#brilliantmindss2

[thewickedbohemian]

Thoughts on a Brilliant Minds doubleheader that I hope isn't the last we see of these characters #RenewBrilliantMinds #BrilliantMindsS2 #BrilliantMindsSeason2

ironic we pick right up with the emergency after the episode with the first responder reruns

with my anxiety I can imagine how Dana feels

and then the lobby turns into overload

that's one way to mother-son bond

and enter Mandy Patinkin

and hello again Katie the paramedic (potential recurring if-and-when this gets a S2 given she's billed alongside Muriel's actress)

first Wolfnichols motorcycle ride

I feel you Wolf but I can barely hear you

this is not good for my claustrophobia

another time we actually see the nurses (as often the cubs end up doing what nurses should do)

dueling hero complexes and Dana has a correct opinion she's just incorrect about facts

boyfriend tag team but also boyfriend fight

is Wolf just antagonizing everyone out here

at least you're trying Dana (but text don't call if you keep getting her voicemail)

and my point

oy gevalt grandparents

way to reinforce the themes of the episode if not show

well Ericka's trying to save the day so maybe Dana's just psychic

I was expecting some improvisation

at least Wolf hears

did he get the aww

ask the faceblind guy to find a guy

at least he's calling his name but why do I feel there's a twist

and cue flashback 20 minutes into the episode

this is younger than we've ever seen young Wolf

okay so who's the unreliable narrator

just like in E10 calm the kid down with his special interest

and Van is exactly where we'd expect to find him

the heart to heart they needed (and cue poly shipping go brr)

so we still have a neuroweird-patient-of-the-week of sorts

see I told you there'd be a twist

dad skills to the test

5-4-3-2-1-0 he wakes up right on cue

for an INFJ (according to PDB) Wolf's quite the improviser

again with too-obvious flashback triggers

meanwhile Carol having a chance to be a normal doctor without the Allison shit hanging over her

"loneliness is as lethal as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day" that's both on the nose for the show and hits home for yours truly

cool transition (I really like how this show's filmed)

ask the awkward question girl

status-quo-is-god but rescue still feels nice

why do I feel like this moment (albeit in a tragic way) feels very Doctor Who

and the band's back together

at least this is not some twist condition that means she'd be not-okay or worse as a cliffhanger

Wolf really feeling like doctor!AU Flynn

cue Ericka's survivor's guilt

and cue another flashback and cool transition

ok what's he saying

mom's being nice (and I'm again getting Librarians vibes)

and heeeerrrree's Van's family and it doesn't appear his parenting skills extends to his own kid the way it does kids not related

cute Kana (Katie/Dana) moment (and nice Cowboy Carter reference) and I hope a S2 actually gives them that chance for karaoke (Dana's actress has done musical theater before)

of course Carol notices Wolf has a pattern

not saying I ship those two as Dana's got Katie but one pair of girls on a network procedural stop being roommates (Kayabeth on Elsbeth) and another start, cute

we get a Wolf monologue outro finally

talk about a weird hug

ok ok surprise Mandy Patinkin and the true nature of his character finally revealed

religious connections amping up my theory about some sort of spiritual subtext to this show (but him being the kind of chosen one his dad talked about wouldn't necessarily mean Second Coming per se)

serious banger in the background almost drowning out Wolf and we get to see everyone coping

so now Ericka's got some sort of PTSD

what's with network procedurals and galas and gay

like we didn't already know you were in love with him

conveniently leaving out the neurosurgeon's gay hmmm

digging all their fashion senses

Dana's gay, a Tumblrite and likes church choirs, I wouldn't be surprised if she likes Bare: A Pop Opera

of course he's there

Dana with the save

okay the pastor's like really pretty

what does Wolf seeee

of course they wait until the season finale to do the thing that inspired an Oliver Sacks book title (but Brilliant Minds being Brilliant Minds they genderswapped it)

even more subtext

okay what the frick's going on

everybody's got answers

I saw that Jacob with the love thing

why is Ericka turning into a bit of a potential fandom bicycle

never seen a character be genre-savvy about a realistic fiction genre before

a Muriel flashback and interrupting dad busts up the book club

why is Carol dragged into everyone's bullshit

did prosopagnosia just save the day

he tells the truth but why did the lie happen

this show should win some kind of award (or at least be nominated) for its cinematography

you sure you're not just working off hindsight bias

this feels like a meltdown (more evidence of Wolf being autistic)

okay hints of the meta-cliffhanger-related-to-series-fate

how is this gonna get resolved by episode's end

hello meta-parallels

boys' night out

Wolf caught on

what's that song playing in the background, it sounds cool but I can't hear it over their dialogue

why do I feel like her words are relevant to how Wolf heals

everything's paralleling everything

God's gonna give him a sign to stay

Dana has a type and makes her point

did you hear the neurosurgeon

and Wolf sees a wolf

now I've got "Promise Me This" from indie musical The Theory Of Relativity stuck in my head

and she gets in the elevator when it matters

here's the whole truth getting dumped

maybe the parents are more like each other than they care to admit

he promised to never come back so why did he

I like how she's apologizing to all of him

really, now you tell them

and why does the wolf pack keep reminding me of the Librarians

Dana confesses too (furthering the parallel)

of course Conveniently Relevant Sermon

okay but why is she seeing only those people as hats

that song was perfect and another "fandom song" for the show like Heartbeats (and not out of place in a house of worship, my rabbi performed it during Yom Kippur service)

everybody's spilling every secret

that quick with the bullet-taking

and we have a Kana kiss (and another one in the worst place)

uh oh

intern cubs havin a party and of course they're left alone

ok so what's Wolf doing

now I don't know what's the right thing for him to have done

I hear that Elton John cover in the background

so that's why he needs Wolf

[fanficandvidprompts]

I know songs in AMVs or on character fanmixes don't have to be sung by the same gender as the character they're about (when they're not trying to make an incongruity-funny) but there's some part of me, maybe it's the Glee-watcher, that still kinda defaults to prioritizing that. Therefore I wish someone at some Broadway Backwards/Miscast or w/e would do a male cover of this song so I could better make the idea I had in my head for a Brilliant Minds AMV because lyrically/disregarding-the-female-singer (and assuming these two can get over the relationship speed bump they appear to have hit in the S1 finale in a potential second season) this fits Nichols's POV about Wolf to a bit of an uncanny degree

[fandomrelatedshowerthoughts]

Current mood: wondering if in the event of a Brilliant Minds S2 (*crosses fingers* and obligatory petition link here) because the show's already got Donna Murphy and Eden Espinosa guest-starred in the S1 finale, we might potentially (whether it be one-offs, recurring guest stars or if there's any more room in the ensemble depending on the actor and where they'd best fit) get anyone else from Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. I don't know if what someone's previously been on matters for what networks they get subsequently cast on but Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Jeremy Jordan have all been on NBC shows before (This Is Us, Chuck and Smash respectively)

[thewickedbohemian]

Just gonna keep spreading this around, share this and the hashtags (#RenewBrilliantMinds, #BrilliantMindsS2 and #BrilliantMindsSeason2)

seeing other shows get renewed and nbc im begging you to make sure brilliant minds is on that list I will cry

[thewickedbohemian]

If I had a nickel for every 2020s major-network procedural drama-but-not-a-gritty-one where a somewhat-neurodivergent young-ish-adult male protagonist with daddy issues but not the conventional kind gets rescued from a professional failure by the opportunity to work for his very-enneagram-1-esque mom in a work environment that puts him in contact with a lot of strong women (including an old female friend in the sense of old friend not old woman) and a much more straightlaced guy who's a dramatic foil to him to the point of homoerotic sexual tension, I'd have two nickels (or should that be Nichols) which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Now let's get one of those shows picked the fuck back up and make sure the other show doesn't share its fate of needing to be saved that way

[thewickedbohemian]

Since @bisexualbuckley kinda scared the crap out of me with their info about Brilliant Minds's slipping ratings, here's a preemptive make-sure-show-gets-renewed petition.

If you've seen the three episodes there's been of Brilliant Minds so far you should sign this petition to make sure the 10 episodes left in the season (short season lengths are another debate for another petition for another day) aren't all that's going to be left of the series. If you haven't seen Brilliant Minds you should esp. if you are some combination of neurodivergent and a fan of House, Scorpion, Bones, New Amsterdam or The Librarians

[thewickedbohemian]

Things I'd most like to see in the future of the shows I've been watching this season (other than just more seasons)

High Potential

basically the crimefighter equivalent of when Leverage did the Girls' Night Out/Boys' Night Out Job

longer seasons (13 is not enough episodes especially scheduled this weirdly)

a Halloween episode (bonus metaphorical points for either the team detecting in costume and/or some ambiguously-supernatural element of the case-of-the-week that's never explained away as anything mundane implying the supernatural exists in that universe (like Bones has done on several occasions, CSI: NY did in the episode "Scared Stiff" and Tracker did in the episodes "Ontological Shock" and "Preternatural"))

more depth on Daphne like we got on Oz this episode (though hopefully without Daphne being that level of in deadly danger)

them to follow the pattern Bones often does with episodes where the case-of-the-week seems Doylistically designed to either spotlight some subculture/niche community or to have the heroes get to "play dress-up" whether or not that means going undercover proper (as I would like to see some Gillodec or maybe even Gilloto undercover shenanigans)

one specific example of the previous point I'd like to see is murder at a Renaissance faire (just imagine the team in appropriate outfits or one of Morgan's little epiphanies hinging on whether or not something is historically accurate)

crossovers (and as the Abbott Elementary/IASIP thing proved they don't have to be with other ABC shows but whatever the crossover's with, if it's a show that'd normally be somewhat darker than High Potential tone-wise but isn't incapable of going light it should tonally meet High Potential where it's at instead of making High Potential darker)

Tracker

another somewhat-paranormal episode of a different variety, we've done aliens and witches I'd like to see one where Colter has to do a little bit of Indiana Jones shit and it's never said the artifact (and if it always has to be a missing person whatever else is missing maybe someone robbed a museum of both an artifact and an academic) isn't magical but it's never explicitly said to be so and things that would be the case if it were still happen

if we can successfully bring back So Help Me Todd to CBS, I'd love it if it could cross over with Tracker as Colter could be a healthier role model for Todd than the toxically-masculine-lone-wolf-y Dick (both in the name sense and the acting-like-one sense) Dean Winters was playing (and to the degree they don't already each could help each other understand the importance of a support team) and Reenie and Margaret could bond over being strong women in the still-very-boys'-club-y world of law, just not sure how you'd make a plot involving both a legal case and a missing person that deals with gender roles/stereotypes enough to thematically mirror these b-plots

if Russell's going to keep recurring, I think it'd be cool to keep the reference trend up by having Misha Collins guest-star in one of the episodes Russell features in as some key character (perhaps the local law enforcement or the missing-person-of-the-week's friend or relative soliciting Colter's help) but have his character be gay and try to hit on Russell to which Russell would respond with words to the effect of "flattered but not interested, maybe in another life..."

some more depth on the support people like we kinda-got in both the episode with the fight club and the episode with Colter and Reenie at that retreat thingie in the desert

Brilliant Minds

since the last couple episodes of S1 proved that the flashbacks aren't just a Wolf thing (Jossing my earlier theory about them being related to some neuroweirdness going on with him) maybe future seasons could give us cub flashbacks

although I don't know what issue the patient-of-the-week would be facing if the sexuality isn't the problem, I want them to do some kind of episode that's a metaphorical response to the House episode about asexuality and perhaps if there is a case for it (as people on that spectrum can still have sex) maybe the asexual patient inspires Ericka to look into if she might be ace-spec

as I said on one of my sideblogs it'd be cool if we got someone else from Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (because Donna Murphy's Muriel and Eden Espinosa was the pastor in the S1 finale). Sure Zachary Levi might have apparently made some comments controversial enough to potentially make NBC wary of him but I think Mandy Moore and Jeremy Jordan should be in the clear (and should the show ever need another "wolf cub" (look how many ducklings House has had) the latter would be around the right age)

even if we can't get a musical episode though I'd want that too (bonus points if it doesn't do the cliche shit Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy thing where the breaking out into song is only in the head of some brainweird patient or w/e as Brilliant Minds seems to ground its Weird Neurology Shit more in reality) we should at least get karaoke (like was teased with Katie and Dana in the S1 finale) or some other opportunity for characters to sing

since the only episode I watched of the show Black Box (the most recent show before Brilliant Minds to deal with weird neurology stuff) dealt with Cotard Delusion I kinda want to see how Brilliant Minds would handle that

Elsbeth

Kayabeth

a musical episode if Carrie Preston can sing well enough to warrant it (as this show has so much musical theater in its DNA that e.g. I was caught off guard by the use of the Crosby Stills & Nash song in the montage in S2E9 as the only needle drops the show had had before that were show tunes/opera ("Make Your Own Kind Of Music" in the S1 finale doesn't count as I think that was meant to be diegetically what she was walking the runway to) and it also has a similar tone to Psych where it wouldn't need some weird contrivance to Doylistically explain why everyone's singing it could just have a musical)

more backstory and spotlight for the female detectives including giving them freaking first names as we know the guys'

on that note while I know Jews don't have to play Jews I think it'd be a cool opportunity if when Detective Edwards got her turn for that kind of dive-in she was revealed to be Jewish just like her actress Micaela Diamond is (it's just if we'd be visiting her temple as a part of the case of that episode they better not take the easy way out and make the murder a hate crime or one meant to look like it)

something I've been rotating around in my head that'd make a cool episode is that since NYC being the home of Broadway doesn't mean it still can't have local theater, maybe getting close enough to investigate a case without anyone noticing or w/e (like Elsbeth was doing in the winter premiere by staying at that spa/resort-y-thing) somehow necessitates trying out for a local musical production and despite it being a show she loves making her hyperfixate on nailing the audition (perhaps enough to temporarily distract her from the rest of the case) Elsbeth doesn't make it in the cast but Kaya [if her actress can sing otherwise it'd be just Edwards this happens to] does so Elsbeth's gotta help her practice and, like, join the stage crew or something as her own other way in

more instances of either Elsbeth being an Abed-Nadir-esque fourth-wall-breaker (like all her looks at the camera or when the Lavish Ladies episode of S1 ended on her saying "Can I say "cut"") and/or magic-y weird shit implied to exist in the Elsbeth universe (like when the Scottish play superstition worked)

guest stars I'd most like to see (apart from my idea for if SHMT can make it back to CBS Skylar Astin teasing that by appearing on Elsbeth as a good-guy that could feasibly be Todd undercover) at least from the world of musical theater where it seems to take a lot of them include John Larroquette (if he can work around Night Court enough for even just one episode), Jenni Barber, Josh Segarra (or any other Electric Company alum that's been on Broadway that isn't LMM (who might be too big an ask though he has appeared on network shows before), I just wish more of them could get noticed than just William Jackson Harper), Philippa Soo (if she could work around Doctor Odyssey if that show actually lasts), Lindsay Mendez, Joe Morton, Katherine McPhee, George Salazar and Ariana DeBose. Some are names people would know, some are people I wish had more exposure and some are just people I think who'd fit that vibe (and I didn't mean to have four J names in there).

[fandomrelatedshowerthoughts]

Friendly reminder that the events of this season finale (esp. if we get more show than just this) are no more a breakup for Wolfnichols than Flynn's constant bouncing in and out of The Librarians meant anything similarly bad for his relationship with Eve

[fanficandvidprompts]

TFW a pair of fandoms would seem to make a perfect fusion!AU (even if one's set in high school so you'd have to populate the fusion with teen versions of the adult selves of the other's characters) if one had more recurring characters

That pair I'm talking about fusing being a Glee AU for Brilliant Minds as while even adding people who seem likely to recur in the event of a S2 like Katie or Van's ex in addition to the four "wolf cubs" doesn't get up to the 12 necessary members needed for competition (and if-and-when the show lasts long enough that we have enough characters and the OGs are still around I'm not sure if we'd get enough of everyone to truly get depth on potential new people), Wolf seems very much like "the Mr. Schue of neurology" he's just less outwardly dorky because he's an introvert among other things. So maybe he ends up being saved from professional failure by getting a teaching job (which to have a callback to canon perhaps would be some kind of science teacher) at his old school where his mom-who-taught-when-he-went-there is now principal and his girl-who-is-a-friend-but-not-his-girlfriend-because-he's-gay Carol Pierce is now guidance counselor and decides to try and take it upon himself to rehabilitate the floundering glee club out of empathy even though it's kinda out of his comfort zone. As for where Nichols fits in, maybe he'd be the football coach or something as he does seem the closest Brilliant Minds would have to a Sue-type and as they fall in love he could have the kind of redemption arc people wished for Sue instead of her going full cartoon-villain by the end. There's even ways to incorporate elements of the cubs' canon arcs into their teen versions like if you don't want to make him a teen dad (though that could still be a thing if you don't think it'd rip too much off canon Glee) Van's canon kid could just in this AU be, like, a little brother he was parentified into raising (perhaps this AU version of Van could have arcs similar to what canon Glee was trying to give Sam) or since a lot of the canon Glee characters were sophomores when the show began maybe glee club would just be Jacob's plan B as despite bad football injury after being the star freshman year he still wants to be on top of something (and Jacob/Ericka would start being a thing via showmance-turning-into-romance as them being as go-getter as they are they'd be the ones ending up with the solos a lot of the time a la Finchel). But if anyone makes anything like this the most important thing is to remember to keep the brainweird representation meaning Wolf's prosopagnosia (perhaps this hypothetical fic could even have something about why this AU's version of Wolf would actually like music with lyrics (but even then probably still have very particular taste) is because an additional method to the notable-feature thing discussed in canon to help him deal with his faceblindness would be learning to pick out people's voices) along with the rest of what I feel like are autism symptoms, Dana's anxiety and Van's synesthesia.

[thewickedbohemian]

This can be huge and not as some kind of cult-following launching-pad thing. And it can be huge without us having to somehow use selective editing in videos of it shown to execs to make it look bad (as my autistic brain took your criteria a little literally strongly and making it look like a bad show would be easier than hiding the non-visible minority statuses of the characters) or some kind of socialist revolution to overthrow the television old guard and the status quo you're calling out here

realistically speaking i expect the show to be cancelled after the first or second season, since it's a good show with neurodivergent and queer characters (and actors) and that's just how it goes, but...

i'm kinda hoping that a few years down the line there'd be people who'd know Zachary Quinto from this show and not Star Trek, there'd be people who'd know Teddy Sears as Josh Nichols and not as Zoom, there'd be people who'd recognise Alex MacNicoll, Ashleigh LaThrop, Aury Krebs and Spence Moore II as the guys who got big by playing the interns on Brilliant Minds

i just wish this could become something huge somehow