THE IRRATIONAL

(SEPT. 25 ON NBC)

Bill Nye is the Science Guy. Now Jesse L. Martin is the Behavioral Science Guy when he returns once again to crime solving in The Irrational. This time around he isn’t a member of the police force, like on Law & Order, but rather works with law enforcement in his role as Alex Mercer, a professor of behavioral science.

“It’s your standard procedural with nothing standard about it,” Martin, 54, says. “You’re basically following this guy through his personal life and his professional life, and he has the bonus of being very tuned in on human behavior, and the deficit of being very tuned in on human behavior. So, you can imagine how much that would affect his personal life. It certainly benefits his professional life but [his] personal life gets a little funny, and therein lies the drama.”

Understanding human nature can be a superpower, which is why law enforcement calls on Alex Mercer to help them close cases with his unexpected approach to understanding why people do what they do. Joining Martin are Maahra Hill as his ex, Marisa, Travina Springer as his sister, Kylie, Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan, his newest research assistant, and Molly Kunz as Phoebe, his tech-savvy research assistant.

“One of the things I think will really set this show apart is that everyone seems to be fascinated with docuseries that have everything to do with solving crimes, forensic cases, cold cases,” Martin adds. “Everybody seems fascinated with these real-life crimes! One of the things that’s fascinating about our show is that they really do follow the same trajectory, but you add a whole lot of humor, and surprisingly a whole lot of tragedy in the same world. And, hopefully, I’m really good at being your steward or host in all of it.”

Love The Price Is Right? Go to Parade.com/season-52 to see what’s new.