Numb3rs-A Fantasy Crime Fighting Show For The Ages !!!

Numb3rs is a brilliant piece of Cinematic Art that I'd squarely place in the Fantasy genre. The many FANTASTIC (beyond improbable) elements of the show, that the top crime fighting FBI agent in LA just happens to have a math genius college prof brother who's willing to spend countless hours solving crimes, that college prof Charlie & his college prof pals would be so eager to leave the cloistered gentility of the ivory tower of academia to work in the crass, ugly underbelly of the crime fighting world, that there are so many major crimes in LA that appear to be unsolvable w/o math consultation, that Charlie's PROBALISTIC assessments of crime targets are almost 100% accurate, that, although LA is a very violent city, there seem to be more Super Crimes (serial killers, bus hijackings with hostages on board, bank heist standoffs, high profile kidnappings, etc) happening in LA on a weekly basis than in the entire USA, that Charlie is not just a mere math genius but a super Polymath (an expert in many fields of knowledge) with photographic memory no less (you never see him looking in a book for a solution strategy), that the entire LAPD is portrayed as a subservient appendage of Don's FBI team, that so many of the cases involve such extravagantly ornate "super villains" (for instance, the serial killer who leaves Bible verses & religious & numerological clues at the crime scene), that there is so much excessive, over the top violence portrayed by the cops & the bad guys on the streets of LA in EVERY episode (intense gun battles using automatic machine guns, explosions of cars & buildings, high speed car chases, etc), that Papa Allen, the retired city planner Dad of Don & Charlie even contributes his own "expert" knowledge in several cases, that "regular", front line FBI agents are so often portrayed in dangerous "specialist" roles such as climbing up cables on the underside of a bridge or crawling through a wrecked train car looking for survivors or being on the front lines of a SWAT attack, that so many cases become increasingly complex & reveal even more crime as the investigation progresses, that the very complex cases entailed in every episode are neatly solved within the span of that one episode, & so on all add up to a Cinematic Fantasy that reminds me of the Super Hero comics of the '40's & '50's, (think Dick Tracy on super steroids) a Super Hero comic book series that is delivered 1 issue at a time on a weekly basis. The well thought out Fantasy core nature of Numb3rs is made believable by superior writing, acting, direction, editing, & the intense but real & heartfelt dramatic scenes that pepper every episode. That the FBI team, Charlie's college prof pals, & wise old Dad Allen congeal into a "family" like unit as the series progresses is cinematic fodder for many of these intense dramatic scenes. The many deep, even philosophical, conversations between the core characters that touch on various aspects of the human condition are an unexpected wild card that also seem to lend an air of believability to this otherwise Fantasy Super Hero production There are more than a few episodes that involve cases centered around controversial social issues such as police ignoring violence against prostitutes because they are just "low value" whores, human cloning, advanced weapon technology, & the blind profit motives of pharmaceutical corporations where core characters quizzically offer cynical opinions that are contrary to the Establishment position but yet these episodes also seem to anchor the Fantasy core of Numb3rs to believable reality. Other episodes, where the case at hand centers on less a less controversial but very popular social issue such as the "sneaker craze" among the youth & the state lottery & the Hip Hop music scene, also use social issues as a cinematic anchor to reality in a cinematic production that is a Fantasy Crime Fighting show at its core. Although Numb3rs was presented weekly over 6 seasons, I believe that the writers fully intended the viewer to watch the whole series in one almost continuous viewing (as is now possible on NetFlix) because there are so many well defined & well constructed story line undercurrents that link together disparate episodes & so many that even span the entire series that it would be almost impossible for an average viewer to grasp & appreciate these "supra-episodic" undercurrents by viewing the individual weekly episodes over the span of 6 seasons. That Number3rs skillfully encompasses such seemingly disparate cinematic themes as crime fighting, science information show, romance, brotherly love, family values, friendship, philosophical reflection, intense action scenes, the existential crises underlying individual core characters, & so on, yields a brilliant & well orchestrated cinematic production that truly has "something for everyone" & gives an otherwise Fantasy production a believable complexion. It boggles the mind that one simple TV series could skillfully weave so many complex & intricate cinematic elements into a seemingly superficial Fantasy Super Hero Crime Fighting show & that results, in my opinion, in a true Cinematic Classic, a true Cult Classic even, that will probably not be fully appreciated until Cinematic Historians reflect upon it in the far distant future. 20 Stars !! 20 Stars !! 20 Stars !!