Brilliant Minds on NBC season 2, episode 3 review

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 3.

The third episode of Brilliant Minds Season 2 is about struggles to communicate — so it’s not unexpected that the show itself has difficulty getting its ideas across. “The Pusher” has a common theme that emerges early on, yet its execution is somewhat lacking. And its case of the week is likely to send viewers back to another NBC show.

In 1997, Homicide: Life on the Street aired the episode “Subway,” which won an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. Directed by Gary Fleder and written by James Yoshimura, the episode centered on a man who had been pushed onto the subway tracks, and the quest to find the person responsible before the victim’s death. It still is one of the best single episodes of drama in TV history. “The Pusher” has a similar premise, as a young man is suspected of pushing his caregiver in front of a subway train. Brilliant Minds approaches the plot from a medical perspective to tell a different — and more sympathetic — story that doesn’t work as well.

“The Pusher” focuses on Dr. Oliver Wolf and his team trying to communicate with Adam, who is autistic and nonverbal, in order to find out what happened. Almost everyone, and therefore the show itself…