
Dead Sea Squirrels
Some 2,000-year-old squirrels offer some great lessons about both the Bible and life in this clever new Minno series.
People are … irrational.
If you think about it, we typically make our decisions based on our instincts, which are often wrong. And we’re influenced by memory, which is fallible.
How can we distinguish between rational, reasonable thought and that which is not? Well, we may need some help. And that’s where people like Alec Mercer come into play.
A professor of behavioral science, Alec is obsessed with figuring out motives; he aims to understand how the human brain works and how desire and memory play a part in our behavioral patterns.
Alec may have been born with his knack for discerning the complexities of the human heart and mind, but his motivation for making it into a career came after a church explosion. An explosion that killed everyone except himself, and one that left him with burn scars on his face and half his body.
For years, he couldn’t remember who committed the crime. He could barely see the perpetrator’s face amongst the shadows of his own blurred recollections.
So, Alec focused on his work, helping law enforcement and government officials track down culprits and even prevent a few crimes in the process.
Eventually, Alec was able to crack on the code on his own memory and put the men responsible for the death of his friends behind bars. But doing so came at a cost to his anonymity. And there are always bigger powers at play.
Step aside, laugh tracks. The Irrational is a more serious show that deals with humanity’s strange behaviors and irrational hearts.
This TV-14 series is an NBC original, which can also be streamed on Peacock, and it’s all about cop-drama meeting psychology and mystery.
I can’t say it’s never been done before. Because it has. So let’s talk about what you can expect.
The main character here, Alec, seems to be a man of integrity. He genuinely desires to help others.
But Alec’s not perfect. He and his wife, Marisa (an FBI agent who frequently calls on Alec to help with cases), split up because his work became an obsession. He wouldn’t let things go and it drove a wedge between them. They’re friends now, but it’s unlikely they’ll ever reunite since they’ve both moved on romantically. We also know, and see, that while Alec strives to understand others’ minds, he’s hesitant to dig into his own, given his traumatic past.
The Irrational has a few profane words. It deals with themes of rage, revenge and vengeance and it doesn’t shy away from some blood and violent scenes. But it only insinuates sexual activity for the most part–keeping in line with its broadcast network standards.
You won’t find problem-free viewing here, but this series sticks to a formula that allows it to air on TV while it asks questions about the human condition, memory and the heart.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
A man grieving his wife’s death kidnaps Alec’s girlfriend, former MI6 agent Rose Dinshaw, seeking answers (since Rose was involved) and revenge.
Rose’s kidnapper, a man named Gavin, tortures her for information, shocking her with jumper cables from a car. He threatens her and another former MI6 agent (whom he also kidnapped), eventually killing the latter when he realizes the man doesn’t have the information he wants. We later see the man’s corpse and a pool of blood where he was shot. Gavin threatens to kill Alec after kidnapping him, too. Another man is shot and killed after getting knocked out of a parked van.
Gavin wants to know what happened to his wife, Fiona. He doesn’t believe the story that she was operating a meth lab with her cousins. Rose explains that Fiona was actually working with MI6 to stop her cousins, who were terrorists responsible for the deaths of five police officers in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Fiona got caught in the crossfire when the operation went awry.
Gavin hopes that by killing the people responsible for his wife’s death, people will finally learn the truth about Fiona—that she was a good person. But Rose tells him that if he follows through with his plan, the CIA and MI6 will stage it to look like he was a “whack job” with ties to extremist groups and child sexual abuse. Thus, nobody will learn the truth of Fiona’s story.
Gavin hits Rose in the face with his gun, bruising her, in response to this revelation. So, Rose reveals that the reason Fiona never told Gavin about working with MI6 was because Fiona wanted to leave him. Fiona had told Rose that Gavin would go into jealous rages, abusing Fiona physically.
Pictures show Rose’s kidnapping—she fought back against three assailants before one finally pulled a gun on her. They placed a bag over her head and put her in the back of a van. One kidnapper reveals they know she used to be a spy, and he accuses her of doing terrible things (which she privately confirms to Alec).
Alec is warned by Marisa not to get involved in Rose’s case. He ignores this advice, since Marisa refused to stay out of it when her own boyfriend was killed. He winds up saving Rose’s life, but not before putting himself and her into even more danger.
Rose’s colleague apologizes for giving her name to Gavin, explaining that Gavin had the names and addresses of his children and grandchildren. Rose herself gives up the location of an MI6 office after Gavin threatens to shoot up a school. And Gavin later tries to blow up said office.
Alec’s student aides conduct an experiment, allowing students who were lightly (but painfully) shocked in a former experiment to get revenge on the guy who shocked them by firing paintballs at him. Every student gleefully takes this revenge, even paying money for the opportunity. (They ask the students to read the Ten Commandments hoping the students will show mercy, but the students throw the papers away and shoot the guy anyway.) The experiment reveals that you can’t talk someone out of revenge in the moment. It can only be done over the course of several months.
Alec makes a joke about using “protection” to a class full of students. A couple kisses. We hear that a woman’s father left her and her mother when she was 5 years old to be with his mistress.
Alec finds a pile of cigarette butts outside Rose’s home, indicating that her kidnappers cased the joint before attacking her. A woman is sedated with an unknown substance from a syringe.
Alec meets a woman in a bar for a date. Her husband interrupts them—they’re in the middle of a divorce—jealous and angry. Alec starts to insult the man, prompting the guy to brag about the millions he stole in medical fraud. Then it’s all revealed to be a ruse. Alec’s own ex-wife is listening in, along with several other FBI agents. Having heard the man’s confession, they arrest him.
One of Rose’s kidnappers sympathizes with her, offering her a beverage and trying to prevent the man who hired him from using a sedation drug on her. Later, he cooperates with the police, revealing that he had taken the job because he was behind on rent.
We hear a couple of uses each of “d–n,” “h—,” “p-ss” and the British profanity “bloody.” God’s name is also misused once.
Characters act with bravery, submitting themselves to torture and even willing to face death to protect others. A man actively tries not to trigger his friend’s anxiety.
Alec gets pulled into a mystery involving a young man who supposedly killed his ex-girlfriend, nut Alec believes he is innocent.
Alec has a flashback to the day a church building explodes and multiple men and women are burned and scarred. Alex tells his class that he received burns on over 60 percent of his body.
A man admits to shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend, but we later find out that he was drugged and lied to by the actual murderer. A woman lies on the ground, covered in blood with a gunshot wound to the chest. Alec is held at gunpoint.
A young man admits to having sex with his girlfriend, and Alec questions him further about their sexual positions and if they used a condom or not (all to solidify the man’s memory). The only thing we see is a flashback of this young man kissing a woman in bed before the camera pans away.
Men and women consume alcohol and (we hear) get drunk. A group of men and women attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
The word “b–ch” is used once while “d–n” is heard twice.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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