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ABC's 'Mind Games': Oh, well, never mind

David Wiegan, Times Union
Published 3:10 pm, Tuesday, February 25, 2014
  • Matt Dinerstein / ABC
    Matt Dinerstein / ABC "MIND GAMES" ()


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Hey, kids: Do you dream of being a TV critic when you grow up? You do? Well, step right this way for Lesson 1: If a show doesn't begin to feel real but instead just screams, "TV writers thought this thing up from start to finish," you can pretty much bank on it not being very good.

You can believe "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" "Arrow" or even "Revenge" more readily than you can ever believe a minute of "Mind Games" — an ABC drama, sort of, about two brothers who think they can make a living as fixers.

That's the shorthand for it. But "Mind Games," which premiered Tuesday, is another show about brilliant misfits who fix things and solve problems. It's like TNT's "Perception," for example, but not like CBS' "Elementary" or PBS' "Sherlock": The second two shows are good; the first one and "Mind Games" are not.

The excessively noisy show (sound and fury signifying zippo, zilch, nada) stars Christian Slater as Ross, an ex-con con artist, and Steve Zahn as his brother, Clark, a bipolar academic who got canned from his last job for having an affair with a 22-year-old student.

It isn't worth going into great detail about the show. The idea is that these two guys try to team up to help people one way or another. They create a business plan based on Ross' fast-talking skills and Clark's ability to read people's quirks and tics in an instant and not only predict what they might do in certain situations, but come up with the right triggers to prompt anticipated responses. They also have a crew of people with specific talents who help them pull off their unlikely schemes.

In the first episode, the guys helped the mother of a boy who needs annual surgery to unclog his veins but the insurance company won't pay for it. I wouldn't want to give the ending away, but with a show this unoriginal, who needs to?

"Mind Games" is a little bit "Touched by an Angel," a little bit "Rain Man," a little bit all those Sherlock knockoffs, a little bit "Leverage" and "Scandal," a little bit ... well, "My Mother the Car" for all I know. It would probably make a shorter list to point out shows it doesn't borrow from.

Zahn takes bipolar to a whole new pole as Clark, screaming; yelling; throwing things, including couches; wailing over his ex-girlfriend. Only the presence of Ross' ex-wife seems to calm him down. She's kind of like talking lithium with bad dialogue. Slater's default is slimy, but neither brother is very likable.

The show was created by Kyle Killan, who also created the short-lived "Lone Star" and the more ambitious "Awake." He's worked from an overthought idea and larded it up with remnants of other shows, and the result isn't worth your time.

Pay it no mind.

★★ Review

"Mind Games"

When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays

Where: WTEN Ch. 10, ABC


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