The strength of “Perception” is in the writing. From the way Dr. Pierce is able to solve various crimes and the complexity of how he approaches these situations but I also enjoy watching both Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook together, it makes up for a fascinating and enjoyable series that makes me interested in watching season two! For fans of television crime drama with a little twist, “Perception: The Complete Series” is recommended!
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DVD TITLE: Perception: The Complete First Season
YEAR AIRED: 2012
DURATION: 11 Episodes (425 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Televisions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles,
COMPANY: abc studios
RATED: TV 14 DLV
RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2013
Directed by Greg Beeman, Kenneth Biller, Christopher Misiano, Deran Sarafian
Written by Kenneth Biller, Michael Sussman, Amanda Green, Jason Ning, Stephen Tolkin
Production by Eric McCormack, Mark H. Ovitz
Co-Executive Producer: Michael Sussman, Amanda Green, Stephen Tolkin
Co-Producer: Jason Ning
Associate Producer: Nicole Carrasco
Music by Tree Adams
Cinematography by Jeff Jur
Edited by Anthony Miller, Andi Armaganian, Gib Jaffe
Casting by Mary Jo Slater
Production Design by Stephen Storer
Art Direction by Dennis Davenport
Set Decoration by Wanda “Beau” Peterson
Costume Design by Julia Schklair
Starring:
Eric McCormack as Daniel Pierce
Rachael Leigh Cook as Kate Moretti
Arjay Smith as Max Lewicki
Kelly Rowan as Natalie Vincent
Jonathan Scarfe as Roger Probert
LeVar Burton as Paul Haley
Jamie Bamber as Michael Hathaway
Freddy Rodriguez as Wesley Sumter
Jayne Atkinson as Helen Paulson
Lisa banes as Irene Reardon
Jimmy Bennett as Alex Willingham
Bridget Regan as Victoria Ryland
Matthew Glave as Senator Scott Ryland
Enter the brilliant mind of Dr. Daniel Pierce and relive every thrilling case of Perception: The Complete First Season. Experience an original twist on the classic crime drama as Emmy Award® winner Eric McCormack (Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, 2001, Will & Grace), stars as an eccentric neuroscience professor whose revealing visions help him uncover what lies beneath conscious emotion.
Though recruited by the FBI for his masterful understanding of the human mind, Daniel’s odd and offbeat view makes it difficult for him to get close to anyone. His former student, Agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook), is one of the few people willing to accept Daniel’s peculiarities in exchange for his imaginative solutions. Two very different personalities join forces as they try to tackle the Bureau’s most complex cases.
Perception is “Crime Scene Differently.†Own every thrilling moment of Season One in this sensational DVD Collection!
From Kenneth Biller (“Smallville”, “Star Trek: Voyager”, “Legend of the Seeker”) and Mike Sussman (“Star Trek: Voyager”, “Star Trek: Enterprise”, “Threshold”) comes a new crime drama TV series titled “Perception”.
The series would star Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace”, “The New Adventures of Old Christine”), Rachael Leigh Cook (“She’s All That”, “Josie and the Pussycats”, “Antitrust”, “Get Carter”), Arjay Smith (“Be Kind Rewind”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, “To Save a Life”), Kelly Rowan (“The O.C.”, “Assassns”, “One Eight Seven”), Jonathan Scarfe (“Above and Beyond”, “White Lies”) and LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Roots”, “Reading Rainbow”).
With the first season consisting of eleven episodes airing in July 2012 on TNT, a second season is set to premiere in June 2013. And what better than to release the complete first season on DVD in May 2013!
“Perception” revolves around a neuropsychiatrist named Dr. Daniel Pierce who teaches at Chicago Lake Michigan University. While a well-known professor who is lauded for his work on forensic psychology and neuroscience, he’s also a man who is dealing with increased hallucinations due to his schizophrenia.
While he has a live-in teaching assistant named Mex Lewicki who knows of his hallucinations and tries to help Dr. Pierce know what is real or not real, the fact is that he is losing grasp of telling the difference between factual people and hallucinations. Even his best friend, adviser Natalie Vincent, who he tells all his problems to, is actually an imaginary person that is derived from a person he used to like a long time ago.
But life changes for Dr. Daniel Pierce as his former student, Special Agent Kate Moretti from the FBI comes to him for help on a murder case. And for Dr. Pierce, assisting Kate may be what he needs to deal with hallucinations as they are also trying to help him solve the case.
Join Dr. Daniel Pierce and Special Agent Kate Moretti as the try to solve the most complex homicide cases in “Perception: The Complete First Season”!
“Perception: The Complete First Season” focuses on the following main characters:
Dr. Daniel Pierce (Eric McCormack) – A neuropsychiatrist and professor at Chicago Lake Michigan University (CLMU). As a respected writer on forensic psychology and neuroscience, Dr. Pierce has a history of paranoid schizophrenia and often has hallucinations of people trying to help him solve crimes. He is enlisted by the FBI by an expert consultant to solve complex cases.
Special Agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook) – A former student of Dr. Pierce and an FBI agent, she recruits Dr. Pierce to help solve complex crimes. She was recently demoted for her tendency of going beyond the scope of the assignments.
Max Lewicki (Arjay Smith) – A live-in teaching assistant who helps Dr. Pierce differentiate between real people and hallucinations. Max was an orderly who helped Dr. Pierce when he was confined at a psychiatric hospital for his mental illness. Dr. Pierce is helping Max finish graduate school.
Natalie Vincent (Kelly Rowan) – An imaginary adviser and Dr. Pierce’s best friend. She helps him piece together his hallucinations.
Paul Haley (LeVar Burton) – A professor of philosophical theology and Dr. Pierce’s dean at CLMU. Both are good friends and were roommates back in college.
FBI Agent Robert Probert (Jonathan Scarfe) – Kate Moretti’s partner, but doesn’t believe in Dr. Pierce’s judgements.
Dr. Michael Hathaway (Jamie Bamber) – A professor recruited at a university that Dr. Pierce has little respect for. He likes Kate Moretti.
“Perception: The Complete First Season” features 11 episodes on three DVD discs. Here are spoilerless summaries for each episode:
DISC: 1
- EPISODE 1 – FBI Agent Kate Moretti recruits Dr. Pierce to help her solve a case involving the death of a pharmaceutical executive.
- EPISODE 2 – The FBI is investigating a case of a death of a mail order bride who has a medical condition. Meanwhile, the new professor, Dr. Michael Hathaway has eyes for Kte.
- EPISODE 3 – Kate and Dr. Pierce try to help a woman named Lacey who escaped from a serial killer back in 1986. Max doesn’t like how Kate constantly goes to Dr. Pierce for help.
- EPISODE 4 – Daniel comes across a cipher left in a letter to the editor which alludes to future crimes.
- EPISODE 5 – Kate and Dr. Pierce investigate the death of a junkie.
DISC 2:
- EPISODE 6 – Dr. Pierce helps Kate investigate the death of a therapist who tries to cure his patients of homosexuality.
- EPISODE 7 – Kate and Dr. Pierce investigate the death of a judge who may have been murdered by a schizophrenic.
- EPISODE 8 – Kate and Daniel investigate the death of a young girl who was killed in her dorm room.
- EPISODE 9 – Daniel witnesses the murder of a young man, but was it real or a hallucination?
- EPISODE 10 – Dr. Pierce commits himself to a psychiatric ward but what happens when he comes across a familiar face?
VIDEO:
“Perception: The Complete First Season” is presented in Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 televisions. A lot of the shots are shot indoor and thosescenes are well-lit and during the low-light scenes, you do see a bit of noise but compared to other drama series on television, the series is above average in terms of picture quality on DVD.
AUDIO:
As for audio, “Perception: The Complete First Season” is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Dialogue and music is crystal clear, while surround channels are not too active and is a dialogue/music driven soundtrack coming from the center and front channels. The show is presented with English SDH, Spanish and French subtitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Perception: The Complete First Season” comes with no following special features.
EXTRAS:
“Perception: The Complete First Season” comes with a slip cover.
On television, there have been quite a few crime dramas in which police or federal organization teams up with a civilians.
You have “Castle” in which a police investigator teams up with a famous crime novelist, a young crime consultant and his reluctant police officer partner in “Psych” and in 2012, TBS introduced their series “Perception” pairing a schizophrenic neuropsychiatrist assisting an FBI agent.
So, the crime dramas of civilian and law enforcement is still popular on television but it all comes down to how these series separate itself from being banal but also coming up with some new and fresh for the audience.
With “Perception”, the show is entertaining, a good twist on the crime drama about individuals solving homicides but at the same time, reminiscent of shows such as “Castle” (civilian and officer) and even the law drama “Eli Stone” (how lawyer is able to represent his client but has hallucinations due to the protagonist with a brain aneurism.
In the case of lead protagonist Dr. Daniel Pierce, he is a man who has a brilliant mind but has been dealing with schizophrenia which has gotten so bad that he is not sure who is real or not real and with the help of his roommate and friend Max and an imaginary adviser, along with hallucinations that show up whenever there is a case that needs to be solved, it does make up for interesting drama.
Actor Eric McCormack has moved on since his “Will & Grace” days to play a more serious character with a lot of depth and paired with Rachael Leigh Cook, who has grown up a lot since her teen films of the ’90s such as “She’s all That” and “Josie and the Pussycats”. As Special Agent Kate Moretti, both she and Dr. Pierce are an interesting duo…teacher and former student (who tends to get into a bit of trouble, but maybe there is a little attraction from her towards her former teacher).
While both work together to solve problems, she’s not aware of how extent his schizophrenia is but she often goes to Dr. Pierce to help the FBI solve various murders.
So, while the series does make itself stand out compared to other series with a similar style, there are a few things that often drive me nuts and that is the interference of a civilian during a police interrogation or in this case, a federal interrogation. I just don’t see how Dr. Pierce can go inside and interrupt the special agent during her interrogation whenever he wants, but I would assume that Moretti is used to Dr. Pierce’s eccentric and complex personality.
But still, I enjoyed this crime drama as it does have potential to be something bigger and also tap into episodes with a more serious tone.
While the first season does a great job in establishing the primary characters and the main goal is for both Moretti and Dr. Pierece to solve the most complex cases, it will be interesting to see if both of these individuals fall for each other. But not sure if I would like that as it would be too banal for my taste!
But the strength of “Perception” is in the writing. From the way Dr. Pierce is able to solve various crimes and the complexity of how he approaches these situations but I also enjoy watching both Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook together, it makes up for a fascinating and enjoyable series that makes me interested in watching season two!
For fans of television crime drama with a little twist, “Perception: The Complete Series” is recommended!
