“There’s an ancient Chinese myth about the red thread of fate. It says that the gods have tied a red thread around every one of our ankles and attached it to all the people whose lives we are destined to touch. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.
It’s all been predetermined by mathematical probability, and it’s my job to keep track of those numbers, to make the connections for those who need to find each other, the ones whose lives need to touch.” -Jake Bohm.

Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) lost his wife on 9/11, and his eleven-year-old son Jake (David Mazouz) hasn’t spoken a word his entire life—he won’t even let his father touch him. What Jake lacks in social skills, he makes up for with an extraordinary knack for numbers. In an effort to communicate with his son, Martin starts to investigate the numbers Jake is constantly writing in his notebook. He soon discovers that Jake can use these numbers as a road-map to read the past, present and future. So as Jake fixates on each new number, Martin follows the path where it takes him—affecting lives around the globe, and preventing bad things from happening in the process.

While Martin investigates each of these numbers, his attention is divided. He’s constantly fighting to keep Social Services from taking custody of Jake, and also trying to find out more about Jake’s ability, what is causing it and finding others out there like him. Helping Martin in his quest are Professor Arthur Teller (Danny Glover)—an expert on rare gifted kids like Jake who possess numerical abilities; Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw)—the supportive social worker sent to evaluate Bohms’ living conditions; and Avram (Bodhi Elfman)—a Hasidic Jew and friend of Teller who helps investigate Jake’s special abilities.

Touch is written and created by Tim Kring, and definitely has a similar feeling to his previous series, Heroes. Once again, Kring explores the idea of how we are all interconnected, and how even the most trivial events can lead to major events for someone else across the globe. Each episode is well-crafted, with intertwined stories that always seem to come together in the end in an inspirational and uplifting way. In each episode, Jake fixates on one number, and Martin helps his son track down its significance. In the process, we meet new characters, each with his or her own story or problem to solve. While these are all seemingly random or unrelated, over the course of the episode we discover how these lives cross in unusual ways. While each episode introduces seemingly new characters, we are constantly discovering connections and relationships between these characters and ones we have seen in the past. The series premiere starts things off with a lost cell phone containing the last pictures of a man’s deceased daughter. Through the course of the season, we see this phone travel across the globe, with each person who finds it adding his or her own touch. It is remarkable how the series gives both a global and a small world feeling at the same time.

As for the cast, Kiefer Sutherland is great in the role of Martin Bohr. He manages to combine the intensity and urgency of Jack Bauer with a softer, more caring family man and father. He has really good chemistry with both his TV son Peter (David Mazouz) and the social worker Clea (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). It was also great to see Danny Glover back in a TV role.

I really enjoyed this first season of Touch, and it reminds me of why I loved Heroes in its early seasons. While the anthology-style stories-of-the-week are interesting, I like that they have also integrated season-long dramatic storylines like Martin trying to connect with his son, the investigation of Jake’s abilities and a possible conspiracy around kids with abilities like Jake’s. With all this woven together, you’ve got one entertaining and dramatic show.

One thing to note is that this set is called “The Complete First Season”. When FOX originally aired this first season, they skipped episode 10, “The Road Not Taken”, and ultimately aired this episode this past September. However, this episode is not included on this set. One can probably assume it will appear on a season 2 DVD set next year.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes:

• 11 episodes of Season 1 (533 min)
  
  Disc 1: “Tales of the Red Thread” (Extended Version), “1+1=3”, “Safety in Numbers”, “Kite Strings”
  Disc 2: “Entanglement”, “Lost and Found”, “Noosphere Rising”, “Zone of Exclusion”
  Disc 3: “Music of the Spheres”, “Tessellations”, “Gyre Parts 1 & 2”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DD 5.1, French Surround DD 2.0
• English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles

Extras:

• Fate’s Equation (8:42)
  Tim Kring Writer/Executive Producer, Kiefer Sutherland talk about this idea of quantum entanglement, where things can happen simultaneously across the universe as though they were actually connected. The rest of the cast also talk about their characters and the overall plot of the series.
• Touch The World (3:47)
  Tim Kring, Kiefer Sutherland and some of the international guest stars talk about how the show takes on a global look and feel.
• Deleted Scenes (17:06)
  Twelve deleted and extended scenes from the first season. While interesting, there are none that particularly stood out as major plot changers.
  
  • Disc 1: EP. 101 SC 10 (2:33), EP. 101 SC 13 (:52), EP. 101 SC 23 (:34), EP. 101 SC 45 (1:58)
    
  • Disc 2: EP. 103 SC 25 (:36), EP. 106 SC 5 (:23), EP. 106 SC 36 LONG VERS. (2:48)
    
  • Disc 3: EP. 108 SC 3 (:50), EP. 108 SC 20 (:25), EP. 108 SC A37 ALT. CUT (1:11), EP. 108 SC 43 (:25), EP. 110 SC B56 (2:09)

Final Thoughts:

While the first season of Touch originally aired in HD on FOX, it only receives a DVD release. The picture quality on this Standard Definition set is still quite clear and I don’t really have any complaints about it or the soundtrack.

For the Bonus features, there were a couple interesting but short featurettes and quite a few deleted scenes. But it would have been nice to get some audio commentaries, a gag reel, and perhaps a true behind-the-scenes featurtte that showed some of the actual filming or sets. It also would have been nice if they had included the missing episode from the first season.

The first season of Touch was highly entertaining, cleverly written and action packed. I definitely recommend checking this out before the second season premieres on FOX early next year.