Shari Anne Brill, TVFirstLook
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| Jordana Spiro |
Instead of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey, The Mob Doctor is set at Chicago Roosevelt Medical Center. Instead of featuring a brilliant middle-aged drug addict named Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), we get an attractive and morally conflicted thoracic surgeon.
Jordana Spiro (My Boys) is Dr. Grace Devlin, who leads a double life, juggling the demands of being a surgeon and working for the mafia. She's paying off her brother's mob debt.
Jordana is appealing as Dr. Devlin. But several plot points defy belief and could spell trouble for The Mob Doctor. Accordingly, I give this show about 12 weeks to live.
For instance, both the chief of surgery and Dr. Devlin’s boyfriend are clueless about her mob job. A federal witness who's about to rat out a high-ranking mob boss just so happens to need heart surgery. Improbably, a conflicted Dr. Devlin is his surgeon.
The mob orders her to kill the witness by administering a syringe full of epinephrine, but she makes sure the guy lives. The mob isn't happy, so they give Dr. Devlin an offer she can’t refuse.
There is also a big unanswered question, at least so far. Perhaps in upcoming episodes we'll find out more about Dr. Devlin, her brother and their father's involvement with the mob.
I had a lot of trouble believing Spiro’s character, and I wish they gave us some background since this is the pilot. So much went on in this pilot that I never really got invested in what was going on. I was surprised at how much action there was, but I will admit that it was good. I was talking to a coworker at Dish about the show, and he thought that the parts about the mob were cool. I think that there have been too many medical dramas and if this show survives it will be because of the mob storylines. I decided to watch The Voice while this aired last night, but I was able to catch it on a recording that my Hopper automatically makes for Primetime Anytime. With all of the new primetime shows starting their fall seasons I love how I can watch them without setting a million timers. This one turned me off a bit with the pilot, but I will still watch a few more just to see where it goes.
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