Numb3rs

Numb3rs could be a show that rates 8 or above except for one glaring negative. Those nerd numeric theory segments are time wasting, over the top and just plain hoaky. I feel I as the viewer am being talked down to. These analogies are boring and waste valuable plot time. The actors/characters can do quite fine without those numeric nerd analogies. One is bad enough per episode but two or three is inexcusable. Therefore, I downrate Numb3rs to a 6.5 rating of FAIR. Decrese the number of nerd analogies and you got yourself a high ranking drama! These numeric schticks detract from the character likeability which is a no no in prime time television programming. With so much entertainment out there

special agent don eppes heads his team at the LA office of the fbi and enlists his younger brother charlie in solving some of his tougher cases. charlie is an fbi consultant and a math professor at the fictional college, cal sci. also part of don's team are agents colby granger, david sinclair, nikki bettancourt, occasionally liz warner and formerly megan reeves. charlie's collegues at cal sci, larry and amita(charlie's gf) are consultants as well. numb3rs is one of the more original crime dramas on air today. it uses math theory in order to provide a unique perspective on the crimes commited and the perpetrators. the producers make sure that the information provided is actual math theory and can be backed up scientifically. i would normally give the show a 10, however, there are a few things this season that have influenced my rating. charlie has become a "math snob", if it can't be explained by math it doesn't exist or deserve his respect. that is not how an educated person acts. it also insults those of us who do believe in a higher power (w/o god, there is no math, i say) diane farr leaving at end of s4 was also disappoining, although i understand diane wanting to purue other interests. megan reeves was the emotional glue that held the team together. She was their colleague, friend and sister all in one. diane farr's performances really made an impact for me. and her romance w/larry was absolutely adorable. isn't that how it always turns out? the hot chick is attracted to someone totally brilliant, if not the most attractive or confident? my fav character has to be colby granger. when it seemed that he was to be written off the show at the end of s3, i almost stopped watching the show. as s4 was about to start, i thought, no way colby's a double agent, he's gotta be undercover, which he was! the eps where colby's the focus are at the top of my list. colby and his partner david have a great partnership. it survived colby's undercover mission and they are best friends. i would like to see a little more of liz, i really like her character. great chemistry w/the whole team. and i wish lou diamond phillips would join the cast as a recurring character, at least 1/3 of the eps. agent ian edgarton is extremely enjoyable and i love the banter between him and don. his eps are among my favs as well, i make sure to never miss them. even w/a few bumps in the road, numb3rs is well written and acted and i enjoy learning a few new things even though i really don't understand a lot of the math.

A story that is so hard to believe, wow. The cast must have been biting these tongues for not laughing out loud. "he wore them that ruins the value!" Both characters speak at the same time. When the purp making a huge jump "gotta be the shoes" All the cheezy lines in this one episode was too much for me to handle. Counterfeit shoes. my head is spinning at all the nonsense. I do hope to see this show hopefully back on track or indeed this will be the final season. For once a good show has evolved into a bunch of one lines with a splash of math.

Numb3rs is unlike any other crime drama like CSI or NCIS or law and order. This show is a great new idea because it is unique. It uses maths to help solve crime so there is always something to back up the evidence with. It uses a lot of complex Maths equations and skills which i have picked up whilst watching the show for the last 3 1/2 years. It also has a nice mix of action (car chases and plenty of it's shooting scenes) The storylines remain exciting and imformative 85% of the time. The show is exciting and educational (in some ways) so that;s why it's my personal favourite!

I got a D in maths so I'm not exactly up to speed on everything Charlie says but I enjoy the way it's combined with the FBI angle to make this an interesting show. If it were all math it would lose a few viewers and if it were all FBI it mightn't have a uniqueness to set it apart enough from the other shows out there. The Charlie/Don relationship is also done well with Don being the protective big brother. I'm watching from Ireland so I think we're a bit behind in episodes but it still holds my attention and I've even gotten my sister watching.

The interactions between characters and the chemistry of the actors who play them are spot on. I can't help but feel that Don and Charlie are my brothers and Alan is my father, I feel their hurts and I smile when they do, I feel proud when Charlie comes up with a something to solve a case and Squee when Don gets protective of his little brother. The proof of a great show is the ability to invoke those feelings, you get so emotionally involved with it that you can't help but wish and hope the best. That is Numb3rs.

When Numb3rs first came out, I was very excited. I enjoyed the idea of someone using mathematics to solve crimes and this show was much more interesting than many other shows that came off of the CSI buzz. The premise was slightly more divergent than the rest, and I enjoyed that.


The characters are interesting, but they are far from the focus of the story lines; there isn't a lot of focus on a particular nemesis or bizarre "evil-math-solving-Moriarty-clone" and I must say, you have to respect the writers a little for not taking that route. However, as the show progressed, Charlie's "math" became less of a realistic tool that is used by the FBI, and more of a magical solve-all algorithm that would tell the identity of the killer, his address, and his favorite color, much like the CSI fingerprint database or digital-enhancing software. I love the idea of using differential calculus, Fibonacci sequences, and Euler circuits to solve crime just as much as the next person, but really, math isn't a magician's hat. It's getting a little ridiculous, isn't it? The math gets repetitive as the plots seem to mesh and there simply isn't something overwhelmingly spectacular about this show, really. Rent the DVD of the first season.

I'm not a tv watcher, but I have been hooked on this series since the first episode. I've seen many first episodes of "crime shows" but this is the only one that I found truly unique and gripping. The plot is so ingenious, setting it apart from the other shows out there. One where you can feel for the characters as you get to know them, their problems, their joys. The characters have to be my favorite part, because thats what the back bone of Numb3rs is, its people. The drama, crimes, and math are also gripping intrical parts, but the people make this show special. I love sitting down on the couch on a Friday evening and being able to immerse myself in a truly great drama filled with Numb3rs!

I know several people who refuse to watch Numb3rs because of its title, and because of the fact that one of the main characters in the show is a mathematician. Don't let that fact scare you off. Numb3rs is not a 'lets all sit around and do math problems all day' kind of a show. Numb3rs makes you think, which is my favorite thing about it. Numb3rs is informative and interesting and fun to watch. All of the plots are very interesting and [I am speaking as a person who really hates math] I actually enjoy watching Charlie, the mathematician and one of the protagonists of the show, solving the crimes with math. Numb3rs is so different from anything on television, which makes it even more special. Another wonderful thing about Numb3rs is that I find that the show has a perfect balance of romance, as many of the characters have developed romantic relationships over the series; character development/family relationships, which is mostly focused on the two brothers, Don and Charlie; typical crime show things, investigating murders, kidnappings etc; and math. Yes, math. If only all of my math teachers were as interesting and fun as Charlie. If you are contemplating watching Numb3rs, but you're not sure if you'll enjoy a math show, believe me, it's worth a shot, it cannot hurt.


I hope you enjoy

I suck at math. Seriously. But I know it and I can use it, because it's one of the most useful, practical tools you can have in your brain's toolkit. It gets used all the time by seriously important, wicked smart people all over the world - it's part of what can make our world a better place - we NEED more people to know it - and Hollywood has nothing. NOTHING! Until this. It's like this huge vital topic and Hollywood just never touched it. Because of this show, I bought a book on one of the famous mathematicians mentioned; just finished it and it was hysterical. This dude was like a rock star or something - he hung out with strippers, smoked and drank, he worked on the bomb at Los Alamos, he won the Nobel Prize. (He complained about the Nobel Prize in the book.) And I never would have bothered reading this book if the show hadn't mentioned this guy, Feynman. Oh, yeah - and the acting and plots and everything are awesome too. I love the female FBI character - she's not panting over the guy with the biggest muscles, she goes for the smart guy. She's not trying too hard like most female characters in Hollywood are - she's confident and professional and smart. An honest to gosh TV role model for women. Never thought it would happen.... As well as being well-made, Ethically, this show rocks.

Numb3rs, well the show it self is pretty nice. The characters of the show are well written and the actors are nicely cast. I myself am not a mathemetician whatsoever. But the fact that they explain the stuff pretty well makes it fun to watch and easier to understand. The brothers Eps are also nicely done, you can easily see the difference between their personallity and how they react to curtain problems. But to make a long story short, if you like to watch decent detectives with a certan twist to it then I would recommend you start watching this. Because the change is very large you'll like it :)

This show is really interesting to me because I trully feel like I can relate to Charlie... not the Mathematician part but his points of view. He's a very logical person, sensible, smart, almsot like a kid. He's also really hot! ;). But still this show, yes is kind of like any other crime drama, but has the other elements like romance and personal drama. Charlie and Don have a great love/hate dynamic. Alan is so awesome with him wanting grandchildren. I love the brother's background, where Don and Charlie graduated the same day despite being 5 years apart. I loved how ttheir mother had ot take care of Charlie at Princton. This show is really cutting edge ine crime dramas. Solving mystries with Math: brialliant!

As a math teacher in a public high school, I found the idea of solving and investigating crime using mathematical formulas and algorithms interesting. And so I watched all of season 1 and most of season 2 before I decided that I was not going to watch anymore episodes. The writing is very mediocre and the acting and character development is below average. I kept thinking that this show had to get better. What ended the show for me was an episode in season two that was a predictable Hollywood, "I hate Christianity" episode. In this episode we have a Christian who was a suspect in a murder investigation. The Christian was interrogated by the FBI agents. The Christian then tells one agent that he and his girlfriend do not believe in sex before marriage. Back at the FBI headquarters one agent tells another one that any man who does not believe in sex before marriage is a suspect. No man would ever say that. And so the plot or lack of it continues as these investigators travel to "Hollywood's version of a Christian's" home. They open up a closet in his house that is filled with sadomasochism paraphernalia. For a show that is supposed to be based on logic and mathematics, this entire scene was completely irrelevant to the plot since this "Hollywood's version of a Christian" turned out to be innocent, and had no association to the true killer.

This show is fantastic - it shows how mathematics and crime are joined together by one rather cute maths professor. It does not have quite the same level of constant excitement as CSI does, but it is still completely riveting most of the time. Even those of us who loathe maths can't help but be inspired and fascinated by the way this show deals with crime. It's a great example of why crime shows still rock.





I'd recommend this show to anyone. It has more intellectual capabilities than most of its genre and still quite a lot of action. Less gore than other crime shows too.

I remember a Friday night in January a few years back. There was a new show on. It dealt with a retired, widowed city planner named Alan Epps, his son Don who worked at the FBI office in LA and his genius younger brother Charlie who was a math professor at a fictional LA university. I saw one episode and I was hooked.





Numb3rs shows how math is blended into everyday life. The show explains how math is used to fight crime.





That is all very interesting. However, without the love of family and devotion to friends and co-workers, this show would fall apart. Numb3rs tried to have a fierce rivalry between Don and Charlie. This never worked out. What did emerge is a story of two brothers who had troubled childhood issues growing up, forge a touching adult relationship based on love and respect. Add to that the modern difficulties of dating and the fabulous Craftman style house that is the Epps homestead and you have a hit.





My favorite part is that CBS has this show on video. I do not have a DVR and I am still allowed to see a show I missed later.

Numb3rs used to be one of the best shows on TV. My husband and I watched it every week. Our concern when it first started was that the "math angle" of the show would become repetitive and over-used by Season 3. Boy, were we right! Season 4 was kind of slow and uninspired. This last season was really bad! The writing is boring and the storylines aren't interesting at all. The addition of potential love interests for Don was a waste of time. His character is so moody and brooding why would any woman want to be involved with him? We did enjoy the addition of Kathy Najimy both as a potential love interest for Alan and boss for Charlie. Whatever happened to her? The writers should bring her back. I doubt that we'll be watching Numb3rs anymore. It's not that interesting.

It is a cool series which has a lot of surprises every episode. It shows such unique ways of solving several difficult cases. It is fun to watch and is very informative. It features such talented and experienced actors, who add thrill to the series. Every episode is filled with many new things. It has such an exquisite storyline. It is not just any ordinary police show, it introduces Romance, Comedy and Mathematics. It has an amazing edge in solving crimes with the use of Mathematics. You don't often find shows which gives appreciation to Mathematics. Overall, it's an awesome show.

The whole show is pacy, well acted, well thought out - the storylines are always innovative and interesting ... beats me how they come up with such novel ideas ... but sometimes the mathmatics of it all is SO complex, you wonder what is going on ... until you get it ... and then you realise how brilliant it is! I love the quirkyness that goes with working out the problems, the humanity and friendship between all the colleagues and family but I also wonder how long it can go on for without some sort of major change in the set up -- I read that the profiler is leaving the series, but I am not sure if that is going far enough ... they possibly need to bring some new characters in to liven things up. I want it to change because I want the show to have the chance of a few more years and with a possibility of getting stale ... I am not sure it will ... which would be a terrible loss!

On a lazy Friday night , flicking thought the channels, I saw this show with an unfamiliar mathematical equations being used to calculated the positions where the water drops from the sprinklers will fall. I thought to myself, weird time for a documentary, must be the station filling up sometime, but then he related the water drops to a crime scene. I have seen every episode to date and I love it. From the innocent house hold genius Charlie to the twist and turns in each crime case





I don't want to talk about the crimes in specific as, I believe I won't give it the credit it deserves. The character development, in my opinion is more interesting that most of the Soap operas people are addicted to, the whole idea of two brothers and their father working together to solve crimes is some much more interesting the average teen Soap opera.





Anyone who has the slightest (or none for some people) interest in mathematics and needs a regular fix of high level crime; Numb3rs is the drug for you.

As a crime drama it's average, nothing new, there's the math, but I don't get it anyway so ...





However, what I really love about this show is the simple spontaneous sense of humor, the interaction between the characters is so ... "real-life" you know ... not too smart or too made-up, humor comes very natural and I like that. Besides, I take one look at Peter MacNicol and he cracks me up, I love this guy, as far as I'm concerned he was the only reason for watching that Ally McBeal show.





I like the structure of the Eppes family as well, always together, very close to each other; you don't see a lot of that on TV these days.





The show is funny, "mildly interesting" and a very nice way to spend an hour of your time ... if Prison Break is not on, that is.


(Sadly, where I live the two shows overlap ... PB has precedence so ... thank God for re-runs :))

Numb3rs is a Mathematical perspective on solving crime It is so innovative and original. The story revolves around Don Eppes who is an FBI agent, and his Genius younger brother whose a professor of applied mathematics. Each episode blends crime and maths....and here maths is used to solve crimes. Numb3rs is one of my many favorite series playing right now. I love drama, mystery, math, and crime stories and it gives all of those aspects, plus realistic and complex characters that are tied together. All of it is well written and masterfully played, as well as incredibly insightful. I have learned many useful theories and concepts from watching this show so far... I highly recommend this show. It is right up there with the CSI NY, Bones and Criminal Minds of this world.

Coming into this show, I didn't know what to expect. Maybe I was expecting them to use accounting to trace back to the criminal; but, to use actual formulas and equations to solve a case puts Numb3rs in the group of other non-traditional crime dramas.





The show also gave me a sense of vindication for having taken all those math classes throughout my education. If the teachers had spoke about how math could be used in the real world then more people would be interested in the subject.





So not only is Numb3rs entertaining and gripping; the show is also a great reminder on the importance of math.

Numb3rs is a show about an FBI agent, Don Epps, who recruits his genius brother, Charlie Epps, who is a mathamatician, to help him solve crimes using math. The reason that I watch this show is beacuse it has good plots, action, drama, and mathematical references. It combines the attention grabbing work of the FBI with complicated math terms, making it the perfect show to watch and actually learn something from. It's not just a show for nerds (such as myself and my identical twin sister), but for anyone who enjoys more than your average CSI or FBI type show. Numb3rs rocks! Everything is numbers!

Numb3rs is a show that follows two brothers, Don and Charlie Eppes, who go and solve crime using math. Don being the FBI Agent gets his brother Charlie to help him wiith his cases. Charlie the mathematician, helps Don solve his cases using math algorithyms and more.


Numb3rs has got to be one of the smartest shows i have seen on tv in a long time. i really like it because of the way it incororates math into everyday situations, like in this, solving crimes for the Federal Beurau of Investigation. I think that this show is definately one of a kind and i dont know where else you may find another show like this. That is why i love this show to bits!

The show Numb3rs is a different kind of crime drama. One which is out of the norm from what we are used to. Solving crimes by numbers is a brilliant concept. It shows a whole different side of math and equasions. It shows how logic and deduction can benifit in police work. I think the acting is good and the crimes are interesting that they try to solve. With a bit more tweeking this show could be a big hit. It may be a bit before its time. It took me a few times to catch on and appreciate it. But it was worth it.

I like this show. It is humorous, has a decent story line most of the time, has the occasional cliff hanger and can even be educational. The primary characters are good, flawed humans who have their flaws and even annoying habits. Especially good is the character dynamics. The two brothers who form the central core of this show are believable because they are dissimilar in many ways. The minor characters are enjoyable and varied with their own foibles. Story lines on this show are usually pretty good but they do seem to lack direction and goal sometimes. All in all it's a good show.

I love this show. The characters are brilliant, my favorite is Charlie, of course. I just think that it's great to see a crime show where they use math to solve crimes! It's really interesting to see them solve cases, and the interaction between the characters is greatly played out by the actors and actresses. It all looks really natural, and the crimes, math and personal lives of the characters are all greatly combined, and thus making a wonderful show. The math work is also very well explained, but without making it sound like it was explained just for the watchers. Like I said before about the interaction between persons, the explanations sound very natural. I hope this show will continue for a lot more seasons!

One of the things that made me watch NUMB3RS is that I didn't have to watch graphic murders and murder scenes. This is what happened here. I'd rather be strangled with an emotionally charged show than this something like this. I have enjoyed getting to know the brothers and even watching their dad but tonight I should have killed the dvr and cut my losses. This isn't typical NUMB3RS to stray into God land and it showed. I would have rated it very low but it did have it's moments with Megan, with Charlie and it was interesting to watch Charlie deal with with religion, something he didn't seem to be keen on. Okay, saving the remaining shows, I swear so I have something to watch in February!

This is another procedural crime drama, but with a twist. Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) is a math genius who helps his FBI agent brother, Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) solve crimes. It is often far-fetched, but hey, it tries to make you think. They even have a program in schools where they use DVDs of the show to use as teaching aids, to get kids interested in Math. Sometimes it gets silly, but the premise is silly to begin with, so what do you expect? As in most crime shows on TV, the Graphical User Interfaces of the crime solvers' computers look sleek and stylish, work flawlessly, and at lightning speed. Perhaps it is more believable, because we're talking Math professors, and even if their budgets aren't that high, they would at least have the sense to buy Macs instead of PCs, and probably have access to better programmers.





I can suspend disbelief a bit, but where I really have a problem is with FBI agent Don Eppes' girlfriend. Special Agent Liz Warner (Aya Sumika) is sleek, slender, stylish, works flawlessly, and at lightning speed. She is gorgeous, in a dark, smoldering kind of way, and her broken nose only makes her seem a little dangerous. Aya studied ballet at Julliard, for cryin' out loud. The tension is because Don is her boss, and he's not supposed to date her, but since he is already, what really boggles the mind is he dumps her! Unbelievable. He has no business being with her in the first place, but rather than just accept that he must have done some incredible good deed in a former life, or she did something terrible and is being punished, or maybe it is just God's idea of a joke, he dumps her! Reminds me of the unbelievable romance between Maggie the pilot and Joel Fleischman, the New York doctor exiled to Alaska in Northern Exposure, an earlier role for Rob Morrow.





Speaking of earlier roles, Krumholtz was Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause, and their father, Alan Eppes (Judd Hirsch), was Alex Rieger on Taxi. Charlie's mentor, Dr. Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol) was the lawyer John Cage, the one the other lawyers called "The Biscuit" on Ally McBeal. Finally, Dr. Mildred French (Kathy Najimy), the head of Charlie's department and a love interest for his father, Alan, was Olive Massery, the office manager on Veronica's Closet. I don't know what happened to her character, if they broke up, or just drifted apart, or if the writers grew weary of her, or the focus groups weren't focusing on her. Haven't seen her lately, and that's a shame.





I like all of these actors (yes, even Rob Morrow). I like the show (yes, even the sometimes preposterous plot twists) and the math is like the icing on the cake. I was never that great in math, but it has always exerted a strange fascination, and I find mathematics to be quite interesting, in the context of this show.

Is it just me, or has the show been getting better and better this year. I loved the Colby arc and some of the stories may be a little contrived but it still works and keeps me more enthralled than most procedurals out there.





I agree with some of the other posters in that some of the family stories need to come back more often and more fleshed out. This is what makes LO:SVU stand out and what makes this show great. The two brothers working together, many times with their father and even girlfriends, is what gives the show a little more depth.





I also really enjoy that Amita and Don have gotten in on the expla-animations!