Perception

This show was superb. Very clever with humour and great acting. Eric McCormac is brilliant as the main character. Brilliant but his schizophrenia is both a curse and a strange gift. Such a shame they only made 3 seasons.

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.

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.

I really like this show. The way things are perceived by Daniel and the things that I am learning from the neuroscience point of view are intriguing. I can't wait for a new episode to learn more!

The one character/actor I am not particularly fond of is Scott Wolf. I am not sure if it is an useless character or I just don't like the actor. A combination of both perhaps. The other character which is needed but could be written differently is the FBI agent. As well, I find Rachel Leigh Cook's acting quite dull. I am just not drawn in by her at all; whereas, Kelly Rowan is fabulous in her role.

A good part this show is fascinating and Eric McCormack is extremely convincing. He plays it beautifully! A little tweaking on Agent Moretti and Donnie Ryan and some better writing and we'll have a real winner!!!!

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