Reviewer Rating: 4/5.0
4
Dr. Oliver Wolfe (Zachary Quinto) draws you in immediately. He believed that if he didn’t know who his patients were, he couldn’t help them.
According to real-life neuroscientist Dr. Oliver Sacks, Dr. Wolfe was a risk-taker and a rule-breaker if it meant helping his patients.
Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 1 is the ideal pilot episode because it introduces us to our protagonist and shows us how he works. His stubborn attitude and heart of gold reminded me of Conrad Hawkins in The Resident.
When Dr. Wolfe smuggles a patient out of the Alzheimer’s unit, he annoys the others. But seeing him and Harold on a motorcycle was pretty impressive.
Harold’s case was difficult. Should Dr. Wolff have removed him from the hospital without permission? Probably not.
But many families don’t treat people with dementia or Alzheimer’s with dignity at the end of their lives, and Harold just wanted to attend his granddaughter’s wedding.
Music helps him function, and it’s heartwarming to see him brimming with energy as he sings at her wedding reception.
While Harold may not remember the wedding later, Dr. Wolfe wants to help him capture the moment one last time. It’s hard to argue with this logic.
We soon learn that Dr. Wolfe has a lot of problems of his own. He became a neurologist because his father had some mental health issues, but no one took the time to help or understand his father, not even his mother.
Dr. Wald, on the other hand, learned a lot from his father, including how to describe people, which helped him a lot with his facial blindness.
Another thing Dr. Wald and Conrad Hawkins have in common is that their egos sometimes need soothing. Dr. Carol Pierce (Tembella Perry) has to touch him, inviting him to join her team at the Bronx Medical Center, saying she needs his expertise.
Apparently they were old friends and she knew exactly which buttons to push to get him to join.
They named his character aptly because he is a lone wolf. He preferred working alone, hated working with four new interns, and disliked being around the chief of neurosurgery.
The interns were a lot of fun, even though they had already formed their own opinions about working with him. Jacob (Spencer Moore II) thought Wolfe was crazy, especially on certain missions, until he witnessed him in action.
Wolf gets along better with the other three, starting with Dana, because she also struggles with anxiety and taking medication, which he relates to.
Erica (Ashleigh LaThrop) often acts like a leader, reminding others that they can learn from Wolfe. However, Van (Alex MacNichol) is the first person Wolfe meets because he understands the importance of helping Hannah and her lack of premeditation in her reaction.
Wolfe works better with patients because helping them is his goal. He quickly reassures their new patient, Hannah, but is concerned because her brain surgery has created an emotional attachment to her children.
Like many other physicians, Dr. Nichols prioritizes solving medical problems. Dr. Wolfe believes in looking at the big picture, and that includes getting to know his patients.
Wolfe’s main problem is getting people to look past him and just stopping Hannah’s seizures. I have had seizures and had to stop them, but sometimes medical procedures can cause serious side effects.
Wolfe wants to understand Hannah and help her sons, as others again view their situation as hopeless. The case also stumped Dr. Pierce, who knew it would take someone like him to work a miracle.
Dr. Pierce has her work cut out for her, trying to mediate settlements between departments, monitoring Hannah’s case, and getting Dr. Wolfe to fit in.
Wolfe’s emotions were compounded by the loss of his childhood and his father. He didn’t want Hannah’s sons to suffer such pain when she still loved them deeply. She just didn’t recognize them and it devastated the family.
Wolfe speculates that Hannah suffers from Capgras Syndrome, which causes her to believe her sons are imposters. However, when he played audio of her sons talking, she reacted emotionally until she couldn’t stand it anymore and she had another seizure.
Fighting the system proves challenging, as Dr. Nichols (Teddy Sears) and the CPS only see the cold hard facts. Boys are not safe with their mothers when they have seizures or fail to recognize them.
But Wolff has studied the mind extensively and believes it is not black and white. When Hannah tries to blindfold her in front of her sons and asks them to talk to her, they are left with their last hope.
But as the family embraced, it was clear she knew and loved her sons.
There’s still a long way to go to prove that Hannah is a healthy mother and rekindle her relationship with her sons, but Wolff proves that unconventional methods can work.
While he and Dr. Nichols may never be best friends, they develop a grudging respect, especially after Dr. Nichols hears Wolf admit that honesty can be uncomfortable .
That’s some suspense. The conflict between Wolfe and his mother has always been lingering. Now that he has her boss, how will he get along with his mother? It would be fun to combine a family drama with a medical drama.
Brilliant Minds has some clichés and gimmicks about mental health, but it has heart. It’s one of the few medical dramas that explores the mind and its relationship to mental health from a neurological perspective.
Since it’s based on a real-life case, I’m excited to see where it goes, especially since we might get to see some of the guest stars more than once.
What did you think of the Brilliant Minds series premiere? Does Dr. Wolfe remind you of Conrad Hawkins? Do you want to see more of Harold or Hannah’s stories?
We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please share them in the comments.
