"We all use math every day: to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas or equations; it's logic, it's rationality, it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know."

-Charlie Eppes

The Second Season

Creators and executive producers Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton join an experienced crew, Alex Gansa (The X-Files), Barry Schindel (Law & Order, Robbery Homicide Division), Brooke Kennedy (Third Watch, Crime Story), Ridley Scott (Matchstick Men, Black Hawk Down), Tony Scott (In Her Shoes, Domino), and David W. Zucker (Judging Amy), to produce a television series like no other. Numb3rs is a crime drama about the application of mathematics in criminal investigations. More specifically, the show is about an FBI agent and his mathematical-genius brother who work in tandem to solve some of Los Angles' toughest federal criminal cases.

Numb3rs stands apart from other crime dramas in the sense that the stories always tie mathematics into the investigations. The show's content has a CSI-ish feeling as the way the various mathematical aspects are explained and how the various theories apply to the case at hand have a similar feeling to how the forensic science application is handled in the various CSI shows. But it still stands apart with a different way of thinking and solving crimes. However, despite all of the mathematics, the show is still about a team of FBI agents connecting the dots to deal with homicides, kidnappings, thefts, terrorism, and other crimes of interest. For more details about the series please refer to DVD Talk's review of season one.

Headlining the second season cast are the Eppes brothers, Don and Charlie. Don (Rob Morrow) is the older brother, an experienced FBI agent who is dedicated to the job and his family. He was the former Special Agent in Charge at the Albuquerque, New Mexico field office. He left New Mexico to be with his family in Los Angeles when his mother got cancer. His dedication to his work and limited personal life become an area of interest for the development of his character. Don's younger brother Charlie is of different sorts. Where Don is assertive, strong-willed, and confident, Charlie is not. At a young age, he was found to be a mathematical genius. His personality is more reserved but not quite to the point he is socially inept. He fits the stereotype for prodigies of his field. Charlie is a professor in applied mathematics at the California Institute of Science (CalSci) and he has worked in the past with the NSA as a consultant. His work with top secret stuff at NSA comes into play in several of the storylines. Together, the brothers' strengths make quite a team for solving tough cases and catching bad guys.

The supporting characters include Megan Reeves (Diane Farr), the FBI profiler replacing Terry Lake, David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard), an experienced agent that has been in some tough situations, Colby Granger (Dylan Bruno), a rookie agent looking to prove himself who has a background with explosives and Army CID, Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol), a CalSci physicist who helps Charlie out when he gets in a pickle, Amita Ramanjuan (Navi Rawat), a former graduate student of Charlie's who offers her expertise on occasion, and Alan (Judd Hirsch), Don and Charlie's father who gives an outsider's perspective to the cases.

The second season has some pretty entertaining content. In terms of story arcs, the show is limited. They deal with Charlie and Amita's relationship (or lack of), Larry and Megan getting acquainted with each other, which is a sweet pairing, Don dealing with his troubled love life, and other character/relationship development. These aspects are done nicely and provide a good level of detail to get to know the characters (main and supporting) and watch them grow. However, besides the glimpses into the characters, there are no story arcs. The storylines are purely episodic. For the most part, they tended to be strong stories.

"Convergence" was one of my favorites of the season. In the episode, Charlie realizes that in the past year he has been spending too much time working on cases with Don than his own research. Charlie's former colleague Marshall Penfield (Colin Hanks), from his days at Princeton, comes to CalSci to embarrass him. Penfield found a major flaw in Charlie's research, which puts him in a predicament as he has to decide what is more important, the advancement of mathematics or saving lives. What is good about this episode is the chemistry between the two math geniuses as they duke it out.

In the episode "Protest", Don and the gang take on a case dealing with a bombing at an Army recruitment center. The bombing resembled an attack that happened thirty years ago. The problem is that no one has seen the accused since. The situation gets a little dicey when Alan turns out to have significant ties to the accused. "Mind Games" is another good episode that incorporates a spook into the FBI's ranks. Samuel Kraft (John Glover) is a former CIA-trained psychic who is trying to get the FBI to endorse him as a bona fide psychic. He leads the FBI to serial killer and Charlie does not react well to him helping out. Glover is pretty goofy in his role and makes a great contradictory character against Charlie.

Other strong episodes include "Soft Target", the FBI's latest case leads them to a run in with the Department of Homeland Security, "Bones of Contention", a killing of a women employed at the Native-American museum leads to a complicated federal case, "Double Down", Larry's dark past becomes vital to the team solving the case, and "Backscatter", they investigate a bank fraud case with computer hackers.

While I enjoyed season two, the show is not without flaws. There are some elements of the characters and the storylines I did not always enjoy. For instance, the new character Megan did not sit well with me at first. This might sound like a hollow gripe, but I could not stand her voice. It sounded out of character for her role and it gave her an uncertain characteristic to her personality. I just felt she was out of place for the nature of her work. But, as the season progressed, she grew on me as I got to know her more as a character. Another problem I had was the general nature of the show. In a few episodes, it felt was almost pointless to have the FBI agents. They were completely helpless and needed the gifted mathematician to do all the work. In addition, some of the storylines were a little on the hokey-side. Specifically, the cases were sometimes too conveniently tailored to fit this mathematical concept or another. Regardless, these were small nitpicks and not problematic enough to ruin the show.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching season two of Numb3rs. Like the first season, the CSI-stylistic approach of the show with the all of the complex mathematics makes for an intriguing way to look at the crime genre. The season two episodes are all quite strong with a few weak episodes/elements here and there. Fans of the crime dramas will definitely want to see how the Eppes brothers (and the rest of the cast) hunt down criminals and solve mysteries.

Episode Guide
1. Judgment Call: To help capture the killer of a federal judge's wife, FBI Special Agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) turns to the talents of his genius brother Charlie (David Krumholtz) and those of recent FBI Academy graduate Megan Reeves.
2. Bettor Or Worse: An upscale jewelry store owner's family is kidnapped and held for ransom, and the only person with knowledge about the plot - a person who delivers the ransom note - is killed before she can be questioned.
3. Obsession: A popular singer is receiving death threats from an obsessed stalker - but Charlie is able to determine that the disturbing letters are from two different people.
4. Calculated Risk: Don and Megan investigate when the female CFO of a powerful energy company - a woman who was going to testify against her fellow executives - is murdered and her son is the sole witness.
5. Assassin: Don uncovers a secret code that triggers the FBI's hunt for a skillfully trained assassin who is gunning for a Colombian exile who is now living in Los Angeles.
6. Soft Target: The lives of thousands of commuters are jeopardized when a potentially lethal chemical is carried by some mysterious individuals into the city's subway system.
7. Convergence: Don and his team investigate a possible connection between a rash of residential robberies and the home-invasion murder of a homeowner in an upscale community.
8. In Plain Sight: An explosion at a methamphetamine lab leaves Megan feeling responsible for an agent's death and more determined than ever to catch the drug lord who oversaw the operation.
9. Toxin: Is someone tampering with non-prescription drugs? When four people nearly die from poisonings and a sinister manifesto is published in a local paper, Don and his team investigate.
10. Bones of Contention: The baffling murder of a researcher at a Native-American museum brings the FBI in to handle the problem since the facility is located on federal land.
11. Scorched: Charlie is brought in to help investigate a series of arsons that have plagued the city. Can he determine a pattern that leads to a suspect?
12. The O.G.: The murder of a Los Angeles gang member brings Don and his team into a case involving the death of a fellow agent who had been working undercover within the gang.

13. Double Down: A Los Angeles card club has reported four robberies in the past six months, but the case is given more attention by investigators when a Russian blackjack player winds up dead after a winning stint at the tables.
14. Harvest: The discovery of a girl who was apparently being tortured in a decrepit downtown hotel leads to the uncovering of a black market organ-harvesting scheme.
15. The Running Man: The college campus where Charlie teaches is hit with the theft of a DNA synthesizer and Don believes the pilfering could be part of a terrorist plot to launch a bio-warfare attack.
16. Protest: Has an anti-war radical from the 1970s resurfaced after hiding out for 30 years? A bombing at an army recruiting center bears similarities to the long-vanished radical's technique.
17. Mind Games: A psychic offers to help Don determine the circumstances behind the murders of three women who were killed under bizarre circumstances, but Charlie is determined to prove that the psychic is a fraud.
18. All's Fair: During Don's probe into the murder of an Iraqi woman, he enlists the aid of the victim's cousin ... and uncovers a connection to Saddam Hussein.
19. Dark Matter: Following a shooting at a school, Charlie uses the school's radio frequency identification system to track the two shooters' movements through the facility's hallways. But the evidence suggests a third participant is involved.
20. Guns and Roses: The unexpected suicide of an ATF agent brings Don into the case ... and he is shocked to discover that the victim is his former girlfriend. Was it really a suicide?
21. Rampage: When gunfire inside the FBI offices, Don and his team must determine the shooter's motive and possible connection to a dangerous arms dealer who is currently on trial. The close call also hinders Charlie's contribution to the case.
22. Backscatter: The FBI team investigates the disappearance of two bank employees, and an expanding case of bank fraud, who customers' bank accounts - including Don's - are accessed and wiped out.
23. Undercurrents: When the ocean surf yields the bodies of several young Asian girls, Don and his team uncover a connection between the victims and a sex-slave ring operating in the U.S.
24. Hot Shot: A clever killer or killers is drugging women, murdering them, and then carefully dressing and making them up before placing the victims in their own cars, parked in their own driveways.

The DVD

Video:
The video in this release is given in an enhanced anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color format. The picture quality is quite good. It suffers from a slight grain, but detail remains to be sharp and clear. However, there are some occasional moments when the picture suffers compression artifacts. This is a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

Audio:
The audio track in this release is in English 5.1 Dolby digital surround. In general, the sound quality is very good and it provides an audible and clean track. The dialogue is usually a little flat while music and sound effects come off rich and vibrant. Additionally the 5.1 track is dynamic and makes good use of the surround sound capability.

There are no subtitles, but the release supports closed captioning.

Extras:
NUMB3RS: The Complete Second Season comes with a number of extras that include two behind the scenes featurettes, a blooper reel, an interactive photo galleries, and six audio commentaries.

The extras found on disc one include the blooper reel, short featurette, and the interactive photo gallery. Blooper Reel (5:33) is a montage of various goofs during filming. After watching the entire season, it was a nice change of pace to see the serious characters smile and laugh. Krumholtz is especially funny. Behind The Scenes with Nicolas Falacci is an interactive photo gallery It features different pictures Falacci took to document the behind the scenes aspect of the show. The pictures are from the episodes "Assassin", "Convergence", "Protest", "Mind Games", Guns and Roses, "Rampage", "Back Scatter", and "Undercurrents". Behind The Scenes with David Krumholtz (2:05) is a short behind the scenes featurette with Krumholtz taking candid footage of Diane Farr, Rob Morrow, and the set.

On disc 2 is the featurette Crunching NUMB3RS: Season 2 (26:54). It begins with a spoiler warning--the contents contain plot details of the episode Rampage". The featurette has brief interviews and candid behind the scenes footage with various cast and crew: Dylan Bruno, Diane Farr, David Krumholtz, Barry Schindel, Ken Sanzel, Nicolas Falacci, Andrew Black, J. Miller Tobin, David W. Zucker, Lewis Abel, Roy Moore, Kenny Swenson, James Laski, Jeff Kay, John Behring, and more. The topics addressed deal with the writing, pre-production, math production, production, post-production, props, and so on. Basically, it is a detailed breakdown on the entire process of putting an episode from paper to reality.

There are six audio commentaries included and they cover the following episodes: