Hoping to recreate the anticipation and buzz that helped make "Glee" a breakout hit a few seasons back by previewing the series a few months before its official debut, Fox offered potential viewers a sneak preview of "Touch" (Wed., 9 p.m. EST on Fox) after the Aspen auditions of "American Idol." The actual series premieres Monday, March 19 at 9 p.m. EST, after "Alcatraz" finishes its inaugural run.
In this premiere, viewers were introduced to Jacob Bohm, an 11-year old boy diagnosed with autism. It looks like the situation is far more complex than that, which is to be expected from a series created by Tim Kring ("Heroes"). Kiefer Sutherland plays his bewildered father, who's been struggling to take care of and connect with his son since his wife's death in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw rounds out the core team as the social worker brought in to assess Jacob after his third trip atop a radio tower. She found herself pulled into the mythology when she started to see that Jacob was using numbers to communicate, seeing patterns in the numbers that connect the world and everyone in it. Danny Glover provides support as an expert on children with an affinity to numbers.
The premiere featured a convoluted group of people around the world who had no reason to be connected. But either through happenstance, or the subtle manipulations of Jacob, their lives all touched by the end of the hour, and in doing so they each found an improvement in their situation. Jacob can see the pattern, and perhaps then can see a bit of the future, but can he manipulate it as well?
Check out Maureen Ryan's thoughts on this sneak preview of "Touch," and come back Monday, March 19th at 9 p.m. EST for the series premiere.
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