‘ Pure Genius’ is a medical malpractice case

Drama caps weak batch of newcomers at top- rated CBS

When your latest drama is funnier than any of your new comedies, you have a problem. To put it extremely mildly, this has been a less than stellar fall at CBS. Oh, its ratings are relatively solid, as they tend to be, but that success can’t entirely compensate for a failure in inclusive casting so blatant that the network had to launch a “Drama Diversity Casting Initiative” to deal with the public relations mess — and a slate of shows so lackluster, they make you wonder if CBS is even trying anymore.

On the sitcom front, you have two star- wasting mediocrities, Kevin Can Wait and Man with a Plan, joined Thursday by the equally mediocre The Great Indoors. In drama, you have the middling MacGyver and the terrible Bull paving the way for the even worse Pure Genius ( Thursday, 10 ET/ PT, eEEE out of four), a show so ludicrously risible, it could be mistaken for an extended Saturday Night Live sketch.

Really, anyone who has ever mocked Grey’s Anatomy owes ABC’s long- running ( and still sturdy) medical series an apology. Watching Genius — which seems determined to cram every medical cliché Grey’s has ever sailed past over 13 seasons into one hour — should leave you with a heightened respect for Shonda Rhimes’ flagship series.

The genius here is tech billion- aire James Bell ( Augustus Prew), who now proudly takes his place among TV’s most annoying characters. Having made a fortune doing, well, something, Bell has founded the amazingly tech- forward Bunker Hill — a hospital that cherry- picks challenging cases and treats patients free of charge.

And yes, that means the first prospective clients we meet will greet their uniformed saviors with “Oh my God. You’re here. You came.”

Bell has gathered lots of shiny gizmos and clear slates to project lots of medical data. He’s also gathered a crackerjack staff that includes a feisty young female he’s crushing on ( Odette Annable); a sometimes skeptical neurosurgeon ( Reshma Shetty); and a requisite programming whiz ( Brenda Song).

But that’s not enough. He wants to hire one of the nation’s premiere maverick surgeons, Dr. Walter Wallace ( Dermot Mulroney). For most of the hour, Mulroney has to spend his time looking impressed and being proven wrong. He also gets to be the one to suss out Bell’s big secret, though not before you will.

There’s barely a moment that’s believable, a patient who feels like a real person or a line that doesn’t make you pity the actor. (“I don’t need anybody telling me ‘ No’ right now. I need ideas.”)

Genius seems so intent on showing off its gadgets, it never pauses to let us feel anything for anyone, including rather offensively, a character we know will cause problems the minute he asks people to pray. It would be nice if TV remembered that Christians come in all shapes and sizes, rather than using the religion as shorthand for “stupid” or “crazy.”

As deadly as Genius may be, its spot on a strong schedule could still leave CBS laughing all the way to the bank. But the question isn’t whether this show and its other new CBS companions will do fine; it’s whether better shows might do even better.

Let’s go with “yes,” if only because “no” would be as dispiriting as Genius.

PHOTOS BY CBS Genius puts a lot of its focus on gadgets, not on people.

Dr. Walter Wallace ( Dermot Mulroney) is a top- notch surgeon in Pure Genius.