Dr. Oliver Sacks vs. Dr. Oliver Wolf
The new NBC show, "Brilliant Minds," stars Zachary Quinto as Oliver Sacks -- or rather, as Oliver Wolf, a brilliant neurologist with prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. This show is a lot like "House" except that the brilliant doctor isn't being an asshole on purpose, he's doing it because he can't tell people apart.
As a face blind science writer (who recently wrote a book on the topic), I will provide Oliver Sacks-like explanations of the neurological disorders depicted on the show, and discuss how close to reality each one is.
I'm also an expert on Oliver Sacks, having read almost everything written for and about him. (Sorry Uncle Tungsten, I'll get to you eventually.)
I’ve watched the first three episodes of Brilliant Minds, and without giving away any spoilers, I will start out by comparing fictional character Oliver Wolf with the real Oliver Sacks.
Two Total Foxes
Photo credits: NBC/Universal and NPR Science Friday
Oliver Sacks was a body builder! He used to pump iron on Muscle Beach. After moving to New York, he kept fit by swimming laps around City Island. Like his fictional counterpart, he also rode a motorcycle and was gay.
Also like Dr. Wolf, Dr. Sacks got sacked for being too good at his job. Sacks was essentially pushed out of his job as a neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx. This was after he transformed the lives of many of his Parkinson’s patients — however briefly — by giving them L-DOPA. (Read Sacks’ book, “Awakenings,” to learn more, but don’t watch the treacly Robin Williams movie. Instead, watch the documentary, which shows Sacks working with actual patients.)
Also; Sacks was British! He moved to America in part because he knew that his parents would never accept him as gay, and also because he came from a family of doctors — both his parents and two of his brothers — and how many Dr. Sacks does one small island really need? Tiny spoiler here, but unlike Dr. Wolf’s troubled father, Oliver Sacks’s dad was by all accounts a beloved country physician who still made house calls well into his 90s. The elder Dr. Sacks’s dedication to his patients made a deep impression on Oliver Sacks, who — like Oliver Wolf — really was willing to break the rules if his patients’ well-being was at stake.
UP NEXT: I’ll recap the pilot episode of Brilliant Minds, where a dozen medical professionals are completely stymied by a syndrome that’s instantly recognizable to anyone who took Psych 101.
