Limitless (2015)

Limitless makes for a lively show with an addictive potential.

As the show unveils multiple conspiracies, all at cross-purposes, Limitless seems less like an exploitation of its movie namesake and more like a well-made and well-thought-out TV series of its own.

The show could go interesting places, too, even explore provocative ideas--although the pilot pokes at those only halfheartedly. Limitless instead sets up as just another buddy cop show, with a superhero component and a sinister subplot. Those potentially interesting ideas are kicked to the curb.

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.

The plotting is pretty perfunctory, but McDorman wears the show’s hyperbolic intensity lightly, as if playfully mocking the hard-boiled self-seriousness around him. But he also brings pathos to Brian’s gnawing sense of failure.

It’s lithe and funny for this kind of show, yet another series about a very special crime-solver.

Limitless retains the flippant style of the movie, especially in Brian’s voice-overs, which distinguishes it from many of the others. The guy is a mega-genius, but he’s a likable one.

The Limitless pilot, the only episode CBS made available for review, offers a terrific hour of character introductions that builds on the world established in Mr. Cooper’s movie. There are a few plot holes, but they’re forgivable. Then in the last 10 minutes of the pilot, everything that made the hour unique is threatened with extinction when you can see the confines of the CBS crime procedural box closing in.

Mentalist and Sherlock fans looking to fill their procedural need may find some delights here, and the show’s editing and direction help kick series this up a notch. ... But its similarity to other source material puts Limitless at a disadvantage, as the viewer may occasionally just wish they were watching these other, better shows.

So, basically, this is a drug-fueled Sherlock Holmes situation, although Brian does something so monumentally stupid while supposedly in his smart state at the show’s beginning that it comes close to undermining the show’s premise. Luckily McDorman, who appeared in “American Sniper” with Cooper, has an easygoing charm that helps right the boat.