TV News and Reviews @ KickAssTV.com

I absolutely believe that CBS’s “Numb3rs” is the best thing on TV that no one is bothering to talk about or even notice, but there’s apparently enough of an audience (diehards like myself, no doubt) who tunes in for every episode, or it would have been yanked mid-season like all the great shows no one notices or talks about.

For those who don’t know, “Numb3rs” stars Rob Morrow of “Northern Exposure” fame as Don, a FBI agent who uses his mathematical genius little brother Charlie (played by David Krumholtz) to help him solve confounding crimes. Judd Hirsch provides laughs and gravitas as their widowed father.

The show’s basic premise is that since we all use math everyday (paying for food at the store, pumping gas, etc.) without even realizing it, math can also be used to understand the actions of human beings. Most of the episode involves Don being called to a crime scene, then Charlie coming in to offer a theory as to what happened; or if he doesn’t know, then he does his math thing and figures out what will happen next, etc. The show brackets the case between two sides — the FBI guys led by Don and his co-agents (Sabrina Lloyd of “Sliders” was the token female agent before she was replaced by Diane Farr of “Lovelines” fame; with the other two agents being former country bumpkin and a local ex-gangmember turned lawman; and the academic side, which is Charlie and his college colleague/love interest played by Navi Ravat and his college professor played by the extremely cool Peter MacNicol.

Not a great, great show by any means, but it gets the job done pretty well. The crimes are usually pretty standard stuff (murders, abductions, etc.), but the treat of every episode is how Charlie uses math to break down his theory of what happened. It’s pretty cool stuff, I have to admit, and not being a mathematician (and speaking purely as a guy who had to take basic college math three times before I could pass it — yeah, I know, pathetic), I couldn’t tell you if all the math was kosher or not. But it sure is cool watching the graphics fly by demonstrating what Charlie is saying, though. Charlie’s math explanations are kinda like what they do on CSI, except cooler, and with less pretentious color schemes.

If you like police procedurals with a twist, and some pretty cool math stuff, I’d recommend checking out “Numb3rs”. It’s better than your average cop show, and despite her annoyingly squeaky voice, Diane Farr is pretty hot.