The Irrational

The Irrational is an American police procedural and crime drama television series created by Arika Lisanne Mittman. The series stars Jesse L. Martin as Professor Alec Mercer, a behavioral scientist whose expertise in human decision-making leads him to consult on complex cases for governments, corporations, and law enforcement. The show premiered on NBC on September 25, 2023, and ran for two seasons totaling 29 episodes before NBC canceled it in May 2025. It streams on Peacock in the United States.

The series is loosely inspired by the work of behavioral economist Dan Ariely and his 2008 best-seller Predictably Irrational. Ariely served as a consultant on the project.

television

Show Name	The Irrational
Genre	Police procedural; Crime drama
Creator	Arika Lisanne Mittman
Based On	Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely (inspiration)
Starring	Jesse L. Martin; Maahra Hill; Travina Springer; Molly Kunz; Arash DeMaxi
Composer	Danny Lux
Country	United States
Language	English
Num Seasons	2
Num Episodes	29
Executive Producer	Arika Lisanne Mittman; Mark Goffman; Samuel Baum; David Frankel
Producer	Jesse L. Martin
Cinematography	Todd A. Dos Reis; others
Runtime	42 minutes
Company	Universal Television; Simon-Binx Productions; Samuel Baum Productions; Off the Cliff Entertainment
Network	NBC
First Aired	2023-09-25

Premise

The Irrational follows Professor Alec Mercer (Jesse L. Martin), a renowned behavioral scientist who applies research on cognitive biases and decision-making to real-world investigations. Mercer and his team consult for law enforcement, government agencies, and private clients, deciphering motives and unraveling high-stakes cases that hinge on how people actually think rather than how they believe they think. The series blends case-of-the-week storytelling with serialized arcs exploring Mercer's traumatic past—a church bombing that left him physically scarred—and his evolving relationships with FBI agent and ex-wife Marisa Clark (Maahra Hill), tech-savvy sister Kylie Mercer (Travina Springer), and graduate students Phoebe Duncan (Molly Kunz) and Rizwan Asadi (Arash DeMaxi).

The focus on behavioral science distinguishes the series from traditional procedurals: cases often turn on the Barnum effect, anchoring, loss aversion, or paradoxical persuasion, and Mercer stages live experiments to demonstrate how biases shape outcomes. The show also explores ethical tensions around influence and consent, particularly when Mercer's demonstrations blur into manipulation, and contrasts “whodunit” mechanics with what the creative team has called a “whydunit” framing.

Cast and characters

Jesse L. Martin as Professor Alec Mercer, a behavioral scientist whose research into irrational decision-making guides his consulting work and anchors the series’ experiments.

Maahra Hill as Marisa Clark, an FBI agent and Mercer’s ex-wife whose investigations frequently intersect with Mercer's cases.

Travina Springer as Kylie Mercer, Mercer’s sister and an analyst skilled at digital forensics and social engineering.

Molly Kunz as Phoebe Duncan, an earnest graduate student and lab assistant who contributes academic rigor and empathy to Mercer's team.

Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan Asadi, a graduate student who joins the lab early in the series and becomes a core collaborator in Mercer's field experiments.

Recurring

Brian King as Special Agent Jace Richards (season 1), an FBI agent whose rivalry with Mercer complicates an ongoing bombing investigation.

Karen David as Rose Dinshaw, a crisis-management professional whose relationship with Mercer becomes a major throughline in seasons 1–2.

Development

NBC ordered a pilot for The Irrational in February 2022; in April 2022, Jesse L. Martin was announced in the lead role, with Ariely consulting. The concept drew from Ariely’s best-selling book Predictably Irrational and his public scholarship on how biases shape everyday choices. NBC picked up the series on December 27, 2022, positioning it for fall 2023 as part of a slate that spotlighted two new dramas with strong procedural hooks (Found and The Irrational).

Behind the scenes, Arika Lisanne Mittman served as creator and showrunner, alongside executive producers Mark Goffman and Samuel Baum. Academy Award winner David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) directed the pilot and also executive produced, shaping the series’ look and pacing in collaboration with director of photography Todd A. Dos Reis and production designer Eric Fraser.

The Irrational received an early Season 2 renewal on November 29, 2023, after strong fall performance relative to a strike-disrupted broadcast landscape; at the same time NBC confirmed four remaining episodes to wrap Season 1 in early 2024.

Casting

In addition to Martin, the principal cast features Maahra Hill, Travina Springer, Molly Kunz, and Arash DeMaxi as Mercer’s inner circle. Brian King recurred in Season 1 as FBI agent Jace Richards, an arc that culminated tragically late in the season.

Karen David appeared as Rose Dinshaw, a corporate fixer whose professional and romantic entanglement with Mercer extended into Season 2, culminating in plotlines that paired her with Marisa Clark and positioned Rose as an independent operator by the finale.

Filming

The series is set primarily in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, but production filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, using regional locations and art direction to stand in for U.S. government and suburban environments. According to NBC Insider, the production design team collaborated closely with the pilot’s director and DP to sell the illusion, using license plates, props, color palettes, and second-unit photography to complete the effect.

Production on Season 1 was staged before the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, allowing the show to air with new episodes in fall 2023 when many competitors leaned on unscripted content. NBC later added an extra episode, bringing Season 1 to 11 episodes.

Filming resumed for Season 2 in 2024. NBC positioned the show on Tuesdays at 10/9c beginning October 8, 2024, and the network paused new episodes for special news coverage on November 5, 2024 (U.S. election night).

Music

The original score for The Irrational is composed by Danny Lux, whose previous credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Manifest, and Boston Legal.

Episodes

Series overview

Overview of The Irrational

Season	Episodes	Originally aired
1	11	September 25, 2023 – February 19, 2024
2	18	October 8, 2024 – March 25, 2025

Notable episodes and arcs

"Pilot" (S1E1): Introduces Mercer’s applied-science approach through a high-profile murder case. The episode established key motifs (live demos, paradoxical persuasion) and the bombing backstory that threads through Season 1.

"Bombshell" (S1E10): The season’s penultimate hour resolves the Jace Richards storyline and reorients the bombing mystery toward a mastermind known as "Mathias".

"Suddenly Alec" (S2E17): A musical-inflected episode leveraging Martin’s Broadway background; features numbers associated with Little Shop of Horrors, and was highlighted by the creative team during Season 2 publicity.

Broadcast and release

NBC slotted The Irrational Mondays at 10/9c behind The Voice for its debut; the series later shifted to Tuesdays at 10/9c for Season 2 (beginning October 8, 2024). Episodes stream next-day on Peacock, which hosts both seasons in the U.S.

NBC released Season 2 marketing materials, including a trailer exclusive to TheWrap, highlighting a case-mix that emphasized espionage, con artistry, and high-risk negotiations.

On March 25, 2025, NBC aired the Season 2 finale, which closed with a surveillance-tinged cliffhanger for Mercer—and then, on May 9, 2025, announced the series would not return for Season 3.

Themes and analysis

The Irrational uses the procedural format to introduce, explain, and dramatize key concepts from behavioral economics and social psychology. Many episode titles and beats nod to canonical experiments (e.g., the Barnum effect, reciprocity, anchoring), while Mercer's in-universe demonstrations function as both exposition and character work. The series’ “whydunit” emphasis reorients standard police-procedural logic from the causal chain of evidence to cognitive patterns—how victim, suspect, investigator, witness, and bystander behaviors are predictably influenced by context. This design allowed the writers to structure cases as thought experiments: set up a bias, test it under stress, and derive emotional or ethical consequences for the protagonists.

Critics often contrasted the show’s educational ambition with its conventional case structures. Several reviews praised Jesse L. Martin’s charisma and the clarity of the behavioral-science framing while noting that the mystery resolutions could feel formulaic. Aggregators reflected this split: Season 1 holds a critics’ score of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 55/100 Metascore indicating “mixed or average reviews.”

The series’ stylistic swing in Season 2—especially the musical episode “Suddenly Alec”—was covered by entertainment outlets as a creative flex that leaned into Martin’s Broadway pedigree and Karen David’s musical background. Interviews with showrunner Arika Lisanne Mittman after cancellation suggested confidence that the format could sustain genre experiments while preserving the show’s core behavioral-science premise.

Reception

Critical response

Industry trade and mainstream reviewers generally cited Martin’s presence and the educational hook as strengths, offset by familiar plotting. Rotten Tomatoes summarized early consensus as watchable and well-acted but not especially original; Metacritic’s sample of 14 critics produced a mid-50s weighted average. Individual critics diverged on whether the behavioral explanations elevated the material or slowed pacing in the back half of episodes.

Reviewers at outlets such as Variety, Newsday, and RogerEbert.com noted that the show’s didactic interludes were most effective when they informed character turns—e.g., Mercer’s personal trauma coloring how he interprets arson or terrorism cases—rather than serving as stand-alone lecturettes.

Ratings and performance

NBC promoted The Irrational as one of its strongest first-year linear performers of fall 2023 in total viewers. The network moved the series to Tuesdays for Season 2 and touted growth on Peacock, where next-day streaming and full-season availability helped sustain audience engagement through winter 2025.

Cancellation

NBC announced on May 9, 2025, that The Irrational would not return for a third season. Coverage noted the decision followed a March 25, 2025 season finale and reflected broader schedule changes ahead of the 2025–26 broadcast year. Post-mortems from entertainment outlets suggested the show’s ratings trajectory and a crowded primetime slate were factors; the creative team indicated Season 2’s ending was built to function as either a season or series capstone.

Home media and streaming

In the United States, The Irrational streams on Peacock, which carries both seasons and hosts seasonal trailers and extras.

Production credits

Creator/Showrunner: Arika Lisanne Mittman

Executive Producers: Arika Lisanne Mittman; Mark Goffman; Samuel Baum; David Frankel

Composer: Danny Lux

Marketing

Ahead of Season 2, NBC and partners emphasized the show’s “mind-games” branding, releasing an exclusive trailer via TheWrap and publishing a steady cadence of NBC Insider features—episode previews, cast interviews, and explanatory pieces about the behavioral science embedded in cases.

See also

Found – NBC drama renewed alongside The Irrational in 2023

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely’s book that inspired the series

External links

• The Irrational on Peacock
• The Irrational page at TV Insider
• The Irrational at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Irrational at Metacritic
• The Irrational at IMDb