''Instinct'' (stylized as ''INSTIИCT'') is an American

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

which premiered on March 18, 2018, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

. The series is based on

James Patterson James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the ''Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', ''Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' se ...

's 2017 novel ''Murder Games''. In May 2018, CBS renewed the series for a second season. The second season premiered on June 30, 2019. The series was cancelled near the end of its second season, on August 17, 2019. The series is notable for featuring a gay male character in the lead, who is married to another man.

Premise

Author, university professor, and former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

paramilitary officer Dr. Dylan Reinhart (

Alan Cumming Alan Cumming (born 27 January 1965) is a British actor. His London stage appearances include ''Hamlet'', the Maniac in ''Accidental Death of an Anarchist'' (for which he received an Olivier Award), the lead in '' Bent'', The National Theatre o ...

) is lured back to his old life by New York police detective Elizabeth Needham (

Bojana Novakovic Bojana Novakovic (, sr-Latn, Bojana Novaković) is a Serbian-Australian actress. She is best known for her role as Det. Lizzie Needham on the drama television series '' Instinct'' (2017–2018). Novakovic's film roles include ''Drag Me to Hel ...

) when she needs his help to stop a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who is using Reinhart's book as inspiration for murders.

Cast and characters

Main

as Dylan Reinhart, an author, psychology professor, and former CIA paramilitary officer, now a consultant to the NYPD in solving bizarre cases *

as Elizabeth "Lizzie" Needham, an

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

detective third grade who is stationed at the fictional 11th Precinct and Dylan's partner. Her partner, and fiancé, was killed in the line of duty a year prior, and she had since then refused to have a partner before meeting Dylan. *

Daniel Ings Daniel Ings (born 1985) is an actor from England. He starred as Luke Curran in the Channel 4/Netflix comedy series '' Lovesick''. Early life Ings attended Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire, followed by Lancaster University where he studied theatr ...

as Andrew "Andy" Wilson, Dylan's husband, a lawyer-turned-bar-owner who still uses his law skills to help their friends when needed *

Naveen Andrews Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British-American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime ...

as Julian Cousins, a contact of Dylan's from his days at the CIA who now works freelance and who specializes in computers and information retrieval *

Sharon Leal Sharon Ann Leal is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles in movies such as ''Dreamgirls'', '' This Christmas'', ''Why Did I Get Married?'', ''Why Did I Get Married Too?'' and her roles on the television shows ''Legacy'', ''Gu ...

as Jasmine Gooden, an NYPD lieutenant who leads the 11th Precinct and who is Lizzie's supervisor and friend

Recurring

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ' ...

as Joan Ross (season 1), Dylan's literary agent * Andrew Polk as Doug, the medical examiner * John Mainieri as Jimmy Marino, a police detective * Michael B. Silver as Kanter Harris, a police sergeant *

Danny Mastrogiorgio Danny Mastrogiorgio (born October 26, 1964) is an American actor who has also provided voice work for video games. He is best known for providing the voice of Toni Cipriani in the 2005 video game '' Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories'' and f ...

as Anthony Fucci, a police detective * Alejandro Hernandez as Rafael Sosa (season 1), a police detective *

Stephen Rider Stephen Rider is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Blake Tower in the Marvel series '' Daredevil'', Admiral Stephen W. Rochon in the film ''The Butler'', and Eric Millworth in the ABC series '' Lucky 7''. Career ...

as Zack Clark, a police officer, later detective *

Travis Van Winkle Travis Scott Van Winkle (born November 4, 1982) is an American actor, best known for starring in the feature film ''Accepted'' (2006) and the 2021 third season of the Netflix streaming television series ''You'', portraying Trent Sutton-DeMarco i ...

as Ryan Stock (season 2), a police detective from

Garfield County, Nebraska Garfield County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 2,049. Its county seat is Burwell. The county was organized in 1884; it was named for James A. Garfield, 20th President of the Un ...

, who comes to New York to help the NYPD on the case of a potential serial killer *

Reshma Shetty Reshma Shetty (born 2 November 1977) is a British actress, best known for her role as Divya Katdare on the USA Network TV series ''Royal Pains''. Early life Shetty was born on November 2, 1977 to Hindu Indian parents in Manchester, England and wa ...

as Maya Bhaduri (season 2), Julian's former lover and co-worker from his days at

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, who comes to warn him about a group trying to shut down the city's first responders' unit, only to be murdered by them

Production

Development

''Instinct'' is based on

's ''Murder Games''. The series was picked up to pilot by CBS on January 23, 2017. On May 12, 2017, CBS picked it up to series. On May 12, 2018, CBS renewed ''Instinct'' for a second season. ''Instinct'' was cancelled after its second season on August 17, 2019.

Casting

On February 8, 2017,

was cast as Dylan Reinhart.

was cast as Lizzie on February 18, 2017. On February 23, 2017,

was cast as Andy, and

was cast as Julian.

Khandi Alexander Harriet Rene "Khandi" Alexander (born September 4, 1957) is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She began her career as a dancer in the 1980s and was a choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tours from 1988 to 1992. During the 199 ...

was originally cast as Monica Hernández in the pilot, but was replaced with

on June 22, 2017.

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 54% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5.44/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Instinct'' is ultimately an underwhelming police procedural, despite having Alan Cumming in its arsenal."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 53 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The character of Dylan Reinhart has been called groundbreaking for being the first openly gay lead character in an hour-long American network television drama series.

Ratings

Season 1

Season 2

Home media

The first season was released in Region 1 on December 11, 2018 and on Region 2 on December 17, 2018.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American crime drama television series 2010s American police procedural television series 2018 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings CBS original programming English-language television shows Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department Gay-related television shows Television shows based on American novels Television series by CBS Studios Television shows set in New York City