Based on real-life genius and computer expert Walter O’Brien, Scorpion is about a group of socially awkward geniuses who solve global problems. Starring Elyes Gabel (Game of Thrones) and Katharine McPhee (Smash), the CBS procedural debuts on Monday at 9 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
“That’s one problem with a lot of these high-tech shows: Most viewers have no way of knowing whether what they’re seeing is technologically possible or just made up. The other problem is that old-fashioned acting is too often replaced by the never-exciting sight of someone poking urgently at a computer.”
—Neil Genzlinger, NY Times
“There’s nothing original for miles around Scorpion’s pilot. There’s an antisocial genius, a team of misfits, a fatal mistake in the past.”
—Brandon Nowalk, A.V. Club
“Provided ‘the full resources of the U.S. government’ to thwart appropriately ornate crimes, the participants in this mildy fun yet wholly disposable exercise would be wise not to dwell on calculating their chances of network survival.”
—Brian Lowry, Variety
“For a show about brilliance (Elyes Gabel's character is described as ‘one of the five smartest people alive’), the pilot — where the team has to prevent every plane circling LAX from crashing due to a software glitch — is remarkably dumb, larded with weird contrivances and stupid mistakes made by the team to push the solution back into the climactic moments.”
—Alan Sepinwall, HitFix
“TV critics love nothing better than to wail to the heavens about formulaic television shows, but quite often, the familiarity of the formula is what attracts viewers. It’s a tricky thing spinning off from a formula show, though: Dick Wolf made it work well with ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ but not so much with ‘L&O: Trial by Jury.’”
—David Wiegand, SF Chronicle
“It's a show about geniuses that gets stupider and stupider until it explodes.”
—Hank Stuever, Washington Post
