That’s just the window dressing, though, the actual bones of the show are surprisingly solid. The pilot spreads its characters pretty thin – Brian has the “dad” motivation, oh and whaddya know, so does Rebecca! – but justifies their actions and presents some decently dangerous consequences in the process. Brian gets the full focus in the first hour, so Rebecca is a bit short-changed in that department, but as played by Carpenter she’s got an edge to her and enough of a repartee with McDorman to make the prospects of watching an entire season of the two solving crimes together be far less soul-crushing than initially expected.
The show does stretch the reason that the cops need Brian in the first place to a comical extent, however, but at least they attempt a reason at all. That plot blossoms out of Brian’s encounter with film protagonist Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), who first experienced the NZT drug four years ago and has since managed to buck the tricky fatality-related side effects that a few tests ran by the FBI encountered in the past. Eddie promises Brian the same treatment – the ability to avoid the painful side effects that the drug induces every 12 hours unless you take another pill – if Brian agrees that he’s ready to “have a life that most people can’t even begin to imagine.” Brian takes the red pill, and Limitless begins to move closer to its namesake than originally thought possible.
“If Brian is gonna take NZT anyway, then every time he takes it he becomes the smartest person in the world,” Rebecca tells her boss by the pilot’s end. “That’s a resource. Let’s make it our resource.” As a built-in elevator pitch for the series as a whole, you can see why someone at CBS agreed to bet on turning a modestly successful thriller from four years ago into one of its patently functional procedural hits. Although we’re far from seeing how well this will all play out, there’s enough mystery laid down – who created NZT? How does Rebecca’s dad play into this? Can Bradley Cooper stick around, please? – that the future of the show has true potential, perhaps the most of any drama series so far this season. That’s its real superpower.
