Anyone with a keen interest in the brain or unusual medical cases is likely familiar with Oliver Sacks, the British neurologist, author, and professor renowned for his insightful and compassionate exploration of the human mind. His book Awakenings was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Robin Williams, and his collection of case studies, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, is captivating and highly readable—a frequent reference on podcasts. Sacks was also gay—he came out later in life—suffered from face blindness, and was considered eccentric by many. Oh, and he loved to swim.
Sacks was not a difficult person, but he could be aloof—he preferred solitude and was often so engrossed in his thoughts that he could come across as distant. However, he had a genuine passion not just for his work but also for his patients. He’d make an excellent subject for a television series.
Unfortunately, Brilliant Minds doesn’t quite deliver. In the pilot episode, Dr. Oliver Wolf, the character based on Oliver Sacks and played by Zachary Quinto, treats a woman who had a portion of her brain removed to cure her epilepsy. The procedure also strips her of an emotional connection to her children, whom she now perceives as imposters.
It’s not a bad metaphor for the series itself: Dr. Wolf exhibits all the characteristics of Oliver Sacks—he’s deeply invested in his work and patients, distant, has face blindness, is gay, and even enjoys swimming. Yet he feels like an imposter, a version of Sacks that someone who worked on Riverdale might conceive. It’s the network television version of Sacks: three parts Gregory House and one part Sherlock Holmes.
The pilot isn’t terrible. It’s just that the series takes someone who thinks outside the box and confines him to a procedural formula. It works for what it is, and the blend of prickliness and sentimentality will likely resonate with its target audience.
But this modern-day Oliver Sacks, relegated to a rundown hospital setting because he’s too “unconventional” to hold a job elsewhere, seems like a squandered opportunity. Oliver Sacks deserves more than an NBC procedural and, with all due respect to Zachary Quinto’s talents as an actor, he deserves to be played by someone better than an entitled asshole who seems to be playing a version of his real-life self. People may tell you that Quinto is the best part of Brilliant Minds and that he elevates the middling material. They are wrong, and it is possible to play distant and aloof without also playing a dick.
However, there is some potential here, if only for the quirky neurological case studies. I’ll also stick around in the weeks to come to see if the interns who work under Dr. Wolf are more compelling as they gain more screen time.