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elwenSo CBS has this new primetime show called Numb3rs -- "num-three-ers", as President Baltimore apparently pronounces it. [The opening is all cool and l33t and Matrix-y. XD]
It's about solving crimes . . . with math! One guy is an FBI agent, and his brother is a math prodigy at a university "based on Caltech" -- meaning filmed in part on campus. Somehow his brother pokes through confidential case material and gets inspired -- meaning we get a trippy sequence of things going sepia and equation-y -- and then comes up with this crazy formula that lets them find the criminal or something. [I've only seen the first episode, so although I'm speaking in a general way, you'll understand that this is a brand new show, and I have minimal faith in it becoming much more than that.]
My first reaction is something like, "Aww, how cute, they think they know math." But the thing is, the show's advised by Gary Lorden, who is or at least once was the math chair and all. So maybe there's half a something to the equations. I mean, I was almost convinced, being at least somewhat versed in statistics and physics. It'd be cool if they'd, y'know, create psychohistory or something.
It's hard to take the show seriously, though. The whole "math mode" sequence is just hilarious. And there are these parts when they have footage overlaid with chalkboard labels and equations that move with the subjects. It's like a physics video -- like the animated rotating vectors in The Mechanical Universe -- except everyone else is using vocabulary like CSI. [Not that CSI doesn't have plenty of its own phony science and random exposition to amuse me.]
If it wasn't an hour show -- I like my 30 minute episodes, thankyouverymuch -- I might keep watching just because it's amusing. But somehow I don't think it's the kind of show that normal people will receive well enough for the season to finish. Nice try, but most attempts to romaniticize or mysticize math or science just don't work. Either that, or they even further delude not-scientists that science can somehow solve everything, instantly, and that's the last thing we need people thinking.
It was neat to see the campus on TV, though. "Hey, look, it's Kerckhoff! And I can see Millikan in the background!" I doubt any of the people walking by were real Techers, though. I mean, they actually seemed awake and civilized. :P
It's about solving crimes . . . with math! One guy is an FBI agent, and his brother is a math prodigy at a university "based on Caltech" -- meaning filmed in part on campus. Somehow his brother pokes through confidential case material and gets inspired -- meaning we get a trippy sequence of things going sepia and equation-y -- and then comes up with this crazy formula that lets them find the criminal or something. [I've only seen the first episode, so although I'm speaking in a general way, you'll understand that this is a brand new show, and I have minimal faith in it becoming much more than that.]
My first reaction is something like, "Aww, how cute, they think they know math." But the thing is, the show's advised by Gary Lorden, who is or at least once was the math chair and all. So maybe there's half a something to the equations. I mean, I was almost convinced, being at least somewhat versed in statistics and physics. It'd be cool if they'd, y'know, create psychohistory or something.
It's hard to take the show seriously, though. The whole "math mode" sequence is just hilarious. And there are these parts when they have footage overlaid with chalkboard labels and equations that move with the subjects. It's like a physics video -- like the animated rotating vectors in The Mechanical Universe -- except everyone else is using vocabulary like CSI. [Not that CSI doesn't have plenty of its own phony science and random exposition to amuse me.]
If it wasn't an hour show -- I like my 30 minute episodes, thankyouverymuch -- I might keep watching just because it's amusing. But somehow I don't think it's the kind of show that normal people will receive well enough for the season to finish. Nice try, but most attempts to romaniticize or mysticize math or science just don't work. Either that, or they even further delude not-scientists that science can somehow solve everything, instantly, and that's the last thing we need people thinking.
It was neat to see the campus on TV, though. "Hey, look, it's Kerckhoff! And I can see Millikan in the background!" I doubt any of the people walking by were real Techers, though. I mean, they actually seemed awake and civilized. :P
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Date: 2005-01-25 06:24 am (UTC)