If you can’t get enough of number sequences and universal cylindrical patterns that constantly repeat in nature (waves, flowers, shells), then for sure you’ll repeat the pattern of watching Fox’s new show, “Touch.”
The new series, which previews tomorrow night, is from Tim Kring, the guy who brought you “Heroes,” and stars Kiefer Sutherland, the guy who made “2
4” the most important number in TV.
“Touch” is about a seemingly autistic boy, Jake Bohm (David Mazouz), and his father, Martin (Sutherland), living in New York after the death on 9/11 of Martin’s wife, Jake’s mom.
Jake has never spoken, can’t stand to be touched and is constantly scribbling number sequences.
In fact, these number sequences blur the past, future and present and tie Jake together with other “special” chosen people around the world.
Unlike in the series, “Numb3rs,” these numbers aren’t used to solve crimes, but to warn of future disasters — for anyone smart enough to interpret them.
Got it? Good, because I’m still a bit confused.
Anyway, we’re told that right after 9/11, Martin gave up his “highly paid reporter” job (talk about fictitious numbers!) to work blue-collar jobs (such as JFK baggage handler) that allow him to take care of his son.
In this alternate reality, apparently, a baggage handler is an easy gig with flexible hours.
While handling luggage, Martin finds a lost cellphone that belongs to a guy from London with a troubled marriage.
This phone, as it turns out, also has the same sequence of numbers that Jake is constantly scribbling.
It’s a bit reminiscent of the movie “Babel,” with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, where a troubled couple’s lives intersect internationally via a traveling object with that of an armed Arab boy, a Japanese girl in bad straits and a child’s caretaker.
In “Touch,” the caretaker is Jake’s city child services worker (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who is the only child worker in the city who does not appear to be overworked. She even has the power to institutionalize Jake. Talk about altering reality!
After the boy is taken from his dad, Martin works day and night to figure out why the number 318 keeps appearing in his son’s notebooks and his collection of cellphones.
Lo and behold! The number sequence turns up everywhere .
Anyway, all these disparate, numbers-related people from all over the world connect via the lost cellphone — to prevent a disaster from occurring.
Neat trick.
Into the mix comes the wise man (Danny Glover), a quantum physics genius, who Martin finds at “318 Tesla Street, “a beat-up house The Bronx.”
Naturally, there is no Tesla Street (named for the greatest inventor) in The Bronx in real life but there are six Tesla Motors dealerships in The Bronx selling $130,000 cars. Go figure.
Each week, “Touch” seemingly will present a self-contained mystery.
Yes, the show is intriguing, and it’s great to have Sutherland back on TV.
But frankly, it’s awfully complicated.
Ironically, only a certain sequence of numbers will tell us whether this show has a long future.
They’re called Nielsen ratings.