Touch is an American drama television series that ran on Fox from January 25, 2012, to May 10, 2013. The series was created by Tim Kring and starred Kiefer Sutherland. During its first season the series aired regularly on Thursday nights beginning March 22, 2012. Thirteen episodes were ordered for the first season, with the two-episode season finale airing on Thursday, May 31, 2012. On May 9, 2012, Fox renewed the show for a second season. The second season was originally scheduled to begin Friday, October 26, 2012, but was pushed back to Friday, February 8, 2013. On May 9, 2013, Fox canceled the series after two seasons.
Plot Touch centers on former reporter Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) and his 11-year-old son, Jake (David Mazouz), who has been diagnosed as autistic. Martin's wife died in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks, and he has been struggling to raise Jake since then, moving from job to job while tending to Jake's special needs. Jake has never spoken a word, but is fascinated by numbers and patterns relating to numbers, spending much of his days writing them down in notebooks or his touch-screen tablet and sometimes using objects (for instance popcorn kernels).
Season 1 Jake's repeated escapes from special schools put Martin's capacity to raise the child in question, and social worker Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) arrives to perform an evaluation of Jake's living conditions. Martin, worried that he might lose his son, attempts to communicate with him, but the boy only continues to write down a specific pattern of numbers. This leads Martin to discover Professor Arthur Teller (Danny Glover), who has seen and worked with cases like this before, claiming that Jake is one of the few who can see the "pain of the universe" through the numbers. Teller also alludes to the interconnectivity of humanity as envisioned by the Chinese legend of the red string of fate, whereby actions, seen and unseen, can change the fate of people across the globe for the better. Martin realizes that Jake is trying to tell him to follow the numbers. On subsequent days, Martin does as Jake wants, each time finding his actions improving those touched by the numbers, though his devotion to following Jake's message puts his evaluation with social services at risk.
A larger overarching plot involves Teller's work. Teller himself had seen the numbers during a stroke and has been fascinated with them since. The sequence of numbers that Jake presents falls into what Teller claimed was the Amelia Sequence (later known as the God Sequence), based on Amelia Robbins, who was one of his former child patients. Teller later is found dead after attempting to locate Amelia at the same facility where Jake spends his days. Martin discovers Teller's old office, rented out from a Jewish synagogue, where he had been performing further research on the Amelia Sequence. He also learns that Teller's office mate, Avram (Bodhi Elfman), recognizes Jake as one of the 36 Righteous Ones. Meanwhile, Clea learns that an organization called Aster Corps, which provides Jake's school with modern equipment, seems intent on studying Jake's abilities as well as having ties to Teller's previous work with Amelia. When Aster Corps attempts to force the state to relinquish Martin's custody rights, Martin, with Clea's help, is able to sneak Jake out and leave the city. Through Jake's directions, they end up meeting Amelia's mother, Lucy (Maria Bello), on the Santa Monica Pier.
Season 2 Martin, Jake, and Lucy gain help in their quest from news syndicate BreakWire and its owner, Trevor Wilcox (Greg Ellis). Jake starts to talk to Amelia (Saxon Sharbino) in their telepathic world. They also encounter Calvin Norburg (Lukas Haas), a former Aster Corps genius who is trying to heal his brain-damaged brother, and a murderous former priest, Guillermo Ortiz (Saïd Taghmaoui), who is determined to eliminate all of the Righteous 36 in order to restore the natural order of the universe, with God on top. After Lucy is killed on the orders of Aster Corps CEO Nicole Farington (Frances Fisher), Martin discovers that Farington plans to capture Jake and Amelia in order to decipher the God Sequence and use its predictive qualities to save the failing company.
The season ends with Amelia (Saxon Sharbino) losing her special powers and Jake being secretly marked as the special one of the 36 by the rabbi. Calvin loses his sick brother after all his efforts, and Martin becomes the sole protector of the 36. The God Sequence is finally fully revealed.
Cast and characters
Main
Kiefer Sutherland as Martin Bohm: a former journalist turned baggage handler, whose wife died in the September 11 attacks. David Mazouz as Jacob "Jake" Bohm: Martin's mute 11-year-old son, who is obsessed with numbers and can see past, present and future events through numbers, and shows his father the numbers so that his father can help stop bad events from happening Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Clea Hopkins (season 1): a social worker who is sent to do an evaluation of the Bohms' living situation, and helps Martin and Jake escape from New York. Danny Glover as Professor Arthur Teller (season 1): an expert on the gifted few who possess numerical clairvoyance. Maria Bello (season 2; guest, season 1) as Lucy Robbins: the mother of Amelia, a girl who shares a gift similar to that of Jake and former client of Teller. Saxon Sharbino as Amelia Robbins (season 2): Lucy's missing daughter, who is gifted like Jake. Lukas Haas as Calvin Norburg (season 2): an Aster Corps genius whose path crosses with Martin and Jake. He is researching Amelia's brain activity, and plans to use the data to help his brain-damaged brother, William, recover from a major accident that he caused. Saïd Taghmaoui as Guillermo Ortiz (season 2): a priest-turned-murderer bent on killing the 36 people with Jake's ability, though he is one himself. When finally cornered by Martin, he kills himself rather than be captured, but not before apologizing to God (within earshot of Martin) for not finding the "nest of seven."
Recurring cast Bodhi Elfman as Avram Hadar: a Hasidic Jew who shares an office with Teller. A student of Kabbalah, Avram believes Jake's special abilities are tied to this mysticism. Frances Fisher as Nicole Farington: CEO of Aster Corps who tries to decipher the God Sequence in order to predict the future to the advantage of Aster Corps. Mykelti Williamson as Detective Lange: an LAPD detective who believes Martin's story enough to investigate Aster Corps. Adam Campbell as Anthony "Tony" Rigby: an Aster Corps executive who reports to Farington and is complicit in keeping Amelia away from her mother. Leland Orser as Dr. Linus: an Aster Corps employee in charge of the dangerous experiments being conducted on select members of the 36 at Aster Corps' Sleep Assessment Center. The experiments are disguised as treatment for sleep disorders, but are actually being used to complete the predictive number sequence for Aster Corps. D. B. Sweeney as Joseph Tanner: Aster Corps enforcer who works directly under Farington orders. Titus Welliver as Randall Meade: New York Lottery winner and a former firefighter who tried to rescue Martin's wife in the September 11 attacks. Meade believes he has a task to fulfill to atone for Sarah Bohm's death, which is driven by "his" numbers. Roxana Brusso as Sheri Strepling: the corrupt director of the board-and-care facility that Jake attended. Catherine Dent as Abigail Kelsey: Jake's aunt and an Aster Corps executive seeking custody of Jake. Linda Gehringer as Frances Norburg: Calvin's mother, a middle-school librarian who is called to be Amelia's handler after the girl is kidnapped. She is murdered under orders from Aster Corps. Samantha Whittaker as Dr. Nell Plimpton: an archaeologist and one of the 36 who comes to Los Angeles to Aster Corps' Sleep Assessment Center. May Miyata and Satomi Okuno as Miyoko and Izumi: Flamboyant Japanese friends whose online presence runs throughout the first season, beginning with a cellular telephone that they receive from an international journey. Greg Ellis (season 2) as Trevor Wilcox: Martin's former reporter rival and later a friend who now owns a news syndicate called BreakWire and becomes an ally. Martin often leaves Jake under his care.
Production Touch season one was shot at The Culver Studios in Culver City, California, and on location in Los Angeles. Season two was filmed at Fox Studios in Century City, Los Angeles.
Post-production "Three Little Birds", sung by Kayla Graham (Karen David), was released as a soundtrack single, on iTunes by 20th Century Fox TV Records on February 28, 2012.
Episodes
Season 1 (2012)
Season 2 (2013)
International broadcast Country Channel Premiere date Australia Network TenFox8 April 22, 2012 Austria ORF eins February 27, 2012 (Pilot)March 26, 2012 (regular) Brazil Fox Brasil March 19, 2012 Southeast Asia Fox Asia March 25, 2012 Belgium BeTV (in French) June 7, 2012 2BE September 3, 2012 BulgariabTV July 30, 2014 Canada Global January 25, 2012 addikTV (in French) September 25, 2012 CroatiaMarch 27, 2012 Czech Republic Prima Cool December 23, 2013 Denmark TV 2 January 19, 2013 Finland MTV3 October 9, 2012 France M6 September 14, 2013 Germany Pro 7 February 27, 2012 (pilot)March 26, 2012 (regular) (season 1) January 24, 2015 (season 2) Greece Cyprus FX March 22, 2012 Hong Kong TVB Pearl December 18, 2012 Hungary RTL2October 13, 2013 India STAR World India March 24, 2012 Israel Yes Action March 20, 2012 Italy Fox March 20, 2012 Latin America Argentina Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador El Salvador Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela Canal Fox March 19, 2012 Lithuania TV3 May 8, 2013 Macedonia Fox LifeMarch 27, 2012 Mexico Canal Fox March 19, 2012 Canal 5 August 14, 2013 Netherlands Fox NL August 23, 2013 New Zealand TV3 March 25, 2012 Norway TV 2 March 19, 2012 Philippines Jack TV and JACK City on BEAM TV 31 March 18, 2012 Poland FoxMarch 26, 2012 Portugal Fox March 20, 2012 Russia Channel One March 25, 2012 SerbiaMarch 27, 2012 Slovakia TV JOJ June 20, 2014 SloveniaMarch 27, 2012 Spain Fox España March 22, 2012 Cuatro July 8, 2013 Sweden Kanal 11 September 23, 2013 Switzerland Pro 7 February 27, 2012 (pilot)March 26, 2012 (regular) RTS Un (in French) March 31, 2013 Taiwan Indonesia Malaysia Singapore Thailand Fox Asia March 25, 2012 United Kingdom Ireland Sky1 March 20, 2012 Vietnam STAR Movies Asia March 28, 2012
Reception
Critical reception The first season of the show was met with "generally favorable" reviews, and obtained a Metacritic score of 63/100. The second season received "mixed or average" reviews with a Metacritic score of 60/100.