch out a bit longer.
None of this things are bad per se but, the fact that so many of the things they were trying to show are so important to the story, leaves you with the feeling that none of them actually are. It's an unnecessary overload, Pilots in general have a tendency towards it, but the good thing is most of them improve in that particular regard, which gives me hope for this show. There are many medical dramas on TV, what could make this one stand out, could be the heart and the fact that most of the procedures will probably be "revolutionary" as Bell likes to repeat, and with unlimited resources. Also, the relationship between old-school Wallace and young entrepreneur James, has a potential to be funny and heartwarming. If you like medical dramas, you should give this one a chance to find it's footing.
Pure Genius premieres on CBS Thursday, October 27th at 7 pm.
Do you think you'll give it a shot? Share your thoughts down below.
