Review: '3 Lbs.'

It's going to be a fun game to see how many critics are going to be able to avoid comparing CBS' new pre-midseason drama 3 Lbs. to FOX's established hit House.

The similarities are so obvious and intended, plus this is the second time in three months that CBS has baited us to make these House comparisons, following the fall offering Shark. While that James Woods semi-hit at least could be pitched as "House with Lawyers," 3 Lbs. is the much less intriguing "House with Doctors."

The show was created by Peter Ocko, whose Dead Like Me and Boston Legal credits suggest a gift with far quirkier and less generic material than this.

Stanley Tucci is in Woods/Hugh Laurie territory as Dr. Douglas Hanson, a brilliant but enigmatic New York City neurosurgeon. Is there any other kind? Why yes. Dr. Hanson's new shadow is Mark Feurstein's Dr. Jonathan Singer. Dr. Singer is from Los Angeles, which means he cares what his patients think and likes to meditate to clear his mind, while Dr. Hanson is prone to walking out in the middle of consults and he prefers to think of the brain as a box with wires. How ever will these two different, but gifted surgeons learn work together?

The background characters are a blur, with the exception of Indira Varma, as a neurologist who may blend some of the sensibilities of the two main docs.

Episodes of 3 Lbs. begin with the soon-to-be patients immersed in their lives until a brain-based ailment strikes, depicted by an effects-heavy journey inside the body to the root of the condition (basically, just like House). And a major wrinkle is that the Dr. Hanson may be having his own medical problems -- phantom images and whatnot -- which may impact his professional judgment (basically, just like House). No doubt producers would insist that the difference between 3 Lbs. and House is that by specializing specifically on cerebral function, they can get into more ephemeral territory, the origins of memory, feeling and emotion.

The problem with the pilot and with my having any interest in 3 Lbs. going forward is how poorly defined Tucci's Dr. Hanson is, a problem that I blame 100 percent on the show's creative team rather than on Tucci. The TV landscape is littered with anti-social geniuses and it takes more than just a lack of conventional bedside manner to stand out. Other characters describe Hanson as a terror, referencing the previous doctors he's scared into quitting and their awe of his skill, but the character we see is kind of rude, but not in any way that you'd talk about in hushed tones.

He's perfectly capable of talking to some former patients in a sensitive way. He has at least a bit of a connection to his teenage daughter (a nod that's more sentimental Shark than consistently misanthropic House). He's unemotional and mechanical, but not to an extreme.

The absence of extreme behavior on Hanson's part makes him a poor foil for Feurstein's touchy-feely, uber-New Age-y Dr. Singer. Feurstein's portrayal is all empathy and earnestness, which plays badly off of Tucci's underdeveloped ambiguity.

After the unexpected failure of Smith this fall, CBS opted to rush it to air in the Tuesday 10 p.m. ET slot. The network might end up wishing that a different time period had become available, one which wouldn't force this Xerox -- loaded with strong performers though it may be -- from airing immediately after FOX's original.

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