''The Irrational'' is an American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

television series created by Arika Mittman. It stars Jesse L. Martin, and premiered September 25, 2023, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. ''The Irrational'' is based on the 2008 non-fiction book '' Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions'' by

Dan Ariely Dan Ariely ( he, דן אריאלי; born April 29, 1967) is an Israeli-American professor and author. He serves as a James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. Ariely is the founder of the research instit ...

. In November 2023, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

The show centers on Alec Mercer, a world-renowned professor of behavioral psychology with a unique insight into human nature. Mercer lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, corporations, and law enforcement. However, he meets his match in a female domestic terror suspect who turns his world upside down.

Cast

Main

* Jesse L. Martin as Professor Alec Mercer, a world-renowned expert in behavioral science * Maahra Hill as Special Agent Marisa Clark, an FBI agent and Alec's ex-wife * Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan, Alec's newest grad student * Molly Kunz as Phoebe, Alec's grad student assistant * Travina Springer as Kylie, Alec's younger sister

Recurring

* Brian King as Special Agent Jace Richards, an FBI agent and Marisa's new boyfriend *

Karen David Karen Shenaz David (born 15 April 1979) is a Canadian actress, singer, and songwriter, best known for portraying Princess Isabella Maria Lucia Elizabetta of Valencia in ABC's fairytale-themed musical-comedy television series ''Galavant'', as w ...

as Rose Dinshaw, a crisis management professional, and Alec's new girlfriend * Ben Cotton as Wes Banning, a criminal convicted of the bombing that injured Alec

Episodes

Production

Development

In November 2021, it was announced

had given a

put pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

commitment to ''The Irrational'', created by Arika Mittman and inspired by the 2008 book '' Predictably Irrational'' by

. In February 2022, it received a pilot order. In April 2022, it was announced Jesse L. Martin had been cast as the show's lead character, Alec Mercer, and would also serve as a producer for the pilot. It was also announced that the series would be written by Arika Mittman, with Dan Ariely serving as consultant. In September 2022, NBC commissioned a mini-room to produce a couple of backup scripts to go with the well-received pilot. In October 2022, NBC extended its options on the cast, which were due to expire in October, to that December. In December 2022, NBC picked up ''The Irrational'' pilot and gave it a series order. It was revealed at this time that

David Frankel David Frankel (born April 2, 1959) is an American filmmaker. Most known as the director of 2006 film, '' The Devil Wears Prada'', he is an executive producer and the director of the first and fourth episodes of the Netflix miniseries ''Inventing ...

was the director and would also be serving as an executive producer along with Mittman, Mark Goffman and Samuel Baum. On November 17, 2023, NBC ordered an extra episode for the series, bringing the first-season order to a total of 11 episodes. On November 29, 2023, NBC renewed the series for a second season.

Casting

In May 2022, it was announced that Maahra Hill would be joining the cast in a lead role opposite Jesse L. Martin. In June 2022, Travina Springer, Molly Kunz, and Arash DeMaxi were added to the cast. In June 2023, Brian King joined the cast in a recurring role.

Filming

Filming of the pilot took place from late May to early June 2022 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, standing in for Washington, D.C. and the adjoining Virginia area. After seven episodes were filmed, production stopped due to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Release

''The Irrational'' premiered on September 25, 2023, on

. It is available to stream on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

. The pilot episode of ''The Irrational'' then premiered on September 27, 2023, on

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 47% with an average rating of 5.1/10, based on 17 critic reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Irrational'' could've used a lot more originality to live up to its promise, although Jesse L. Martin's shrewd presence makes even the utterly conventional pretty watchable."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Irrational 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American police procedural television series 2023 American television series debuts American English-language television shows Television series by Universal Television Television shows based on non-fiction books NBC television dramas