SCORPION “Pilot.” CBS, 22 September 2014. Elyes Gabel (Walter O’Brien), Katharine McPhee, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jadyn Wong, Ari Stidham, Robert Patrick, Riley B. Smith. “Based on the life and case files of Walter O’Brien.” Director: Justin Lin. Currently streaming on Paramount+.

   It is no secret that as a series Scorpion was generated by the huge success of Big Bang Theory, also on the same network. Take a diverse bunch of geeky, high-IQ twenty-somethings, add an ordinary female for them to interact with on a weekly basis, but instead of playing for comedic effect, have them solve all kinds of problems the country if not the entire world is facing.

   We’re introduced to the team in the first episode, all young and all with IQ’s well over 150. None though have much in the way of people skills: a computer genius, a recently graduated Harvard-trained psychiatrist, a gifted mechanical engineer, and a mathematician/statistician. Add a waitress in a diner which becomes the base for the group’s first adventure together. She’s young, no genius, but her very young son is obviously a budding one.

   Their job in this initial episode is to find backup computer code for LAX’s traffic control center. If they fail, planes full of people will soon run out fuel. This they do, but the show is a lot more exciting than watching fingers typing away at keyboards, although there is quite a bit of that, too. A jumbo jet has to fly so low to the ground that a black box can be transferred by hand to a car racing precisely below it at 200 miles per hour. Personally I found that one of more unlikely things I have seen on TV all month, but it was still fun to watch.

   The series was on for four years, so others must have enjoyed the show as much as I generally did this one. None of the characters or their players are all that memorable, but they did everything they needed to in this one. Will I keep watching? The jury’s out on that. Right now, my plate of things to watch is overflowing. I’d say the odds are at least fifty-fifty. Maybe better, but maybe less.