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Remember when Christian Slater was synonimous of success? Well, he´s hardly on a roll lately with his TV shows, and now Mind Games got cancelled by ABC after only five weeks of air. The show will be pulled off schedule immediately, and replaced with repeats from Resurrection for two weeks to be later replaced by the new season of Celebrity Wife Swap.
With a little bit of science, a dash of con-artistry, plus a smattering of Jedi mind tricks, brothers Clark (Steve Zahn) and Ross Edwards (Christian Slater) and can tailor a plan to influence any life-altering situation, thereby making their clients’ dreams come true and their nightmares go away. They are partners in Edwards and Associates, an unusual business based on the belief that people’s decisions are influenced by their environment in ways they’re not aware.
A former university professor and world-renowned expert in the fields of human behavior, psychology and motivation, the frantic Clark has a checkered history, which stems from his bipolar disorder. Clark’s academic career imploded when the university became aware he was having an affair with a 22-year-old undergraduate. He’s still unable to reconcile losing the girl, and tries to focus his manic energy on Ross’ new fortune-making plan.
Ross, a brilliant schemer recently out of prison after a two-year stint for fraud, has come up with a business model that he believes can make him and his team millions of dollars. The divorced, incurable ladies’ man roiling with ideas, often confuses honesty with opportunism. Although his energy is infectious, his tactics can be questionable and his strategies border on the illegal. Now, if he can just keep his manic brother from going off the rails…
Their team of master manipulators includes the serious Latrell Griffin (Cedric Sanders), a talented young man from a tough neighborhood recruited by Ross, who saw a raw and untapped talent for business in him, and the geeky trust-fund-baby Miles Hood (Gregory Marcel), a promising behavioral psychology grad student with Clark’s flair for the science and Ross’ general disregard for ethics.
Samantha “Sam” Gordon (Jaime Ray Newman) is an ex-con who Ross met during his court-mandated group therapy and rehabilitation sessions. Sam’s abilities to read people and improvise will serve her well, after she works her way onto the team.
Megan Shane (Megalyn Echikunwoke) is an actress who proves to be an invaluable asset to the team, using her beauty and acting skills to help them turn their scientific schemes into real world results. Beth Scott (Katherine Cunningham) is Clark’s former undergrad student with whom Clark had the affair. She claims to still be in love with Clark, but Ross wonders if she can handle an actual relationship with his brother.
By using the hard science of psychological manipulation, the brothers commit to solving their clients’ problems. With Clark’s expertise and Ross’s con artist ways, each believing to know what makes people tick, and with their unique staff to help them, the brothers will use psychology and science to offer clients an alternative to their fates.
“Mind Games” stars Steve Zahn as Clark, Christian Slater as Ross, Megalyn Echikunwoke as Megan, Gregory Marcel as Miles, Jaime Ray Newman as Sam, and Cedric Sanders as Latrell.
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