PILOT REVIEW: Wisdom of the Crowd

WISDOM OF THE CROWD

Starring: Jeremy Piven, Richard T. Jones, Natalia Tena, Blake Lee, Jake Matthews, and Monica Potter

Developed by Ted Humphrey
Teleplay by Ted Humphrey, Directed by Adam Davidson

THE PREMISE
In a premise that sounds similar to last year's Pure Genius and APB, Wisdom of the Crowd is about a tech billionaire who uses a new technology in an old profession. In this case, Jeffrey Tanner (Jeremy Piven) has developed a crowdsourcing app (Sophie) to help solve crimes. As you might already be able to guess without any more knowledge, this is personal for Tanner because his daughter was killed a year earlier and he thinks the cops got the wrong guy. Tanner teams with law enforcement officer Detective Tommy Cavanaugh (Richard T. Jones). Rounding out the main cast is Tanner's team (Natalia Tena, Blake, Lee, Jake Matthews), and his ex-wife, Alex Hale (Monica Potter).

THE REVIEW
I think this one of the most CBS things CBS has ever done. That's not necessarily a slam, just an observation. It is an intriguing premise but honestly, it would have been a more intriguing premise before Pure Genius and APB. This is one of those shows that requires the audience to really take a leap of faith in terms of crime-solving. Yes, of course this could be a possible app. But there would be so many things that would go wrong with it and far more dangerous things than even what happened in the pilot. So, if you're willing to take that leap in plausibility and you like CBS procedurals, this might be a show for you.

As far as the cast goes, Jeremy Piven is fine in the lead role but he's not as magnetic as the leads from Pure Genius and APB, and they weren't enough to make their respective shows all that good. So I'm not convinced Piven is up to the task. I enjoyed Richard T. Jones more but he's basically playing the traditional cop role. I'm most annoyed though with the complete lack of use of Monica Potter, who was so brilliant in Parenthood. We know she has a lot to offer but she was barely in the pilot and given so little to do in the few scenes she was in. She seems more like a recurring character than a lead given her distance from the main thrust of the show.

This show can try to do the overarching murder mystery with Tanner's daughter, but it is not going to be that kind of show. This is going to be a procedural and they sure do love explaining their app and what it does. The app itself, Sophie, was pretty annoying with a distracting alarm clock sounding sound. I don't think this is a terrible show by any means, but like the other CBS drama effort we've seen this fall (SEAL Team), it is just exactly what it is and nothing more.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
I don't know. I may tune in from time to time like I do with Bull if the story sounds interesting. But I'm definitely not going to watch it on a weekly basis.