'Pure Genius': Cutting-edge vision confronts overworked ensemble formula

Over its six-season run, Jason Katims’ groundbreaking series “Parenthood” succeeded because it told a universal story inside a small story. Three generations of the Braverman family navigated the headwinds and rocky waters of modern life, and did it in ways that were believable and relatable for millions of viewers.

In Katims’ new show “Pure Genius,” premiering Thursday on CBS, the focus isn’t the nuclear family. In this ambitious but formulaic medical drama, doctors and nurses — a nuclear medicine family — gather around the singular dream of a billionaire to provide health care for those suffering the rarest diseases, and do it free of charge.

It’s a vision that unifies medicine and technology without the middleman, but the show’s tried-and-true format and high-gloss look can’t summon enough actual reality to make this fanciful conjuring ring with the truth it needs, at least not yet. ...

Read the full review at TheWrap

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Image credit: Adam Taylor/CBS