Numb3rs

                  To those who know me it is clear that I am a very creative person.  I write, create art, design quilts, and spent many years working behind the scenes in theatre.  What some may be surprised to discover is how much I love math.  Yep, I said math.  There is something about logic, puzzles, and figuring out the solution to a problem that is absolutely thrilling to me.  When I heard there was a show where crimes were solved by using math, I was ecstatic.  That show is Numb3rs.            

                Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) is a math genius.  He went off to college when he was barely a teenager and afterwards became an honored mathematician and professor.  His math ability is quite renowned and Charlie frequently surprises his FBI agent brother, Don (Rob Morrow), with all the high security and secret projects he has worked on.  Part of the reason Don is so surprised is because he does not know much about Charlie’s life.  When the series begins, the two brothers are not close at all.  Due to Charlie’s abilities, he went to high school at the same time as Don even though Don is five years older than Charlie.  That did not exactly create the best relationship between the two, especially since they also have two very different personalities.

                Now that they are adults, Charlie and Don find themselves working together.  Charlie is a consultant for the FBI and Don frequently needs to use Charlie’s skills in order to solve a case.  It takes a little bit, but the two brothers do get closer the more they work together.  This makes their father, Alan (Judd Hirsch), very happy.  Despite the better relationship, things do not always go smoothly for the brothers.  They have two different ways of thinking.  Charlie is very logic driven and Don has years of FBI experience and instincts.  In order to solve the cases it is necessary to bring both ways of thinking together.

                Neither brother works alone.  Both have their own teams.  Two of the longest running team members on the FBI side are David (Alimi Ballard) and Colby (Dylan Bruno).  They became fast friends once paired in the field together and are nearly inseparable.  Their interactions with each other are really funny.  Then there is Megan (Diane Farr).  She is the most compassionate agent and sometimes struggles with the decisions that are made.  During the series there are a few other team members that come through: Liz (Aya Sumika), Nikki (Sophina Brown), and Terry (Sabrina Lloyd).  They are not on the show as long as the ones I mentioned above, but they play important roles while they are involved.

                There are not as many people on Charlie’s team.  First, and in many ways most important, is Amita (Navi Rawat).  She is a graduate student who becomes a professor as the series goes on.  Charlie is absolutely wild about her.  I mean wild.  He just has a bit of a problem expressing his feelings.  Good thing they work so much together on the cases otherwise I do not know if they would ever get together.  The second person Charlie works with is Larry (Peter MacNicol).  He is a physicist and has mentored Charlie since Charlie was a teenager.  While Charlie’s main team may be small, he has an endless supply of resources.  He frequently brings in the expertise of other professors and people he happens to meet.

                The person who is on both teams is Charlie’s and Don’s father.  Alan is widowed and a retired city planner.  Family is very important to him and all he truly wants is for everyone to get along.  Alan often gets between Charlie and Don when they are fighting and helps them see reason.  The members of both teams are welcome in his home and they come to Alan for advice and wisdom.  On occasion, Alan’s city planner and engineering skills are used to help solve cases.

                I have one more character to mention.  He is actually a guest star, but he is such a fantastic character it does not matter.  Agent Ian Edgerton (Lou Diamond Phillips) is a sniper and tracker for the FBI.  He is not in many episodes, but when he is a whole new dynamic is created.  With a very dry sense of humor, Edgerton does things his own way and gets some interesting results.  I do not always agree with his tactics, but I love the humor he brings to the show.

                Even though I am pretty sure I have seen every episode of Numb3rs, I continue to watch them over and over again. I love seeing how the two different methods come together and solve the case. The characters have a great chemistry which keeps the moments not involved in the mystery interesting. Oh, how I wish this show had not ended after six seasons. But it did and I always look forward to the reruns.