In 2008, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely was published, a non-fiction interrogation of what we take for granted about “rational thought.” Do the decisions we make originate wholly from our own minds, or are we conditioned to respond in line with recognizable patterns? Can you sleight-of-hand the human brain into choosing what organizations or corporations want them to pick without ever realizing they have been duped? Without playing massive mind games, it appears you can influence behavior without people losing faith that they’re wielding total autonomy over their decisions.
Ariely’s book seems to be more interested in market forces and broad social patterns than The Irrational, the network TV procedural it inspired. Ironically, the word “Predictably” has been left out of the title of the new NBC series, as showrunners have done the most predictable network TV thing with a compelling and complicated non-fiction book: turn it into a cop show. Soon, there will be no best-selling book that networks won’t try this tactic with—please hold for the “Why We Love Baseball” homicide detective series to hit NBC next fall.
Of course, there’s a charming allure to bread and butter procedurals like this, one that often gets lost in the deluge of middling streaming media that aims for prestige and psychological intensity without really having a grasp on how to reach it or what audiences want to see. With this in mind, The Irrational’s modest ambitions are squarely met, but its modesty still feels miscalculated. If you’re going to make a show about an outsider detective doing behavioral psychology to try and solve murders, and you don’t feel like building a writer’s room of incredibly well-versed and researched perspectives, the least you could do is be a bit more silly.
Living proof that no matter how many Law & Order episodes you star in (202!) you will always be the guy from the original cast of Rent, Jesse L. Martin is a worthy pick for The Irrational’s lead sleuth: leading behavioral psychology professor Alec Mercer, who’s just as charismatic, persuasive, and disarming as his field of study should make him. Martin plays Alec as quietly commanding in most scenes without ever overstating the character’s charm; he asks suspects off-kilter but incisive questions and engages them in intense, creepingly persuasive conversation. This is cool, if cliched, when he’s talking down a hostage-taker in the pilot’s opening moments, but somewhat laughable when he tries dissuading a professional sniper from assassinating him.
We hit a lot of the hallmarks of a premiere season that has little to no idea what to do with its characters: a traumatic mystery that still eludes our detective; a complicated romantic history with his primary law enforcement contact; a singular, comic-relief relative in the sidelines; younger characters who get allocated time to do emotional acting without guarantee that they will stay in the show the moment that the cast needs to be shaken up.
If The Irrational does find its footing in its first season, it’s tough to gauge when or how—only three episodes were screened for critics. Still, our ensemble feels so far feels too rigid to invest in yet, there’s no fun foil for Alec to bounce off of, no one who organically clashes with him or brings out his most urgent problem-solving. Alec kind of floats through crime scenes, slipping from one clue to the next, always using his particular brand of behavioral psychology but not exactly breaking the mold on how to psychoanalyze his way to justice.
For its first three episodes, The Irrational uncomfortably straddles the line between appropriately silly and disappointingly unadventurous. After a solid pilot, we jump into Joan Didion-esque writers being poisoned, and a carbon copy of the Boeing 737 Max scandal, but this time happening to white people and actually resulting in corporate arrests (the most unbelievable part of the writing by far). Still, there’s no reason why a procedural like this shouldn’t swing big in high-concept crimes—especially when there’s little else distinguishing the show from the other specialized detective shows out there.
Creator Arika Lisanne Mittman (who wrote on clever crime shows like Dexter and Elementary) certainly has the right instincts to make The Irrational sing, but while it’s a big deal that people like Alec can tap into the ways human beings are implicitly, silently influenced, he doesn’t exactly wow us. He will reference the most simplistic, Facebook-sourced audio and visual illusions in order to make a break in the case (in an attempt to show the audience something they recognize?), meaning you doubt not just the advanced intelligence of our detective, but what the collective IQ of this fictional world is.
Only a few times does Alec pull a mind-trick that you wouldn’t expect a normal police force or the FBI to try themselves. It’s possible the show will have surer footing in the weeks to come, but as of now, The Irrational commits the cardinal sin of any expertise-driven procedural—the audience feels a step or two ahead of the writing. We can see the moves it’s trying to make a mile off.
The Irrational premieres Monday, September 25th at 10/9c on NBC.
Rory Doherty is a screenwriter, playwright and culture writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can follow his thoughts about all things stories @roryhasopinions.
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