Created by “Legend of the Seeker” vets Ken Biller (“Star Trek: Voyager,” "Smallville") and Mike Sussman ("Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Threshold"), TNT’s new hourlong “Perception” stars Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace”) as a paranoid schizophrenic neuroscience professor who, while off his meds, uses his hallucinations to help the FBI solve crimes.
His co-stars include Rachael Leigh Cook (“She's All That,” Psych"), Kelly Rowan (“The O.C.”), and LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”).
... while it's no "Closer," which also returns Monday, the Eric McCormack vehicle "Perception" is perfectly adequate "Eccentric Consulting Genius" fare. …
... across the four early episodes provided for review, Pierce’s hallucinations are already beginning to feel like stunts covering up for a lack of ideas. … McCormack puts Pierce’s vulnerability and fear in the foreground, and avoids the huckster’s smirk that can sometimes mar his performances; he’s winning, and he has an easy rapport with Ms. Cook. For more critical viewers, though, that may not outweigh the show’s forced eccentricities, or the way in which ideas and motifs from “Monk,” “House,” “The Mentalist,” “Numbers” and other series clank around in plain sight.
... If you can overlook both the derivative nature of the set-up — "House" meets "A Beautiful Mind" and adopts "Monk" — and the dangerous absurdity of defining schizophrenia as just another way of looking at things, "Perception" has a certain summery, tweet-friendly entertainment value. … If only the strokes weren't so broad and easily anticipated, if only the paranoid schizophrenia weren't so actually horrible and devastating, rather than quirky and revelatory. Co-creators Mike Sussman and Kenneth Biller are on to something with their exploration of the endless and fascinating facets of perception. But too often it seems like they have chosen to afflict their character in this manner simply because all the other dysfunctions have already been taken.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… "Perception" isn't very smart. It's also not very pleasant. ... There's very little that's fun about "Perception." It doesn't have to be a laugh riot, but it should be enjoyable to watch and the sad truth is, it's just OK. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... a ho-hum affair. The show is not so much awful as it is a colorless copy of better shows that have come before. It doesn't take a keen sense of perception to see that. …
... Pierce is one of those brilliant-yet-eccentric TV heroes, a neuroscience professor and FBI consultant who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, causing him to hallucinate and engage in lengthy conversations with imaginary people. While this adds a twist to what would otherwise be an average crime drama, it also means that the audience never knows whether a scene is actually happening. Essentially, the writers can take the plot in any direction they want without much regard for reality. For some viewers, this will be a neat trick. For others, it will be maddening. …
… There are aspects of the series that are engaging—Daniel's intricately conceived sleuthing for the FBI, for instance—but, as the voices in your own head soon tell you, there's a lot more of it that's wearisome. …
... Perception's near-total divorce from reality, while annoying, is not the worst of its crimes. The larger problem is that Daniel's crime-solving abilities are so randomly applied as to be virtually pointless. …
... just more of the same-old, same-old, with a colorfully flawed (eccentric or crazy, take your pick) hero solving cases that prove almost wholly generic. It's no accident networks keep replicating this formula, but whether reality or mere perception, the result here is kind of a snooze. …
10 p.m. Monday. TNT.
