'Perception' Winter Premiere Review: Moretti And Pierce Continue To Charm In TNT's Crime Drama

by SeanBillingsFebruary 25, 2014, 5:01 pmTV >

3.5/5

by SeanBillingsFebruary 25, 2014, 5:01 pmTV >

Perception, TNT's crime-drama television show, returns Tuesday with an episode that is entertaining, funny and compelling–well worth the watch. The show follows the template of the unconventional crime solver: Dr. Daniel Pierce (Eric McCormack) is a schizophrenic neuropsychiatrist who is a professor who also assists the FBI with complicated cases.

In the winter premiere, “Obsession,” Dr. Pierce’s love of baseball comes into play when a former baseball all-star-turned security guard is found dead on train tracks and it is believed a highly functioning autistic teenager stole a train and ran him over. Special Agent Moretti (Rachel Leigh Cook) calls in Dr. Pierce to assist with the case after it is clear that the suspect had been interrogated improperly. Dr. Pierce and Agent Moretti have a natural chemistry having been former teacher and student; they feed off each other well and lead each other to the next clue.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Perception&src=hash">#Perception</a> is on deck & back for new episodes TOMORROW at 10/9c! RT if you'll be taking the field with Dr. Pierce! <a href="https://t.co/jmNJXYAfT5">pic.twitter.com/jmNJXYAfT5</a></p>— Perception on TNT (@PerceptionTNT) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerceptionTNT/statuses/438021912204427264">February 24, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

McCormack steals the show as Dr. Pierce, or rather the character’s schizophrenic behavior does. His hallucination of a famous baseball player helps lead him down the path to solving the case. It is this sense of a broken character – that Dr. Pierce is so brilliant and yet, so strange and different – that is most entertaining. At one point in the show he may seem like a very normal person, and just one moment later he’ll be talking to himself. Of course, we know that he will eventually come to the proper conclusion and are rooting for him the whole way.

Meanwhile, Dean Haley (Lavar Burton) is trying to land an impressive student at their university and in doing so encounters many comical challenges, none more hilarious than when the young student, who is under the care of Max (Arjay Smith), Dr. Pierce’s live-in teaching assistant, accidentally eats a weed brownie. The campus visit goes terribly and adds some comic relief to the main plot’s drama.

This episode sees a familiar face as Andrew Lawrence (Brotherly Love) plays two key roles in the episode with a twist you will not see coming.

Perception returns with four new episodes starting Tuesday, February 25th on TNT at 9/8C.