Reviewer Rating: 4.2/5.0
4.2
There are a lot of emotions with Doc.
The show is a total feast for the ‘feelings’, and in the second episode of Season 1 of The Doctors, it managed those emotions very well.
The second installment builds on the foundation of Doc’s series premiere and plays into it nicely. It makes it easy to immerse yourself in the humanity of the series.
Did I tell you I’m a character girl? Because I Am, Doc has done a great job so far of putting the characters first and allowing all the medical plot to enhance dynamic character exploration.
Once again, Molly Parker is fantastic in this role, accomplishing the extremely difficult feat of being able to capture the multi-faceted Amy to the point where we can see and acknowledge her flaws and misfortunes, despite everything , we still totally adore her.
Amy is in an unusual and impossible situation. She deserves so much grace, but it’s fascinating (and infuriating) to see so few characters extend it to her.
When most characters look at her, they still only see the cold woman they knew before, and insist on how much they feel they despise her, or perhaps how fearful she is in the shadow of her greatness.
As you navigate the halls of the West End, it’s hard to tell who’s friend and who’s foe.
Worst of all, Amy’s friends are sometimes so focused on what they think is best for her that they can become a hindrance to her, too.
We see this when Amy returns to the hospital as a doctor.
Of course, she is a liability in the sense that she should not be involved in Simone’s case because she is not actively practicing as a doctor and suffered a severe head injury.
Yet, for an entire hour, I found myself mumbling “ADA” through gritted teeth as people at the hospital talked to her and dismissed her, as if she no longer had value or was a doctor because of a traumatic brain injury.
For a hospital that seems very conscious of its image and avoids lawsuits, it’s remarkable that most people couldn’t muster up enough energy to kiss Amy’s ass.
The board of directors, in particular, is a bunch of soulless people. They evoked all the typical disdain for hospital leaders, who often make decisions without a shred of empathy or the medical knowledge to back up their positions.
Amy, who has lost her memory, is full of vulnerability, confusion and sincerity. Katie imitates older Amy’s view of medical developments, which is less cynical than tragically realistic and honest.
Medicine was once an art, then a science. Now it’s just a business.
— Amy (via Katie)
It’s infuriating to watch a bunch of scowling nerds who don’t seem to particularly like Amy in the first place callously telling her to shut up.
Finally, I appreciated Michael reminding them of the embarrassment they would face if Amy filed a lawsuit with a lawyer and pursued them for discrimination.
It’s clear there’s a tightrope to walk in the boardroom, and Michael may need a lot of reassurance to keep his job.
I don’t envy his position. This leaves him in a quandary, trying to do what’s best for Amy, himself, the hospital, etc. He is Amy’s ally, but there is a hidden secret.
Michael is in an interesting situation right now.
One feels like he’s finally given up on Amy, but now he sees sparks in the woman he’s loved for so many years, not just as a person but professionally.
He carefully surrendered to it and her while still trying to keep some distance.
Granted, subtle little things like this are why I find their side of this unorthodox love triangle so interesting, and I can’t quite see him as a thing of the past, preferring the younger, newer, flashier Jake brings to the table energy.
Not yet, anyway. I got a lot more time together in this installment, and I really enjoyed Amy and Jack’s layers.
Simone’s case offers a glimpse into their simple professional chemistry and how it evolved.
There’s something hard to explain but special about work motivation, and they’re often underestimated.
It’s hard to describe how great a dynamic is when it’s realized around a common goal or unified purpose. There are people who can push you in the best way at the right time to get things done the way you need them to, or you can do proper troubleshooting and brainstorming with them.
Sometimes you have this shorthand and it gets the best results. Great work partners are such a solid motivator and the best thing about a workplace series like this.
Amy and Jack must have experienced this, or at least in the preseason. One can understand why he was her protégé.
Jack’s unwavering trust in Amy and his respect for her as a doctor meant that he didn’t fully embrace her diagnosis, despite his constant warnings that she needed to stop giving advice.
Even if it gets him in trouble and maybe even a lawsuit, he’ll support her again when she does the right thing.
He’s a huge fan of Amy, but that goes beyond his love for her and his admiration and respect for her as a great doctor, and doesn’t believe her traumatic brain injury will change that.
Jack still faces the harder task of maintaining a professional relationship with Amy while hiding the fact that they’re together.
Their interactions are so anxious and wistful. On the one hand, he’s constantly trying to check himself and maintain some professionalism, but on the other hand, you can see that he wants her to remember everything they have.
It was difficult to be so close to the woman he loved and not be able to express it. But Jack took it in stride.
Sonia, on the other hand, was visibly annoyed when she heard the news. She seems to harbor feelings for Jack, and learning that the woman who made her feel like a crappy doctor is moving on with Jack may intensify that hostility.
I’m patiently waiting for more exploration of Sonia so we get a deeper understanding of the character, otherwise she’s just annoying.
She points out that Amy’s death doesn’t justify her horrific treatment of others, which isn’t terrible. And she shouldn’t feel this way.
However, we know so little about her that she becomes tiresome.
At least Gina and her friendship with Amy made up for it.
The memories are illuminating and Gina was an admirable person and friend.
This reflects how supportive she has been of Amy over the years. According to Gina, she was the only person Amy pushed away without success.
Gina was there for Amy when she lost her son and divorced Michael, and she’s there for her now.
She helped Amy through some major transitions in her life, but I’m curious if it came at any cost to her.
For one, she had another pep talk with Amy over dinner with her wife.
I like these two. What stops me from arguing that perhaps the best love story of the series is between these two women is the curiosity surrounding the various aspects of their friendship.
Didn’t Amy tell Gina about Jack?
Gina loves Amy, but Gina often withholds information, and her motives for doing so are always unclear. You’d think she’d be open and honest with her friends, but she often avoids things.
Maybe a lot of it is genuine concern for Amy’s emotional and mental health, but you’d expect someone who consistently told Amy the unfiltered truth would be her best friend.
She’s more outspoken during this hour, especially when it comes to talking about Amy and Katie’s relationship and letting Amy know it’s crucial to sort out her bullshit.
It’s the tough love you’d expect from Gina, and it’s what I appreciate the most. I also enjoyed Amira Vann’s serious role.
The case became a pattern and a great way to explore the personal details of a character. In this case, Amy needs to hear what Simone’s daughter has to say about the complex mother-daughter relationship and how children can have unconditional love for their parents.
This case really helped Amy and Katie make more progress in a few days than they had in eight years.
Sadly, Amy checking out was a pattern after Danny’s passing, and poor Katie was feeling it too. She never brought her mother back like she did in the first place. If anything, she always slips away.
We see through flashbacks that two years after Danny’s death, Amy is still a cold and depressed person, while Katie longs for her love and attention but is hurt when she doesn’t get it.
No wonder she moved in with her father permanently. Even in his grief, he never stopped taking responsibility as a parent. Amy checked out and he couldn’t afford it.
Michael is an interesting character in this regard, and you wonder if he’s ever had the chance to truly grieve himself.
Amy’s sadness is so palpable that it takes up all the space in the room, and Michael may have to constantly push his emotions down and keep his distance just to get things back to normal and pick up where she left off.
But it’s also one of those things that makes you think about how mothers grieve their children in different ways, because if they happened to grow up and be pregnant with the child, their attachment to the child might be different.
Some mothers who had children and discussed things like losing their children talked about how they felt as if they had literally lost a part of themselves.
Grief looks very different for everyone, and these flashbacks continue to enlighten us on how it plays out in different characters.
One flashback that stands out is how Amy and Richard became real friends at some point. Was she really broken because she lost her son?
Richard no longer cares about Amy, and it’s hard to believe he ever did. All he cared about was covering his tracks, and now that the autopsy results don’t look like a huge red flag to him, he’s using his new position to get what it’s worth.
He is such a poor man. One good thing is that even though Amy doesn’t remember anything, her Spider-Man senses are tingling. Moreover, Jack doesn’t trust him and watches his every move.
Over to you, Doc Fanatics.
Should Amy return to the West End and become a doctor? Are Amy and Jack a formidable duo? Is that apartment the most impersonal thing you’ve seen in a while? Turn off the sound below!
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