''Pure Genius'' (originally titled ''Bunker Hill'') is an American

medical drama A medical drama is a television show or film in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. Most recent medical drama (film and television), dramatic programming go beyond the events pertaining to the chara ...

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 ...

created by

Jason Katims Jason Katims (born November 30, 1960) is an American television writer, producer, and playwright. He is best known as the creator of several television series, including '' Relativity'' (1996), '' Roswell'' (1999–2002), '' Friday Night Lights' ...

that aired 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 Entertainm ...

from October 27, 2016 to January 26, 2017. The series stars

Augustus Prew Augustus Prew (born 17 September 1987) is an English film and television actor. He is known for his roles in '' About a Boy'' (2002), ''The Secret of Moonacre'' (2008), '' Charlie St. Cloud'' (2010), '' The Borgias'' (2011), '' Kick-Ass 2'' (20 ...

as James Bell who is a Silicon Valley tech billionaire and Dermot Mulroney as Dr. Walter Wallace. It was produced by True Jack Production,

CBS Television Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

and

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predeces ...

. In May 2017, CBS cancelled the series after one season.

Premise

James Bell is a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

billionaire who dreams of building a hospital with ultimate cutting-edge technology to treat rare and incurable diseases. He partners with a maverick surgeon, Dr. Walter Wallace, who leads the effort in clearing out the bureaucracy of medicine, and focus on forward thinking, advancing technology, and saving lives—at no cost to the patient.

Cast and characters

as James Bell, a Silicon Valley tech billionaire who opens Bunker Hill * Dermot Mulroney as Dr. Walter Wallace *

Odette Annable Odette Juliette Annable (; born May 10, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for various roles in film and television, including as Dr. Jessica Adams in the Fox medical drama series ''House'', Beth McIntyre in the monster film ''Cloverfie ...

as Dr. Zoe Brockett, double board-certified doctor of pediatrics and critical care * Reshma Shetty as Dr. Talaikha Channarayapatra, neurosurgeon *

Brenda Song Brenda Song (born March 27, 1988) is an American actress. Born in California, Song began her career at the age of six, working as a child model. She made her screen debut with a guest appearance on the sitcom '' Thunder Alley'' (1995), and ...

as Angie Cheng, Bunker Hill's Chief Biomedical Engineer * Aaron Jennings as Dr. Malik Verlaine, head of the Ehub which performs remote monitoring of patients * Ward Horton as Dr. Scott Strauss, an Ivy League–educated neurologist and Catholic priest

Episodes

Production

Development

On January 22, 2016, it was announced that CBS had given the pilot order known as ''Bunker Hill''. The episode was written and authored by

who was expected to be an executive producer, alongside Sarah Watson,

David Semel David Semel is an American film and television director and producer. His television directing credits include ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'', ''Person of Interest (TV series), Person of Interest'', ''Ally McBeal'', ''Boston Public'', ''7th ...

and Michelle Lee. Production companies involved with the pilot include True Jack Productions,

and

. The show was ordered at the

upfronts In the television industry, an upfront is a gathering at the start of important advertising sales periods, held by television network executives and attended by major advertisers and the media. It is so named because of its main purpose, to allow ...

2016 to air in the network's 2016–17 TV schedule and was officially picked up on May 13, 2016. A few days later, it was announced that it would premiere by October 27, 2016 and air on Thursdays at 10:00 P.M. On August 10, 2016, it was announced that the series name was changed from ''Bunker Hill'' to ''Pure Genius''. On November 21, 2016, CBS announced that it would not order more episodes than the 13 episodes commissioned. The production for the first season wrapped on December 15, 2016, and the remaining commissioned episodes were broadcast for the remainder of its run. On May 17, 2017, ''Pure Genius'' was cancelled after one season by CBS.

Casting

In February 2016, it was announced that

, Dermot Mulroney, Reshma Shetty and Ward Horton had been cast in the pilot's leading roles. Although the pilot was ordered, in March 2016 it was reported that Aaron Jennings and

had joined the cast.

Reception

Critical reception

''Pure Genius'' has received generally negative reviews from television critics.

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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 a 26% rating based on reviews from 23 critics. The website's consensus reads, "''Pure Genius'' is weighed down by stereotypical doctor drama trappings, suffocating its chances of bringing anything compelling and entertaining to the genre."

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 ...

reported a score of 43 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Willa Paskin of ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' described the show as "idiotic

tech Tech or The Tech may refer to: * An abbreviation of technology or technician * Tech Dinghy, an American sailing dinghy developed at MIT * Tech (mascot), the mascot of Louisiana Tech University, U.S. * Tech (river), in southern France * "Tech" ...

propaganda that’s about one-tenth as curious about the issues it raises as it should be." They characterized the show as featuring implausible science and technologies where workers have no regard for

patient privacy Medical privacy or health privacy is the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of patient records. It involves both the conversational discretion of health care providers and the security of medical records. The terms can also ...

, and James as a contemptuous CEO-type character who is consistently more confident than Bunker Hill's medical professionals.

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 5500906, Pure Genius 2016 American television series debuts 2017 American television series endings 2010s American drama television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American medical television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Universal Television