Limitless

We all forget something at one time or another. Be it important or not, forgetting things is a part of being human. Our brain erase a lot of information that it considers useless or, rather, puts it away in the back of your mind, out of our reach. But… what if we actually had the capacity to reach this “erased” information? What if there was a way for us to remember every thought, every data, every feeling, every sense ever known or experienced?

This probability is explored and exploited thoroughly in the American comedy-drama Limitless, which was inspired of the movie of the same name.

Twenty-eight years old Brian Finch is a temp. With a rather hectic school record and a failed music band, his dreams of becoming musician are shoved aside by the sad, cruel reality of life. However, when he is introduced by his best friend to a special drug called NZT-48, his whole life takes a new turn entirely. Due to a strange turn of events, he soon finds himself working for the FBI, where he is provided a pill of NZT everyday and, for the next twelve hours, he becomes the smartest man in the world.

But of course, being so powerful brings its fair share of troubles, and Brian will have a hard time trying to deal with secrets, loyalties and deadly threats.

The best quality of this TV show isn’t exactly its uniqueness, considering it has been done before, but more the freshness it has brought to the concept. The idea of having access to every single neuron in our brain thanks to a drug is rather cliché, but the main character (Brian Finch) brought it to a whole new level.

He’s hilarious, cracks a lot of jokes, lightens the mood: what could have ended as a rather dark show instead became full of laughter, yet still kept a somewhat serious design. The character of Brian Finch is smart to begin with, but not in the sense anyone might expect him to be: he’s artistically smart. He makes a lot of crafts, models things out of clay, draws and builds and creates… He’s an extremely open person who greatly influences those around him, and who deals with different conflicts to the best of his abilities. The producers of Limitless managed to create a very real character, whose feelings easily reach out to us, the viewers, and that’s simply fantastic.

Limitless can be easily watched by anyone, really. The episodes are forty minutes or so, but they absolutely don’t feel like it when you’re watching, because the story simply strings you along and you loose all touch with reality. The story itself isn’t all that complicated, but the different FBI operations and investigations still possess this complexity that gives any fan of mysteries this feeling of satisfaction.

This kind of super intelligence isn’t all that far out of our reach, and the possibilities seem endless. We have barely started exploring the potential of our brains, and this amazing TV show simply demonstrates one of the many possible outcomes this said potential could bring.