"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" may not be great TV exactly, but it's got Vincent D'Onofrio acting his ass off and that's not bad.
I zeroed in on a particular season 2 episode, "Bright Boy"—partly it's because, by chance, I caught the last few minutes of the episode on TV, many years ago.
but also it's an episode on a topic close to my heart: the fact that it's easy to be reckoned as brilliant, even a "genius", because you happen to do well on some superficial tests, especially multiple-choice tests.
I got an 800 math on the SAT, like the kid in the episode, and it proved nothing.
well, it proved that I was good at taking a certain sort of test that rewarded memorization, application of a few simple formulae, and practice in taking that very particular style of test. in reality...I am not good at mathematical reasoning, and my math skills are poor. but I can still do basic algebra!
I collected a pile of high test scores in grade school (and a few in later, college-age years) that proved almost nothing useful about my aptitude in math or science.
and yet, it's these superficial tests that racıst computer nerds (like Jack Dorsey) seem to think capture intelligence.
~Chara