Numb3rs has always been a bit of a weird step-sibling in the world of procedurals. With its innovative use of higher math to solve/prevent crimes, it could have been boring. With its emphasis on family – both at home and, in a surrogate fashion, in the workplace, it could have been smarmy – or worse, maudlin. Instead, the series pursued a course that melded action, warmth and the joys of education in a way that had never been seen before.
The way into the series, initially, was the prickly relationship between FVI team leader Don Eppes [Rob Morrow] and his math whiz brother, Charlie [David Krumholz], a professor at the fictitious California Institute of Science [CalSci]. The two had never really gotten along because they were so different, but when Don had a case that was driving him nuts, Charlie talking him into letting him try some math stuff to see if it could help.
It did, and the brothers began to find a common ground in fighting the bad guys. As their relationship became more positive – not without a little help from their architect father, Alan [Judd Hirsch] – the familial feeling extended into the extended surrogate family of Don’s FBI team and Charlie’s colleagues and students [well, one particular student, who became a colleague – and later girlfriend, then fiancée].
The familial feeling became the core of the series, even as characters came and went. Members of Don’s team left and were replaced, and Charlie’s best friend and mentor, Larry Fleinhardt, took sabbaticals to go into space and to re-find himself – just as few examples…
In the final season, Don’s second on the team, David Sinclair [Alimi Ballard] is offered a promotion that would take him to Washington to head up his own team; Charlie and Amita [Navi Rawat] are trying to set a date for their wedding that doesn’t step on anyone else’s plans; Larry returns from his latest journey into himself, and Alan is enjoying a new job and making pans to move out of the house for when Charlie and Amita take residence.
Along the way, Don’s team solves the D.B. Cooper case; deals with the ultimate rude neighbor; discovers someone who just might be the first successfully created human clone; is conned into letting a criminal mastermind escape, and gets turned down when he proposes to his longtime love, Robin [Michelle Nolden].
With all the change going on around them remaining FBI team members Colby Grainger [Bruno Dylan], Liz Warner [Aya Sumika] and Nikki Betancourt [Sophina Brown] never let it get them down as they come to formulate their own plans to cope.
The final season of Numb3rs consists of sixteen episodes. The series was winning its Friday timeslot consistently when it was first cut back to those sixteen eps and then cancelled. Overall, Season Six was one of the series’ best, mixing drama, humor, melodrama and action in a way that remains unique on television history. The final episode, Cause and Effect, was not intended to be the series finale, but with its combination of some arcs ending and all of the major characters at a beginning point of a new part of their lives, it feels like one. And Numb3rs couldn’t have ended on a more positive note.
Features include: three audio commentaries: Con Job [Rob Morrow, Director Ralph Hemecker, writer Don McGill]; Old Soldiers [Alimi Ballard, Henry Winkler (Agent Roger Bloom), director Ken Sanzel], and Cause and Effect [David Krumholz, series co-creator Cheryl Heuton, series co-creator/director Nicolas Falacci]; three featurettes: Coming Full circle: The Final Season of Numb3rs; The Women of Numb3rs, and Pixel Perfect: The Digital Cinematography of Numb3rs; Production Photo Gallery with Nicolas Falacci.
Grade: Numb3rs: The Final Season – A-
Grade: Features: A-
Final Grade: A-