Here’s how creator and executive producer Peter Ocko talks about his new CBS drama, “3 Lbs.” The title is based on the fact that the average human brain weighs 3 pounds and the show focuses on a team of neurologists at a New York hospital.
“There were a lot of shows that were coming on the air a couple years ago which were investigating aliens and doing all these sort of backflips to make us believe there was magic in the world,” Ocko said while discussing the show he started working on two years ago. “And my conclusion really is: The one question to think about is that one of the most magical things we can experience is part of us, and that’s our brain.”
“What interested me were the Oliver Sacks stories,” he said. “The idea that if the brain is working, we tend to ignore it. But when it starts to break, you get this window into a truly magical, strange place. And that was the inspiration.”
That’s some pretty heady stuff.
If it sounds too complicated, keep this in mind: It is brain surgery.
The new show premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday on KIRO, Channel 7. It replaces the thievery-centric drama starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen, “Smith,” whose number was up after just three weeks on the air.
Stanley Tucci stars as Dr. Douglas Hanson, a premier neurologist who sees the brain as “wires in a box,” and approaches his job with that emotionless perspective. His bluntness and detachment give him an edge that is sure to conjure up comparisons to Hugh Laurie’s Dr. Gregory House, who appears on Fox an hour earlier on the same night.
“The chip on his shoulder is his passion not to fall for the magic,” Ocko said. “This guy’s not angry at patients. He sees the world as very black and white. At the beginning of his journey he is this guy who’s got to come to terms with the fact that he may be wrong about that. All things he’s done to be the top guy in his field are coming back to haunt him a little bit.”
The proverbial yang to Hanson’s yin is his protege, Dr. Jonathan Seger (Mark Feuerstein of “Good Morning Miami” and “The West Wing”), who is the warmer, fuzzier neurologist who meditates and is open to the notion that some of the brain’s functions could be unexplainable by science.
But one thing science will always explain on this show is the reality of the medical cases. Ocko said he is particularly proud of the realism behind every medical mystery that is presented and that there is always a neurological consultant on the set.
“One of the challenges of the show is to convince the audience that we’re not making this up,” he said. “It’s truly hard to believe the complexity and almost ridiculousness of how the brain works.”
As the show straddles the line between procedural and character drama, its effectiveness remains to be seen. In an already crowded field of medical dramas, it will be interesting to see if “3 Lbs.” works as magically as the brain does.
I’ve got a headache.
For more TV and pop culture scoop, check out Victor’s blog at heraldnet.com/blogpopculture.
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
On TV
“3 Lbs.,” 10 p.m. Tuesday, KIRO, Channel 7.
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