Displays of Brains and Brawn 3 LBS and Day Break get ready for their close ups
Meet the replacements. CBS' medical drama
3 LBS (Tuesdays, 10 pm/ET) — the title refers to the weight of an adult brain — fills the void left by
Smith. ABC's
Day Break (Wednesdays, 9 pm/ET), a
Groundhog Day-style thriller, takes over for
Lost, which is on hiatus until February (to avoid repeats). How do the new shows measure up?
As the saying goes, you don't need to be a brain surgeon to see how 3 LBS got on air. In a took-the-words-out-of-my-mouth moment, an earnest young doctor wonders of his arrogant mentor, "Do you think in this business you have to have some glaring personality defect to be taken seriously as a genius?"
In the TV business, that's a must. Which is why brilliant neurosurgeon Doug Hanson, given a sly yet quiet intensity by Stanley Tucci, projects a façade as rude and aloof as Hugh Laurie's more captivating Dr. House. Hanson's a cunning cad who literally messes with people's heads, estranging coworkers, loved ones and patients. Yet he's also damaged goods, suffering haunting hallucinations. (And what's that on his own brain scan?)
Like on House, we go inside the body, zooming from nerve endings to the mind's exotic landscape, where surreal images convey mystery maladies. If only 3 LBS were as provocative. The conflict between all-logic Hanson and touchy-feely new associate Jonathan Seger (puppyish Mark Feuerstein) is awfully familiar. Still, the cases have potential. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of House's audience bleeds over to 3 LBS the way many Grey's Anatomy fans are drifting to ER on Thursdays. You don't have to be a, um, rocket scientist to figure that out.
If you thought watching Lost castaways in captivity was frustrating, wait until you see how poor Taye Diggs suffers in Day Break, the season's silliest new action-fantasy-adventure. Diggs labors heroically but humorlessly amid the flashy mayhem as a detective who wakes one day to find that he's been framed for murder, with bodies falling like confetti in the conspiracy's violent path. What's worse, he keeps reliving this miserable day, and so do we, ad infinitum — and nauseum.
Each dawn, he tries to fix things, which usually means that a different character takes a fatal fall. But the show plays by murky rules. If Diggs is hurt, his wounds carry over to the new day. But if someone in his path dies, they're OK next time, until they aren't again.
Around the moment when Diggs explains to his puzzled girlfriend that "Yesterday was today. Yesterday is today" in a routine almost as funny as "Who's on First," I swore that February, and Lost's return, can't come soon enough.
Maybe if I sleep on it.
