5/5 Grade "A" Police Procedural
  by Mark J. Fowler (Okinawa, Japan)
Television has had a love affair with cop and detective shows for decades, from Dragnet through Hill Street Blues to CSI - Large-Metropolitin-City-of-your-Choice.

The best ones endure in memory and frankly make compelling viewing. Not meaning to cast stones, but the mediocre ones are the television equivalent of cotton candy. There are a few (The Mentalist) that almost, but don't QUITE reach the highest heights.

Right now there are two "cop shows" that started with a unique angle, then added great casts and writing. In my mind "NUMB3RS" joins "Dexter" at the top of the current police heap.

Both have writing - dialogue and storylines - that easily match up with the best cop movies. (Why couldn't someone have provided a better vehicle for Pacino and De Niro than "Righteous Kill", which looks like a high-school production compared to Dexter and Numbers?) But I digress.

NUMB3RS is the "genius" drama. (The Big Band Theory is the genius comedy, and it really IS comic genius.) Rob Morrow, from another of our favorite shows, Northern Exposure, shows impressive range. On NE his Dr. Fleischman was a slight of stature New York Doctor transplanted to Alaska. In NUMB3RS he plays Don Eppes, a tough dedicated-to-his-career FBI professional with commanding stature. Almost every episode features Don and a team of FBI professionals storming a room with weapons brandished. On "Exposure" he played the intellectual. Although Eppes is not dumb - he's an observant professional - Don is easily the least intelligent of the leading characters. Don's math genius brother is Charles, played by David Krumholtz. Five years younger than Don, Charles has become an internationally renowned mathematician. The sibling rivalry angle provides many plot points, and we see goes back to the time that Charles graduated in the same high school class as Don - only at age thirteen.

Charles, now 30-ish, still lives at home with their father, played brilliantly with heart and intelligence by Judd Hirsch.

Don was building his federal law enforcement career away from home until their now deceased mother became sick. The series begins apparently soon after their mother's death, leaving a house with two men, frequently visited by still-single brother Don.

Alimi Ballard is solid as a fellow FBI man, and Navi Rawat looks like a young Catherine Zeta-Jones as a graduate student who studies under Charlie. Peter MacNicol gets another hit TV show (after Ally McBeal and 24) as a physicist colleague of Charlie.

The show is equal parts brains and heart - contemplation and action. Almost every episode has me at the edge of my seat, and while the scripts sometimes require at least a momentary suspension of disbelief, they are smart and not insulting.

As cop shows go - right now NUMB3RS is good enough to spend my time.

5/5 anything but by-the-numbers
  by The Mandrew (The Dub-V)
I only recently discovered Numb3rs, and being late to the game, can't plant my I-was-watching-this-before-anyone-else flag, but if you are like me and had heard about the series, maybe caught an episode here and there on TV, but never really gave it a shot, DO IT.

I dont know why I avoided this for so long, because its a great, great crime drama with a strong human element. Yes, there's plenty of action to go around, but Numb3rs also focuses on the cerebral ways that number theory could be used to solve crime.

There's very little not to like about this show...at times, the Feds make decisions that I would surmise "real" FBI agents would not, huge mistakes in protocol that add drama to the show but pull from the believability. Still, I totally forgive these lapses and really enjoy the honesty and down-to-earth nature of the characters on the show, even when they are using Einstein-level jargon. Numb3rs is a strong balance of bicep and brain, and I'm hopeful that future seasons continue what they've done in S1.

5/5 Numb3rs Season 1
  by C. Spamer (Downingtown, PA USA)
From a fellow math nerd and student, it's a combination of applied math and a CSI episode without the excessive blood scenes. Math Genious Charlie teams up with his FBI Agent brother, Don, to find more effective ways of solving crime. I never saw the first season when it was on TV, but I saw most of seasons 3-5. I bought Season 1 to watch after having my wisdom teeth out and this season does not disappoint!

4/5 Numb3rs Season 2 Review
  by B. Lopez (United States)
I am a huge Numb3rs fan so I am a bit biased. Since this could be Numb3rs last season I would recommend you get it if you are a Numb3rs fan like me. I heard rumors of syndication but have not seen anything as of yet. It's certainly not a waste of money if you are into the show like I am.

5/5 Love it
  by Kitty's Momma (Fort Collins, CO)
I love this show. Though, I started watching after season 1. So it was great to see how it began.