Perception

I enjoyed the show for its actors and the story lines. Never the less I always felt uncomfortable with the messages of the show. I grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic mother. Her perceptions did not give her an insight into reality. Quite the opposite. It was not manageable by her trying to control her delusions. It was delusions which did not get better over time. It made her manipulative in that her delusions would over come my family. They became unable to convince and take action. That responsibility fell on me. She was extremely abusive and she knew how to hurt you in your weakest point. This incapacitated the rest of the family. I would insist on dealing with the symptoms no matter how much she abused me. Her disorder could only be managed with medicine and she had to be hospitalized until her symptoms were under control. Always the delusions were a detriment to her. Sometimes they were terrifying. Medicine was the only thing that kept her functioning until it didn't. Then the doctors would write new prescriptions to get the symptoms under control. Her paranoid schizophrenia was not a functional condition and medicine is sometimes the only thing that keeps the patient together.

I must confess, before I even watched the show I wanted to like it. I was rooting for Eric McCormack to succeed in this role as his successes have been few and far between since Will & Grace ended. You also have Rachael Leigh Cook who has been plummeting since she first starred in the teen hit She's All That. Then finally you have Kelly Rowan who played Kirsten Cohen on The O.C. and hasn't been in much since. All three have been in generational hits and watching Perception leaves you with a feeling of nostalgia. You want them to succeed so you can get a second round of weekly viewing from them.

Well good news. The show is actually very good and definitely worth watching. It will never be loved by the masses but they have created an interesting crime drama that will keep you intrigued. It seems to be based on scientific theory instead of criminal investigation but with a weird twist. You never really know what's real and what's not. It really is all about perception.

I am currently watching this series for the first time some 7 years after its run finished and I have to day that I am delighted with what I have seen so far. Eric McCormack has never been better in anything that I have seen him in before. His character is totally believable. You would not think that the beautifully petit Rachael Leigh Cook, at 5' 2", could pass herself off as an FBI agent, but, yet again, her portrayal works so well.

Well done to all involved in this series. It is such a pity that its run didn't go beyond 2015.

This show is everything! I really wished they didn't cancel it, I adored it so so much!

Pierce's character is well written, so well that it resembles some people who are actually suffering from some kind of mental illness, people i know. No, i'ts nothing like "A Beautiful Mind", in which the character had these hallucinations, and other episodes not related to reality at all. On the contrary, Pierce's manifestations are connected to reality, to his perception of reality. So this show is about the quite interesting relation reality-perception, not even about madness. And that is one of the most interesting subject of psychological and philosophical history. I've never seen a show like this, entirely from a so called "crazy" person's perspective. And, i insist, his own, unique form of perception. It reminds me of English idealism, a philosophical theory about the way we access reality and more important,how can we determine what reality is.