REVIEW: Touch, Pilot Episode

If you are anything like me, who mourned the loss of my hero Jack Bauer back in May 2010, you will have been waiting patiently for Keither Sutherland to star in another TV series. Well, the wait is over. You cannot help but have high expectations for his new series Touch.

Touch is a supernatural drama following the lives of Martin Bohm (Keither Sutherland) and his son Jake (David Mazouz). Martin is a widowed former journalist who now works as a baggage handler at JFK airport. Jake is an 11 year old boy who has never spoken a single word in his whole life. The only explanation given for Jake's silence is that the medical professionals suspect he is Autistic. However, Martin disputes this diagnosis and believes it is simply because Jake doesn't have anything to say. It is not until Martin's parenting skills are questioned that he realises his son's strange obsession with numbers has been his way of communicating with his father his whole life.

By following Jake's maps of numbers, Martin meets Professor Arthur Teller (played by the legendary Danny Glover) who is an expert on children who possess a special untaught knowledge of an ancient mathematical theory constructed by Fibonacci in 1202. The Fibonacci theory is a sequence of numbers that can be translated into the biological sphere, used to predict the number of leaves on a stem. However, Jake is not using his knowledge of Fibonacci to predict this biological construct. Instead, he is using the mathematical theory to predict the future.

Touch unearths a theory that many of us have never heard of. I very rarely enjoy these types of shows based upon theories that reach beyond the realms of reality. However, Touch offers another explanation for these predictions made by Jake, linking Fibonacci's mathematical theory with the theory that we are all intertwined with one another by an invisible thread. We are already predesigned to meet and influence those specific people in the world that we encounter throughout our lives. Everything in our lives happen for a reason that has already been decided for us and that fate is very much a realistic premise. Coincidences do not exist in this world, however destiny most definitely does.

The pilot episode is just the foundation for what I suspect will be a series that is as gripping as 24 was but without all the torturing, bloodshed, backstabbing, double-crossing agents or Chloe's occasional sarcastic comment. The only concern I have is that for those thousands of fans who were addicted to 24 are going to struggle to watch Keither Sutherland in a role where he is passive, emotional and struggling to cope rather than saving the world form evil terrorists.

This episode is just filling us with the information that will be needed for us to continue and follow the story throughout this series. I hope that I am right in my prediction that this series is going to be a huge success as the storyline premise is fascinating and the cast are amazing.

If my prediction is wrong I will be sorry I wasted time trying to get my head around Fibonacci theory, however knowledge of the theory is a great conversational starter if you want to blow people's minds at a dinner party.