Doctor Odyssey

So.... I'm in the UK and this show wasn't heavily marketed. I was of the belief this was a serious drama, but I watched the first couple of episodes, stuck to the screen as I couldn't believe how absolutely awful this show was.

The scripts, storyline and characters are all ludicrous and I couldn't believe the show had made it to screen.

But... by episode 3 the penny dropped. This is a Ryan Murphy wet dream. It's supposed to be this bad. It's a bit of fantasy full of beautiful people doing silly things. Once I understood that, I actually started to enjoy it.

It really isn't much more ridiculous than the Love Boat was back in the 70s and 80s. If you're able to suspend belief for an hour, you can relish in a bit of fun TV.

The show clearly has a decent budget. It looks rich on screen and the replica cruise ship they've built is fairly convincing.

I'll keep on watching.

So I'm rooting for this show because I adore Joshua Jackson. Mighty Ducks, Dawson's Creek, Fringe. I've been a fan for awhile. With that said, this show has potential, but it needs some major work. I like that Dr. Bankman seems teachable and is quick to humble himself. His backstory however, just lazy. Seriously, that's what they came up with. The whole patient zero thing, earned an eye roll. The situation with, Avery was cringey and forced. I'm glad of how it went but did the first episode really need it. Then the supposed tension with Tristian, again was forced and unnecessary. For this to be a major network show, the writing seems amateur.

As far as the technical stuff, I've never been on a cruise so I just take it for what it is. However, the whole 3 hours from land, but no medevac helicopter, has me questioning what the writers really thinks of their intended audience. I may not know much about ships, helicopters and medicine, but even that seemed far fetched.

I'm really hoping this gets better fast. Otherwise, it won't last.

I do not normally watch medical dramas, but this one caught my attention with the added element of it being on a cruise ship. And it is just that, a medical drama on a cruise ship. Which made it stupidly awesome. Certain things are made better with an added element of cheese, like the Golden Bachelor/Bachelorette. This show is so cheesy and stupid that I will probably keep watching it anyway. It's a perfect, ridiculous, brain cell killing, destress show. Overused jokes? Check. Major plot holes? Check. Nonsensical storytelling? Check. It's basically perfect, if you can handle cringing for an hour.

Don't expect a serious medical drama here or a laugh out loud comedy.

It's light-hearted. A balancing act with the cruise theme with related-medical situation(s) of the week and the dynamics of the different characters.

The characters are all fairly likeable and with enough diversity for a 30+ audience demographics.

As another reviewer wrote Joshua Jackson in the lead does his best "Clooney" and is charming. With Jackson and Johnson, they got the Baby Boomer, and Gen X covered. The new faces Soo, and Teale covers Millennials and Gen Z.

The ultimate question is given the demographic coverage, can the characters make meaning connections to the audience based on the story and their performance to keep the show going.

I personally enjoy it as a nice distraction from reality shows, and serialized drama that takes themselves too seriously.

This is actually terrible.

3 stars for the all-in game ness of the players, despite a script that should be pulped for recycled toilet paper.

Near the beginning of episode one, the new doctor onboard tours the Odyssey, a lavish 5 star cruise liner. We tour right along with him. It's a sumptuous, fantasy of a ship. At one point, the doctor is led down a hall of burnished walnut, walking in a kind of formation and I thought "Bones!!!?!'" . And 'oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if this show took a turn toward Star Trek or even The Orville?'.

Not only did Doctor Odyssey choose the path more commonly taken, the single first script was packed with every cliche, trope and bit of bad dialog it could scrape from the bottom of Ryan Murphy's shoe.

Ugh.

I watched the entire first episode and I promise you, it just gets worse and worse.

I feel badly for the talent caught up in this mess.