Scorpion Season 1 Review

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remote controlled. My name is Walter O 'Brien.

I have the fourth highest IQ ever recorded. 197.

Einstein's was 160. When I was 11, the FBI arrested

me for hacking NASA to get their blueprints for

my bedroom wall. Now, I run a team of geniuses

tackling worldwide threats only we can solve.

Toby's our behaviorist. Sylvester's a human calculator.

Pappy, a mechanical prodigy. Agent K. Gallows,

our government handler. And Paige? Well, Paige

isn't like us. She's normal. and translates the

world for us while we help her understand her

genius son together we are score grab that remote

control because the gcrn's brand new tv podcast

is here we are calling it remote control i am

your host steve jerry mike and joining me this

time around is doug abel from talking about my

generation hello sir hello uh remote control

will be about uh the current generations of tv

this time around we're going to continue on with

the Finishing finales this time. We're gonna

be looking at CBS and scorpion And see if we

kept up with the show since we did the pilot

premiere episode if we've kind of just like Shied

away from the show if we really love it, whatever

and we're just gonna have an overall Discussion

on the first season kind of now this one The

finishing finales on the pole. No, this is not

the pullback. This is not the comic podcast.

You have to like, what the fuck? Finishing finales

on remote control here is supposed to happen

like within a week of the season finale of the

shows. So that way it's timed rarely, you know,

elegantly. And it's, you know, a week after most

everyone has seen it and we can spoil the hell

out of it. Sadly, over the last few months, I've

had some. Family issues come up. My mom recently

passed away which kind of sucked and really just

Basically, I was choking on the bone of podcasting,

you know, it's like, you know, you're supposed

to suck the marrow out not choke on the bone

Yeah, it's an old it's an old Robin Williams

joke from Dead Poets Society Phone call from

God if it had been collected have been daring

So the finishing finales are kind of a little

bit late, but I did still want to do them because

I didn't want us to just have that first initial

impression when we do the pilot premieres. So

Doug, did you, when it was airing, did you watch

Scorpion after the original pilot? Did you watch

it in marathon three or four weeks after it came

into it? How did you watch the show? After the

pilot episode we watched it and the wife and

I watched it for probably about four or five

episodes and We kind of lost the interest really

for me. There was an episode Where we see a jet

airplane coming in at lax and they're rushing

through To try and link up with a with an ethernet

cable, and I just kind of went. Oh, that's the

pilot No, I thought it was after that So episodes

after that Yeah, the lax grand ground communication

system, that's that's the pilot To can yeah,

that's the pilot there was that there was there

was stuff where they were having bombs going

off throughout throughout la That was another

episode that I remember seeing basically kind

of everything kind of just ran together I I don't

know. I kind of lost interest with it. Some of

it just got Really far out there Some of it.

I kind of went okay. I know people like this.

You know I I know Well, I literally know several

people who have Asperger's And they are very

sharp people Mm -hmm very intelligent people

But it really this is like a really poor impression

of those types of people and it kind of just

you know like Don't get me wrong seeing Eddie

K Thomas was great in this Catherine be in this

you know I'm just waiting for Stifler's mom to

show up on a sleek She's on another CVS show.

I know Alright, just to remind everybody to do

some stage dressing here. Scorpion debuted on

CBS in 2014 as part of the 2014 -2015 television

season. It is a one -hour show if you watch it

as it airs. If you get it on iTunes or DVD, it's

probably 41 to 48 minutes long, depending. On

the episode, there's been one full season so

far of 22 episodes. I believe Season 2 has been

greenlit. I haven't seen... any current news

items of it being canceled. So there is that.

Overall, I stuck with it. I watched every, I

watched in DVR every single, all 22 episodes.

I like the show. It's okay. So in the past, let's

say five, 10 years, we've had several different

quote unquote geek quote unquote geek shows.

beyond broadcast television. Now, there are a

ton of geek shows on cable and all that. I'm

talking about broadcast television, like this

network, CBS, ABC, NBC, all that stuff. There

hasn't really been a lot of geek TV on the broadcast

networks. You had Chuck. You had, uh, what else?

And I'm purely thinking of geek TV like Scorpion.

I'm not thinking of stuff like The Big Bang Theory,

because that's a comedy. Yes, it is very, very

geeky, but it's a comedy. I'm thinking about,

like, shows like Scorpion. There haven't been

a lot, so when this first, um, uh, came on, I

was like, oh, this is gonna be good. This is

gonna be really cool. And it... As the show progressed,

out of 22 episodes, there were maybe five, and

I don't even know which five they are, but I

remember there was probably about five episodes

that I just, at certain points, I was rubbed

the wrong way in the episode. I didn't like them.

I did not like them overall, the whole episode,

but I think it's more so some of the plots that

I don't like, versus all the character growth

and character development is great. First of

all, one thing this show does that i don't think

any show really has ever done is they well they

pull the standard broadcast tv will they won't

they with page and walter okay and then they

pull in her ex and then yeah they all that but

not a lot of shows like this Will pull in and

I'm not saying any member of team is team scorpion

is a second -rate character But you know a non

main character I don't think I've seen any show

ever really pull a second tier character out

of the group and given them a sort of Blossoming

love story. Honestly, I never wanted to see Paige

and Walter get together But what they did with

Sylvester and Walter's sister Megan, I absolutely

loved that I I have to be honest. I didn't actually

see too much of that. I saw a bit of it. I'm

like Okay, you know everybody needs love type

of thing. That was my thought on it You know,

I kind of just started losing interest about

after that You know some of the plots like you

said when they when they decided they were gonna

put them all into a war zone You know Yeah, that

kind of thing no no what the hell is this they're

not supposed to do that You know but some of

the other stuff like the genetic coding which

they did for the disease that was kind of cool

I Don't know. I just it wasn't It's not holding

my interest. Unfortunately, it's got potential

But it just reminds me way too much of hey, this

is something that My parents would watch or my

grandparents might watch and I hate making that

comparison I really do but it's like I'm watching

it now I can think is this is the next generation

matlock or the next generation murder she wrote

or next generation diagnosis murder Let's see.

I have to disagree with that on Matlock and diagnosis

murder specifically because Neither one of those

shows had what is it four or five different?

genius level people like that's the difference

here and that's the you know, that's the exception

here is that They're showing and even though

it's super fictionalized. They're showing genius

level people and how they do not relate to the

real world. That is something a lot of us geeks

can kind of, you know, not necessarily sympathize

with, but, you know, essentially this show is

an everyman show. Yeah. Or, or, or, or, or a

geek's everyman show, because at one point or

another we've all been like, Toby happy or Sylvester

I don't know if we've all been like Walter because

Walter is super disconnected from everything

Walter is your typical Asperger's type of person

I Have like I said, I have a friend of mine who

he is For all accounts and purposes. He is Walter.

He's just he's not the 197 IQ But the guy is

the guy is incredibly smart when it comes to

programming and doing computer programming He

can he can look at a program and write it out

on a whiteboard. I Could never in a million years

do that You know, but I mean that's the kind

of person that he is and he distances himself

and It's just disconnected. You'll see him. You'll

try to you'll try to play games with him and

he'll you'll get into it, but it's It is very

much like Walter is in that You get this disconnection

feeling from him that he's not really enjoying

himself And that's kind of what I see with Walter

is just He he doesn't seem to know how to how

to be the love story how to You know with like

with him and his sister just being disconnected

It's you see it. He doesn't fit into the norm

of society None of them do I mean I would honestly

say that probably Toby is The one character Toby

and happy action and and that's another thing

You know, I said earlier that they kind of focused

on Sylvester and Megan's blossoming relationship

They essentially took Toby and happy and made

them the relationship Quotient for the show.

Yeah even you know and it's not really a will

they won't they it's more so looking at it like

oh this is fun flirtation kind of thing uh you

know and by the end of the season we kind of

see that they're slowly you know moving towards

a date or whatever whatever the hell they're

going to end up doing but one of the reasons

why i love scorpion is because it's not just

your atypical Action show with romance in it

where oh my god The main couple has to get together

by episode 5 or else no one's gonna watch the

rest of the season, right? You know some of the

episodes for me like I said, I enjoyed I really

really enjoyed the The Valentine's Day episode

which one was that? Uh, just, uh, I'm trying

to, oh yeah, uh, episode 16, Love Boat. I love

that one. That's so hilarious. When they have

to, um, they have to search for a stolen experimental

shoulder rocket launchers that are being transported

aboard a luxury cruise ship. That's just hilarious.

That's like Love Boat meets Terminator for crap's

sake. Ah, Jesus. What I'm just saying no, I can

see it but just like oh jeez I Think they did

the season finale the two -part season finale

cliffhanger and postcards from the edge I think

they did that very well and it kind of left me

on like The edge of my seat where it's like hmm

What's going to happen? That was literally a

cliffhanger though, I mean well Part one. Yeah,

I mean he essentially is hanging off the cliff

and then you have part two which is postcards

from the edge Yeah What do we think of the cast

in their roles so is there a certain cast member

or certain character in the show that Kind of

stood out for you. Um well Obviously Toby. I

love Toby just the fact that he can deduce so

much from people with his behaviorist studies

I Really am NOT liking Robert Patrick, you know,

I I love Eddie K Thomas Katherine McPhee is that

she's that gorgeous chick who everybody seasons

kind of like, okay American Idol, obviously she

can act because she wouldn't be here. She couldn't

no way. It wasn't she glee Uh, no, no, you're

right. You're right. She was American Idol Flash

is glee. Yeah mine. Yeah But you know, it's just

one of those things and it's like, okay You know

to me kind of big deal type of thing, but Any

K I love him again Completely different role

from what we saw him as a Stifler or not stuff.

Where's mom? Yeah Completely different and I

love him in this role the fact that he is He

has problems and you see that and you know him

with his gambling issues and I really don't have

a problem with gambling Yeah, you do Yeah, you

do But I mean learning learning how to manipulate

people and he does such a damn good job of it

That and then like when he goes in and they break

into the one Storage room where they're looking

they're looking for all these different storage

pieces and he's going okay Which hard drive is

it gonna be it's gonna be this one here this

one here? Well, the guy is this tall so he's

gonna be this he's gonna have an eye level for

this he's gonna be well this kind of person and

I forget who was it was with him was maybe was

happy or Sylvester and he kind of goes He goes

so you deduced all that from that. No, actually

I saw the label up here You know that to me I

love that sort of attitude and it just was great

But like I said if we're going against characters

that I don't like I'm really thinking that Robert

Patrick is more of a dick and Some of it maybe

again because it's you know, it's Terminator

1000 the Terminator 1000 coming out from him

or the bad, you know, the bad side of strip tease

when he was in that, you know, I didn't even

know he was in strip tease. Holy crap. I have

not seen that movie in a long time. He plays

as Demi Moore's ex -husband, who is like just

a sleazeball trying to scam people. Oh, OK. That

is, you know, the bad guy in Double Dragon, which.

We'll leave that alone Yeah Yeah, see I you know

and look my Loveboat terminator things right

on on cue. I completely forgot that it was T

1000 I mean, I knew it was Robert Patrick. I

knew it was T 1000, but I just completely didn't

even associate it first Just love all the cast

I mean and the one thing I can't stand about

the characters and the character interactions

is honestly the whole Triangle between Walter

actually, it's a quadrangle Walter page Ralph

and Drew like as soon as Drew came on the scene

I was like you have no friggin clue what to do

now get the hell out go back to Bangor or wherever

the hell you're gonna go to play baseball Good

I don't know I mean it's I'm kind of hoping that

the show will go on But at the same time it's

not something I might pick it back up with the

season opener next year if they or next season

if they have something that comes through but

It's not anything. That's like oh I've got to

watch this religiously. You know every week in

and out. It's not It's not a flash or it's not

a Big bang theory for me. It's not like those

you know It's it's okay, it's just it's not like

I said it seems more like my parents type show

Okay, so This would be the time in the podcast

where You know we would break everything down,

but Doug has clearly not watched enough episodes

all right, so I found some news as of today as

of we're recording this june 27th 405 pm scorpion

season two alana de la garza becomes series regular

cave returns more story arcs in new season this

is from vine report .com so i don't know how

accurate it is but when i searched scorpion season

two on google this is the first thing that came

up cbs's action drama show scorpion will be back

for a second season on september 21st with the

addition of a new recurring character to be played

by actress alana de la garza for those of you

who don't know who alana de la garza is she was

on the late later seasons of law and order proper

before it ended uh... she was on the very short

-lived fox series forever with mister fantastic

she's a great actress um... uh... she will play

the new head of homeland security described as

smart tough and driven by uh... deadline which

first announced the news the report said that

she will make sure that the scorpion team will

become successful in all of their endeavors however

remains to be seen of her intentions are for

the team are solely for herself The report also

revealed that the new season's premiere episode

will show Cabe working as a Hollywood technical

advisor until Garza, the new head, summons him

back to the team as Scorpion's team liaison.

Meanwhile, in a separate report by Deadline,

the finale for the last season reportedly landed

as the second most -watched show during that

week due to its high rating with 10 .42 million

viewers. The show, which is based on real -life

adventures of Walter O 'Brien, revolves around

a group of... It's actually produced by the real

-life Walter O 'Brien himself along with Alex

Kurtzman and Roberto Orsi That might be why you

don't like it is because it's Kurtzman and Orsi

and a lot of people don't like Kurtzman and Orsi

stuff I mean, it's it's wearing on me. What can

I say? Alright folks So you're willing to at

least give the at least the first two episodes

of season two a try and then if after that You're

just gonna kick it to the curb. Yeah It's kind

of one of these things that I I'm trying to get

back into it and it's just it's hard. I Feel

like I'm missing a lot You know that there's

like if I'm not watching every single minute

and I'm not rewatching it to analyze what I missed

Right, you know, it's like it's like watching

an episode of CSI You kind of have to watch him

and see every little detail because then at the

end when they do the big reveal You kind of go.

Oh shit. I missed out on this this this and this

I could have figured out who the killer was by

those things Yeah, the only CSI I used to watch

Grissom's CSI see the real CSI the CSI Vegas

the original one I used to watch that a long

time ago Have not watched a CSI since then until

now with CSI CSI cyber just launched with Patricia

Arquette and and Haley Kyoko and a bunch of other

people and I really dig that one. I am so digging

on that one Peter McNichols in that That's a

really cool CSI show because it's dealing with

all tech stuff So I absolutely love that one,

but the rest of them. I just don't care Alright,

so for the GCRN review, I'm probably going to

give Season 1 a 3 .5 out of 5 stars. 3 .5 I believe

on our scale is... Some kind of wonderful. I

don't know um What would you give it out of five

stars you can do half points if you want to I'm

gonna give it a two and a half It's mainly because

it's not anything that's shown as really great

for me to come back and consistently watch But

nothing really bad either. I mean the characters

are good. It's I Guess they just need more interaction

with real life Is the best way to put it Some

of the stuff that we're seeing is kind of like

really really you're gonna throw this in The

bombing is going on all at the same time around

la that that bugged the hell out of me. I'm just

like Why are we seeing this? Why you know why

do we get these explosions? Why do we have all

of a sudden the plane? That's having a problem.

Why you know why are we getting transports of?

shoulder launch rockets on a cruise ship Some

of it just seems really hokey to me and it's

like come on maybe they were Maybe they were

trying to recreate a TV version of cruise control.

Oh God no. Oh Please I do not want to see a ship

run aground Where's Sandra Bullock when you really

need her, right? That's about the only thing

that would make it better. Alright, just so everyone

knows, the GCR on rating scale that we go by

is zero to five stars with half points. I gave

it a three and a half. Three and a half states

liked it. Issues are certainly prevalent, but

so are the successes. Typically there is one

specific area of extraordinary achievement or

a multitude of quality moments that make the

negative aspects relatively easy to accept. You

gave it a two and a half which is barely failing

We probably should rename that one But anyway

barely failing means the cons slightly outweigh

the pros while the negatives aren't overbearing

They are far too plentiful to make it where they

ever recommend there may be certain redeeming

qualities that are worth your time However in

the end product leaves you wanting more Well,

let me let me up it then to a three I'm trying

I'm saying two and a half out of five because

that's right smack dab middle Right. Yeah, you

know, it's fine. I'm not saying you have to change

your score. I would recommend it to people But

yeah, not the sort of thing that I could keep

watching myself See I'm invested in the characters

I'm invested in the relationships to relate the

quote -unquote father -son relationship between

Walter and and cave the happy Toby relationship

Sylvester and Megan and I just want to see what

they do because if you look at these characters

you could not find more different people anywhere

I mean happy she's no nonsense no nonsense tough

girl that has the shell as you know as hard as

a brick Toby is this really really extroverted

type that basically points out the wrong things

at the right time. Sylvester is Mr. Germaphobe

and Mr. Statistician. As Walter says in the opening

monologue, Sylvester, the human calculator. I

just really dig Sylvester and I don't know what

it is about him because I feel like I've seen

that guy, the guy that plays him. I don't have

his name off the top of my head. I'm not looking

at any info, folks. The guy that plays Sylvester,

I swear I've seen him somewhere else, and I just

can't put my finger on it at all. Yeah. You know,

it's like I keep looking at him and thinking

that he is... I keep thinking that he's the same

guy from the Justin Long movie where they created

a fake college, but it's not. I know that. Somewhat

old -school No, that's not no that was well for

Will Ferrell. Yeah. I'm gonna say here I can't

like I remember what it is. I I can't think of

it either It doesn't matter No, I know but it

just Like I didn't even know the guy's name before

I saw him on on the credits for the show. It's

it's it's Ari Sidham or Stidham um the guy i

just feel like okay i'm looking at his aim to

be now before scorpion he was oh he was in the

short -lived robin williams series the crazy

one so maybe that's where i've seen him before

ah uh before that he was a drunk kid on glee

uh he was in a tv series from 2010 called huge

he played ian schoenfield Have never seen that

so no clue But you know for me scorpion, I will

be watching season two until it does something

to piss me off So far it really hasn't done anything

where I just want to throw the remote You know

just throw the remote and just say up. No, I'm

done. This is going to the shit pile I really

enjoy it, and I think the 2014 2015 season out

of the Pilots in the new shows like I can't believe

how many new shows I actually watched Last you

know last September October You know you got

flash and gotham and scorpion and stalker and

red band society and i tried watching forever

but i just it's it's one of the reasons why we're

not doing a uh... a finishing finale is on forever

i just couldn't keep up with that that's just

too far -fetched yeah uh... i was just waiting

for doctor henry whatever the hell his name is

uh... do super stretch arms somewhere okay i'm

glad i was the only one big i'm sorry but Ian

or Ion Gruffudd. The only thing, the only two

things I've seen him in before forever was obviously

the Fantastic Four movies and he was in a short

-lived WB series called Ringer with Sarah Michelle

Giller. So yeah, anytime I see that guy on anything,

it's like, okay, when is the stretching gonna

begin? All right, folks, it is time to exit stage

left. uh final thoughts for me i really dug scorpion

it's something that like scorpion for me is what

chuck was for a lot of people okay um and i am

not a fan of chuck at all i've tried watching

that show i just can't you know you say some

of the things in scorpion are are too unbelievable

The entire series of Chuck is unbelievable for

me. Yeah, that's the thing about Chuck is that

it just made fun of so much. But I guess that's

why I liked it more because it was so parodied.

This year is kind of like they're trying to sink

real life in. And they're they're not doing too

good a job in my mind. That's all. I mean, the

one good thing the show does point out for Scorpion.

is that the way they set the whole thing up is

the crimes that they're investigating even though

you know one of them might just be a random murder

or something or other but the way it's the way

the murder is committed you know with technology

or whatever like the episode with the the governor

or the senator's daughter or whatever it was

where she was poisoned by this super bad virus

or whatever the hell it was That, you know, when

they set it up and they say these are the crimes

that only these geniuses can solve because no

other regular, you know, FBI Quantico agent can,

I kind of dig that. They're not necessarily replacing

federal agents, but they're handling stuff that

not every single person can do. True. True. Alright

folks coming up next on remote control. We are

continuing the finishing finales and we're gonna

talk about Red band society from Fox. So for

now I am TF2 and Mike with Doug Abel from talking

about my generation Turn it next time and I'll

be fighting over the remote control It's a business

dinner. Need to go over some office data entry

protocol with Paige. You are taking Paige to

a top LA eatery on Valentine's Day? Just one

week after Drew signed a month -long contract

to pitch in Portland. How convenient. There's

Valentine's this weekend? I had no idea. Should

I get the extinguisher? Because your pants are

on fire. Liar, liar. You don't think Paige notices

the timing? It is a business meeting. Valentine's

is a scam created by the greeting card industry.

The only reason why I picked that place is because

Paige mentioned it. The cherry on top of the

denial sundae. You're being attentive to her

wants. Good morning, guys. Paige. Mr. Neen. I

brought donuts. Oh, thank you. It's a date, Rob.

For dessert, you should order Phoenix dactylaphera.

Why, because that's the botanical name for dates?

Nope. This conversation's over. Thank you for

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