Product Description NUMB3RS is a drama about an FBI agent who recruits his mathematical-genius brother to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. The two brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases from a very distinctive perspective. Inspired by actual events, the series depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions. .com Season One"Everything is numbers," states Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) in the pilot of Numb3rs, a satisfying (and educational!) new crime drama. Executive-produced by brothers/film directors Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and Tony Scott (Top Gun), it's like CSI with algorithms and probabilities instead of blood spatter and DNA swabs, which separates it from the slew of gruesome forensics-centered cop shows currently on the air. In this case, it's a brains-vs.-brawn matchup: a brilliant math professor (Krumholtz) consulting on crimes for an FBI agent (Rob Morrow) who happens to be his older brother. While Don, Morrow's character, busts the baddies with his team of agents, Charlie's scribbling formulas on chalkboards and statistically deducting a rapist's next target by comparing his pattern to a sprinkler system. (Yes, it sounds geekier than it is). As the show progresses, Charlie--not yet desensitized to people's fates relying on his findings--takes it harder and harder when his hypotheses don't always result in justice. It sounds very cerebral, but the cops and robbers concept plus brother-to-brother dynamics make it all go down easy. There's an unpretentious way the premise is executed, which ends up making math--get this--fun. The DVD set features episode commentary by cast and crew, and a peek at the unaired pilot that starred many different actors (including Anna Deveare Smith and Michael Rooker) who were dropped when the episode was overhauled. Morrow, who wasn't even in the pilot, was cast later with Judd Hirsch as their father to replace the original (blonder) actors because, as producers admitted, casting Krumholtz as Charlie took the family in an "ethnically specific direction." The jokes also abound in a behind-the-scenes featurette, where Morrow defines the series as "Rain Man … plus an extra Jew." --Ellen A. KimSeason TwoNumb3rs' intriguing and entertaining mix of prime-time crime action and mathematics gets its sophomore showcase in this impressive six-disc boxed set, which brings together the entire second season with a fun and informative array of extras. Season Two brings about a slight changing of the guard in the show's cast: Gone is Sabrina Lloyd as Agent Terry Lake, and in her place are Diane Farr (Rescue Me) as Agent Megan Reeves and Dylan Bruno as Agent Colby Granger, both of whom assimilate quite smoothly into Numb3rs' blend of detective work and academics. Otherwise it's business as usual with the Eppes boys, with big brother Don (Rob Morrow) leading his team against all manner of nefarious types, and genius younger sibling Charlie (David Krumholtz) finding answers in the web of mathematical equations he stores in his head. Highlights for the season include "All's Fair," which offers both the murder of a documentarian investigating Muslim women's rights and a rekindled love affair for Charlie; "Mind Games," which pits Charlie against a psychic (John Glover) who tracks down three missing women; and "Toxin," which features a return guest appearance by Lou Diamond Phillips as Special Agent Ian Edgerton.Extras include commentary on seven episodes by members of the cast and crew, including co-creator Nicolas Falacci; also interesting is "Crunching Numb3rs: Season Two," which offers a half-hour look behind the scenes at the making of the episode "Rampage," and David Krumholtz's video diary, for which the actor brings the audience along for a day on the set. A blooper reel and gallery of stills shot by Falacci round out the supplemental features. -- Paul GaitaSeason ThreeSome key subtractions and additions invigorate the engrossing third season of this smart series about an FBI team led by Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) who gets assistance on its toughest cases by Don's brother, Charlie (David Krumholtz), a mathematical genius. Peter MacNicol, as eccentric physics professor Larry Fleinhardt, Charlie's mentor, departed mid-season for a stint on 24. Diane Farr, as FBI profiler Megan Reeves, left on maternity leave. Enter Kathy Najimy as Charlie's new boss, Mildred ("Millie") Finch, and the exotic Aya Sumika as Special Agent Liz Warner, to give the show what the creators call, in a bonus season retrospective, "more girl energy." What separates Numb3rs from TV's other, and more grisly, procedural shows is that it emphasizes brains over bleech and intellect over ick. Enjoyment of Numb3rs is not dependent on your knowledge of "multi-attribute compositional models," "hidden variable theory," or "quadratic discriminate analysis," Just do what the confounded agents on Don's team do whenever Charlie explains how he applies his "intuitive synthesis of established mathematical principles and theorems" to manhunting: "Nod your head and wait for the punchline." Big picture, the cases are compelling in themselves: a psyche-scarred teacher and her young lover embark on a murder spree; a valuable painting originally stolen by Nazis is heisted from an art gallery; someone is bent on killing, not catching, child predators; a music mogul's son is kidnapped; a sinkhole that destroys a school playground reveals the cover-up of illegal toxic waste dumping.Season 3 also fleshes out the characters. The competitive brothers express newfound respect for each other ("It's amazing how you see things," Don tells Charlie at one point). Charlie and Amita (Navi Rawat), who has accepted a position at the university to teach and do research, attempt to take their budding romantic relationship to the next level. Megan and Larry also become a couple. And in the thrilling and suspenseful season finale, "The Janus List," there is a startling revelation about one of the members on Don's team. Among the notable guest stars include Lou Diamond Phillips, reprising his role as Agent Edgerton, who is willing to cross ethical lines that Don is not. In the episode "Provenance," Gena Rowlands gives a heartbreaking performance as a woman whose family was decimated by the Holocaust. Add such extras as selected episode commentaries, bloopers, and an entertaining set tour with Krumholtz, Morrow, and Judd Hirsch, who helps to anchor the series as Don and Charlie's father, and you have a season whose DVD release is a "special equation." --Donald LiebensonSeason FourFascinating cases, friendship dynamics and trust metrics all add up to another compelling season of television's smartest procedural show. The season gets off to an explosive start with a Very Special Episode, complete with blazing action set pieces and even a Big Name Star (Val Kilmer!) right out of a Tony Scott blockbuster, which figures as Scott, who co-produces Numb3rs with brother Ridley, helmed the episode. The truth about agent Colby's (Dylan Bruno) loyalties is revealed, and he is tentatively and warily welcomed back into the fold, although Sinclair (Alimi Ballard) feels particularly betrayed. Mathematics (duh) figure heavily in this season's convoluted cases, including the death of a woman in a rising young movie star's bathtub, an immersive interactive video game, and a street race that spins out of control. Concepts such as partition congruence and Byzantine fault-tolerance may soar over most viewer's heads, but as the movie star admiringly observes, it's "way cool" when professor Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) measures towel absorbency to determine the size of the bathtub killer. Numb3rs divides its time between casework and the human equation. Charlie's older brother and FBI team leader Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) is haunted by the death of a woman in witness protection, loses one girlfriend, but regains another, Robin (Michelle Nolden reprising her second season role). Eccentric professor Larry (Peter Gallagher) has returned from space and is now living in a monastery. Psychological profiler Megan (Diane Farr) ponders a career change. It's a particularly eventful season for Charlie, who becomes a bestselling author and relationship guru after his book on friendship dynamics is marketed as a self-help tome. One harrowing case involving a kidnapped reporter hits close to home when intimidating thugs cloud his mathematical prowess. He also undergoes FBI training ("I’m in pursuit of a burgundy-ish, sort of merlot-coloured… what model car would you say that is?" he radios in during a training exercise). In the game-changing season finale, Charlie and Don, the "brothers who became friends," are on opposite sides of a case involving a Pakistani scientist friend of Charlie's who is suspected of being a terrorist. No episode commentaries this time around, but five featurettes go behind the scenes of the Tony Scott episode. --Donald Liebenson
B**D
History of FBI wonk / Math Geek Central. Delightful.
Numb3rs - The full six seasons.Dear all: I have been advised that this review has a number of 'spoilers'. They all occur in the last paragraph. Read them at your risk.I got this set because the only time there are any Numb3rs reruns is from 3 - 5 AM, on one of the basic cable channels, and I am very fond of the show. On the one hand, there is a sense of being a copy of the CSI / Bones / Criminal Intent / NCIS formula, but I believe there are important differences.One is the level of realism. Unlike the `forensic specialists' in the series I mentioned above, the `science guy', Professor Charles Eppes (David Krumholtz), never goes running around after bad guys or knowingly puts himself in dangerous situations. That is left to his brother, the Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI, Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his team. The other side of the equation (to coin a phrase) is that when Charlie does his stuff, you can get much closer to the technique he is using than you can with either Abby Schiuto or Temperance Brennan (unless you happen to have aced a course in anatomy. Math is something you can explain entirely in words and symbols which can come across on the screen. (This would even have been a great radio premise, if this kind of show were trendy in radio days). I confess I am much more comfortable with set theory, Venn diagrams, and Fibonacci numbers than I am with tibias, fibulas, and kerf marks. Similarly, the FBI action part seems far more realistic than what we see on Bones or Criminal Minds. I believe the FBI agents do not operate like Seeley Booth, as one man operations, or like the profilers in Criminal Minds, who often find themselves in gunfights, even the geeky one.On top of the police action, there is the constant interplay between the three family members, who head the cast, filled out by the masterful Judd Hirsch. We get a small, dysfunctional (actually rather painful) sense of this when Ryan O'Neal showed up as Temperance Brennan's father, where the story was laden with lots of improbabilities and events to which few people can relate. Problems between these three are real, everyday things, like who will fix the pump in the Koi pond and dust the cobwebs from the wainscoting. There are big ones too, as when pressure on Charlie breaks his usually cool abstractness and he can't apply himself to one of Don's cases.The third dimension is the connections between Charlie and the FBI with Charlie's CalSci colleagues, Physics professor Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol) and Eppes protégé / Professor / Lover Amita Ramanujan (Navi Rawat). The most delightful aspect of this dimension is when Larry enters a romantic relation with FBI profiler, Megan Reeves (Diane Farr). The writers avoid the mistake of overplaying the oddness of this pairing. In the seasons where this was a factor, I saw but two references to the `Odd Couple' aspect.A fourth dimension is the interplay between the lead FBI agents in Don Eppes' team, David Sinclair (Almi Ballard) and Colby Grainger (Dylan Bruno). These come to a head in the fourth season opener, directed by Executive Producer Tony Scott, and guest starring Val Kilmer.The writing on this series is simultaneously just a bit banal and deeply insightful. Every two or three episodes, there is a statement which makes you sit up and take notice. One can attribute the banality to the fact that conversations between FBI agents is probably a bit routine. On the other hand, we can expect that the conversation between a world class mathematician, his Physics mentor, and his mathematics protégé will have some substance to it, even if more time is spend on their personal interactions and problems than on math and physics.So, if you are fond of this show, having all six years is almost a necessity; however, the earlier seasons do tend to be better than the last two, when actor, Diane Farr leaves the cast and the Larry Fleinhardt character becomes less interesting. I also tend to find the extras in the earlier seasons to be more interesting, and more abundant in the earlier seasons, where we get several episodes with alternate commentary soundtracks from actors, director, writer, and producer. Two of the six seasons are shorter than usual, because it was a late first season addition and the fourth season fell during a writer's strike. But that is true of most shows.If you simply don't like Numb3rs, you gain nothing by buying this. But if you are a big fan of the show, you need this set.Spoilers start here. STOP, if you have not already seen the series!!!My only disappointments with the series was the way it was abruptly brought to a close with Charlie and Amita's quick, informal wedding, Diane Farr's departure, and the role of the Head of the Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy department, Mildred Finch, played by Kathy Najimy. Except as a fill-in, while MacNicol left the cast for a few months, the part added little to the character mix.
K**R
Smart, Funny, Fast Paced TV with Great Characters--Makes Math Interesting--Amazing!
One of the most intelligent and unusual shows produced in recent memory. The quirky characters, the brain teasing plots, the rapid action all make for satisfying viewing. I love forensic shows--have been a die hard fan of CSI and collected the original and its various spinoffs. This show is in the same league with the added charm of this all-male family of widower father and two brothers, who like any pair of siblings are close and at odds. The fact that one is a university mathematics prof and number genius and the other a practical minded FBI agent makes the sibling conflict even more interesting. Am delighted that the complete series of Numb3rs is available at an affordable price. I'll have many hours of viewing pleasure to look forward to as I watch them, and then watch them again and again.
S**S
Decent show, sometimes self righteous
I bought this for my husband who was a big fan of the show, when it originally aired. I was unfamiliar with the show so I decided to watch a few episodes with him and now I'm hooked on it too.Its fun and fascinating to watch how they use math to solve crimes. Anyone that likes CSI, Law & Order type shows or really likes mathematics I think will probably enjoy this show immensely. The acting sometimes does get a little bit much (preachy/self righteous) but overall it's a decent show and a way to help pass time.
F**Y
NUMB3RS ROCKS!!
In the 6 seasons that Numb3rs was on the air with new episodes, I had never watched it.December, 2010 was the first time I saw it, as a rerun. With only 1 Episode I was hooked!!I immediately purchased the Complete series, 6 season dvd set.I received the dvd set in Dec & I have watched all of the episodes, twice over already, 3 or 4 a night.I just can't get enough.I am very sad that it was cancelled.Of course, Rob Morrow as the star, is my favorite.He is HOT!!! All of the actors on this are so great, the scripts so detailed. The actors also have a great chemistry together. I simply love the Eppes Family!! What a great way to discover a new series that I had never watched. I don't have to wait each week for a new one, I just watched all 6 years!!!Great marathon for Crime Drama TV dvd lovers!!!
S**A
One of the best shows on television even today!
My sister and I LOVE this series! We've only ever watched it when it was originally aired on television. When I saw it was available on DVD we were both thrilled! My 23 year old great nephew has discovered the series on Netflix and LOVES it too. In fact, when I finish watching a disc, he borrows it and watches it too. He stayed with me for a couple days and each night we watched episodes from 8pm until 1am and had a ball. The series still stands up to the test of time and is still fascinating to watch! Its intellectual as well as action and it has the family element in it that's fun as well. You can NOT go wrong with this series!
B**A
Quality of DVDs was unmentionable. It was an 8 season pack
By the time I got to the season 3 DVD, and realized that the DVD was terribly scratched the Amazon screen gave me no alternative to report the problem. Basically don't order DVD's from amazon because there is no quality control on the product they send you and no way to report it. It seems I'm stuck with season 3 disc one that I have to replace by purchasing a new one. Amazon, you need to give people an option for reporting this stuff. I was going to buy a kindle to buy magazines but you know, after this you've lost me. It should be on the page of the order, how to make a complaint!
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