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Zachary Quinto's Dr. Wolf Has a Unique Skill in Medical Drama Brilliant Minds
Brilliant Minds' Dr. Oliver Wolf sees the world differently — literally.
TV audiences love a doctor who will go rogue and do unexpected, unorthodox things if it will help their patients. If the new trailer for Brilliant Minds is anything to go by, Zachary Quinto’s Dr. Oliver Wolf might just have a shot at one-upping House — albeit with a much kinder bedside manner.
The new NBC drama, which debuts on September 23, stars Quinto, known for roles in shows like Heroes and the Star Trek films, as a neurologist working at Bronx General Hospital who possesses a keen insight into the curious ways the human mind works. As the new trailer — which will air on NBC during the Olympics — reveals, he has firsthand experience with the brain’s oddities. Dr. Wolf can’t recognize faces, a condition known as "prosopagnosia," aka "face blindness."
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This, as one character notes, is a “gift” because it makes him look so much deeper. The trailer gives a touching example of how Dr. Wolf puts this gift to use when he violates protocol to take a seemingly senile older man who doesn’t recognize his granddaughter — or anybody else, for that matter — to her wedding. Then, when he puts the man in front of a piano, he starts performing and it all comes back to him — his life and his love for his family.
Brilliant Minds is based on the writings and work of Oliver Sacks, the late neurologist known for books like The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. Although not a strictly biographical series, Brilliant Minds draws from Sacks’ many interesting cases and his approach to treating patients. Like Dr. Wolf, Sacks suffered from face blindness, as he wrote about in The New Yorker.
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Tamberla Perry co-stars in Brilliant Minds as Bronx General’s Attending for Neurology, Dr. Carol Pierce. As seen in the trailer, she’s Dr. Wolf’s biggest supporter — an important ally to have, given his propensity for doing things the hospital’s board might not approve of.
Brilliant Minds premieres on NBC on Monday, September 23 at 10 p.m.
