Review: Limitless

Limitless (2015-2016)
Rating: PG-13
Alcohol/drug use, crime drama violence and minor bits of gore, and occasional mentions of adult situations. Nothing explicit.

[spoilers] 



Limitless only has one season on Netflix because it was canceled. Watching it, I can understand why. I mean it's great and entertaining but...it's basically Psych with drugs. Like instead of a pretend psychic, the funny guy gets his observation skills from a new drug on the market. Pretty tame but I can understand audiences being uncomfortable with a drug addict as the protagonist, even if for the most part, they try to let you forget that is basically what he is doing by taking this "magic fix your life pill." Occasionally, when he suffers symptoms and withdrawal...it is a stark reminder as he mirrors the usual heroin or crack addict imagery, red rimmed eyes, sweaty, bent over at the waist, and struggling against his body's need for this chemical. It can be off-putting for a person who is in it for the quirky crime solving dramedy.

Limitless is good but expect it to end abruptly with no resolutions. Also, don't expect it to do anything new. Entertaining, yes, but sorry to keep comparing it to Psych, but that is basically what it is. They replace Shawn Spencer with a more doofy guy who's a bit more teddy bearish but all the archetypes are the same and they word for word fill the same roles. Plus, they make Bradley Cooper, who looks very, strikingly similar to the main guy the head of the conspiracy with this drug and...you don't know if he's good or not. Cooper's super intense as it is, so, when he says he's good, you feel like "Yeah, I don' believe you for some reason..." Besides that, he looks very similar to the main character and the it can cause a bit of cognitive dissonance.