One wouldn’t think that a guy who is so godawful at math and with numbers would like a television series that is devoted to just such things and is centered on them. Numb3rs, though, adds a great bit of intrigue to the world of the crime drama and when all is said and done makes it incredibly interesting. It truly is amazing just how much numbers play a big part in our everyday lives and that everything can essentially be figured out by doing a few equations. Not that that’s simple or anything, but who would have thought that a crime of passion or vengeance could be figure out by plugging numbers into a formula?
Don Eppes is a special FBI agent that loves his work. He actually gets so involved in his work at times that he barely remembers to have a social life or even sleep sometimes. The only people he ever really interacts with are co-workers, his father Alan, and his brother Charlie. Charlie, on the other hand, is a bit more of a free spirit kind of guy and a genius that can recite anything dealing with math like it’s the alphabet. He is a college professor, but often times gets summoned by his brother and other FBI agents to help solve cases with his brilliant mind. While Charlie and Don work well together and appear to be very similar in their work, except for Don’s seriousness and Charlie’s playfulness, they still don’t always come off as being related. Over time they’ve gotten a bit more used to one another and both lightened up some, but it’s hard to change all their ways.
Together, Don and Charlie take on some of the toughest cases the FBI must solve out in Los Angeles. Don is all about the police work and doing what is right while Charlie uses his mathematical knowledge to put the facts together and decipher what has actually happened. Over the first couple seasons we’ve seen Don open up a bit more and start socializing and conversing more with not only his team, but also civilians. Season four saw a number of situations that truly needed to be addressed including one of Don’s fellow agents Colby Granger working undercover unbeknownst to anyone else. Charlie’s love life has taken a good turn as he finally broke out of his shell and admitted that he had a thing for his former grad student. Love, deceit (with Charlie and Don actually at each other’s throats), anger, death, and so many other things make for a wild and exciting season full of equation-filled cases.
Numb3rs did exactly what every crime drama needs to do in order to be successful in a crowded field. It went out and created an extremely unique little niche that sets it apart from just about every other show of its kind. Sure there are going to be similarities, but the whole “numbers” deal really keeps my attention. Perhaps it is because I’ve always sucked horribly at math, but continuously been obsessed with how intricate they truly are. No matter what you do in life, numbers are a part of it. They are involved in your work, your cooking, your driving, and even your walking. Take a good look at The Number 23 with Jim Carrey and you’ll see how cool it is when particular numbers add up to be significant in time. A lot of that happens in this series and it is an amazing feat watching Charlie come up with these calculations that can determine why, when, how, and where someone committed a crime.
The fifth season brings about a lot of new developments to the series including new characters and some changes for current characters already on the show. We are introduced to a new agent named Nikki Betancourt that doesn’t quite see eye to eye with Don, Charlie, and the way they use numbers in their crime solving. David is promoted to supervisor after Liz leaves the team for a promotion that calls for her move to Denver which doesn’t actually thrill her. All of this and more is included in a number of fantastic episodes that just get better as the season rolls on. “12:01 AM,” “The Fifth Man,” and “Greatest Hits” are just three of my favorite episodes from season five, but there really are no disappointing ones to be found.
Episodes
Disc One:
High Exposure
The Decoy Effect
Blowback
Jack Of All Trades
Disc Two:
Scan Man
Magic Show
Charlie Don’t Surf
Thirty-Six Hours
Disc Three:
Conspiracy Theory
Frienemies
Arrow Of Time
Jacked
Disc Four:
Trouble In Chinatown
Sneakerhead
Guilt Trip
Cover Me
Disc Five:
First Law
12:01 AM
Animal Rites
The Fifth Man
Disc Six:
Disturbed
Greatest Hits
Angels And Devils
The episodes are shown in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and looks alright for the most part, but it still doesn’t appear as if there was much done in the transfer to DVD. Still, the colors are bright where they need to be and all looks decent.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it also has its problems like the video quality. While it is a mostly dialogue driven series, it is sometimes overpowered by the music when it starts to really kick in and causing you to adjust the volume up and down. Kind of frustrating.
Audio Commentaries – Commentaries are included by different members of cast and crew for three episodes: “Jack Of All Trades,” “Thirty-Six Hours,” and “Jacked.”
Deleted Scenes – Only one episode has extra footage and that is “Thirty-Six Hours” which has four of them. None of them are really earth-shattering or add much. (7:47)
Blooper Reel – Here is your basic gag reel full of a lot of laughing, flubbed lines, and other such mishaps. Funny stuff. (5:57)
Celebrating 100 – Cast and crew are all together to celebrate the filming of their 100th episode with interviews, footage, a party, and more. Not bad. (15:01)
Crunching Numb3rs: Season Five – Here is the true bulk of the special features and it’s actually very good. Cast and crew sit down to discuss the entire season touching on important plot points, the 100th episode, and where the show could end up going in seasons to come. (29:44)
Numbers may not be something I enjoy very much, but Numb3rs certainly is. See what I did there? This is really a great series and it is honestly just beginning to hit its true stride meaning it will be around for a long time to come and that’s a good thing. Putting the tension and stress of a crime drama together is hard enough as it is, but then to be intelligent enough to throw in all these formulas and equations so that the crimes add up correctly has to be insanely difficult. I give all the credit in the world to the writers of Numb3rs because they have got to be one brilliant group of people. The special features offer about an hour of extra stuff and aren’t all too shabby either making this DVD set even better to pick up. So crunch your checkbook and get the calculator out to make sure you can fit this one into your budget because if you’re anything like me then it takes more then my mind and an abacus to add one plus two plus one plus one.
Paramount presents Numb3rs: The Fifth Season. Created by: Nicolas Falacci & Cheryl Heuton. Starring: David Krumholtz, Judd Hirsch, Rob Morrow, and more. Running time: 983 minutes on 6 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: October 5, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
