Artists who are Interested in Life, Part II

Tony and Ridley Scott's Numb3rs has really found its legs the past three years and morphed into one of the strongest shows on network TV. Focusing on the Eppes family, consisting of retired city planner/widower Alan (Taxi's Judd Hirsch), FBI team leader Don (Rob Morrow, Northern Exposure), and former child prodigy and adult math genius turned professor/FBI consultant Charlie (Bernhard Krumholtz), Numb3rs is a strong study in interpersonal and family relations, and has some solid cop action to boot. If you gave up on it after the first two seasons, it's time to try again.

Anyways, the reason I bring it up now is because last night's episode presented something not typically seen in primetime. For the past two seasons or so, Don has been in an actively self-destructive spiral, manifested by a string of relationships that have all failed for the same reason and increasingly risky behaviour on the job. Two weeks ago, he found himself having reached the point where he recognized this behaviour as being born from a need he's been trying to fill, but unable to name, and the episode closed with him walking into a synagogue, something he hadn't done as an active participant since his bar mitzvah. This week, that translated into some tentative questions for Charlie's best friend, Larry, who spent most of last season living at a monastery as part of a spiritual quest after having had the opportunity to be a specialist on a shuttle mission. And this was unusual for contemporary primetime for two reasons. First, because Larry continues to voice what is a reality for many people deeply immersed in math and science; that their studies in these areas have convinced them of the existence of God. Second, because after walking in on the conversation (which was taking place in his kitchen), Alan asked Don, in all seriousness, if he (Don) felt he'd been cheated because Alan hadn't raised him in the faith.

Just to re-iterate: a father asks a son, on a regular network show, if he feels he's harmed his child by not raising him in a religious manner. TV usually shoots for the other way around. Numb3rs, on this issue and others, is interested in both sides of the equation, and that's a large part of why it rocks.