Scorpion: Season 1 (2014)
TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: Typical procedural plotlines and boring characters using a distracting amount of geek-speak make Scorpion a forgettable show without sting.
Critics Consensus: Typical procedural plotlines and boring characters using a distracting amount of geek-speak make Scorpion a forgettable show without sting.
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Season Info
SCORPION, inspired by a true story, is a high-octane drama about eccentric genius Walter O'Brien and his team of brilliant misfits who comprise the last line of defense against complex, high-tech threats of the modern age. As Homeland Security's new think tank, O'Brien's "Scorpion" team includes Toby Curtis, an expert behaviorist who can read anyone; Happy Quinn, a mechanical prodigy; and Sylvester Dodd, a statistics guru. Pooling their extensive technological knowledge to solve mind-boggling … MoreCast
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Ari Stidham
as Sylvester Dodd, Sylv... -
Eddie Kaye Thomas
as Toby Bissel, Toby Cu... -
Katharine McPhee
as Paige Dineen -
Elyes Gabel
as Walter O'Brien, Walt... -
Ernie Hudson
as Brooks -
Jadyn Wong
as Happy Quinn
Related News & Features
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Review Roundup: Gotham, Scorpion, Madam Secretary
– Rotten Tomatoes
Episodes
Computer genius Walter O'Brien and his equally brilliant friends investigate high-tech crimes. In the opener, Walter and his misfit colleagues are hired by the government to solve a crisis at the Los Angeles airport that leaves dozens of planes unable to land.
A bomb strike threatens the Internet infrastructure for the entire Southwest. Meanwhile, Team Scorpion fails a military training operation and becomes determined to prove themselves.
Friend Ratings for Scorpion: Season 1
Critic Reviews for Scorpion: Season 1
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (28)
It did come off thus far as a sort of combination of the short-lived Alphas and- of course- CSI. As a fan of both of those shows, I'm reasonably happy with the results, at least for this episode.
I don't recommend watching Scorpion, at least based on the pilot, but I won't hold it against you if you do.
Even if you put them on cool translucent glass, the computer readouts were still ultimately dull.
The pacing is a little ridiculous. There isn't time really spent slowly solving something. You want to build up suspense. Sadly, it doesn't work because it's more annoying than thrilling.
There are shows this fall that I expect to be much better in the long run than Scorpion, but there aren't many pilots I ultimately enjoyed more -- I even genuinely pumped my fist at one point.
Eddie Kaye Thomas ("American Pie") is fun as the occasionally felonious brainiac psychologist, but the rest of the characters are pretty one-dimensional, that one dimension being their social awkwardness.
Tech-driven drama celebrates brains over brawn.
Imagine The Big Bang Theory as a procedural. Now scrub that notion out of your noggin and move on.
If the series can live up to the backstory of its real-life inspiration that would be fantastic.
Scorpion has a simple set up - Big Bang Theory meets Mission: Impossible - but when there's no action, it's just a show about smart people told idiotically.
I will say that I can't decide if the ridiculous stunts employed in the name of restoring backup software are silly fun or the dumbest thing I've ever seen on TV. Leaning toward the latter.
Scorpion will provide familiar pleasures to viewers who like to know what's coming. Despite the title, this show has no sting.
However much of the story may be fact-based or technically possible... the show is almost completely ridiculous. And it is also pretty entertaining, from top to bottom.
I thought it was just OK.
Scorpion lacks convincing characters: Walter, Happy, and especially Sylvester offer nothing beyond their areas of specialization as a means to identify them.
All in all -- the action will draw viewers in and the loveable characters will keep them for the long haul.
They may be absurd, but they're enjoyable as long as you don't think about them too deeply. (Or, in the case of a final stunt with a car and an airplane, at all.)
As often happens in series pilots, the production values are so heightened that you wonder if the show could ever top it. So we're left with a cast of stock characters, forgettably cast.
If Scorpion were better suited to today's TV landscape instead of bringing to mind a TV series from 30 years ago, it could be an of-the-moment series worth watching. But it's not.
If viewers buy into the high-concept, highly tongue-in-cheek attitude, this series could gain a following.
For a show about such allegedly brilliant people, Scorpion works hard to make sure you never ever have to think.
It's wonderful to witness [Leoni's] maturation here, because she still trails the vixenish vapors from earlier in her career.
Scorpion doesn't necessarily lend itself to profound analysis. It's just fun to watch.
It's mostly gold-plated hooey. The plot is slight, the resolution a laugher and the characters basically stick figures.
The results are a bit of an odd duck, but one that has the potential to soar -- at least in the ratings.
Note to TV producers: Please stop trying to make Katharine McPhee happen.
It's fun, but not exactly believable.
I'll say that any show wasting Ernie Hudson on such a lameass role deserves to be viewed with intensive scrutiny.
Scorpion has some real sting.
Though inspired by a true story, the fast-moving pilot plays like an action movie with sequences that are too incredible.
Scorpion feels like a world cut down to types. Look no further than the premise: It's partly a dramatization of the generation gap, all of culture distilled to these free-spirited tech-savvy millennials and their straitlaced boomer handler.
The brainy nerds are a stereotypical band of socially awkward types. Not helping lighten the clich� load is Katharine McPhee as the mother of a boy who's also a budding tech prodigy.
It's a show about geniuses that gets stupider and stupider until it explodes.
[Katharine McPhee's] role would be challenging for even a very good actress, but McPhee isn't very good. Her performance is wooden and insipid.
While there's something to be said for the brilliant inheriting the Earth, the series feels a little soft for a network with so many chalk-outline hours.
A genius probably didn't write the script.
The ending is sweet but I really had no idea what was going on in the pilot. You don't have to be a genius to realize that, like O'Brien, the family-friendly series needs to strike a better balance between the fast-moving plots and the sensitive moments.
If you don't think about its underlying exploitation of mental illness, it's easy enough to get lost in and forget about the troubles of the real world.
I like nonsense, but this is not diverting or interesting nonsense.
What I really want is simple: a weekly series based on one of my all-time favorite films: the 1992 caper flick Sneakers. Unfortunately, Scorpion is no Sneakers; it's much more flat-footed.
Like Elementary, Scorpion is a procedural with only a slight twist, but if not-so-evil genius is becoming a trend, I'm all for it.
Homeland it's not. It's just another case-of-the-week procedural, and McPhee seems out of place as the diner waitress who falls in with the 'Big Bang'-ers.
Although it's inspired by a true story, the nerdy characters don't ring true.
It's a grabby, fun premise, yet one that ultimately hinges on the cleverness of the fixes that Walter's Scorpion team come up with each week
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