Within the first seven minutes of the episode, four medical cases have been introduced or resolved. Jordana Spiro's Grace Devlin works on a mafia man's head wound in a veterinary operating room during her beak. When she returns from break, she saves an 8 year old boy's life, and then she cares for a man who's been brought in with chest problems. The last case involves a 14 year old girl, but paramedics weren't sure what went wrong in her body. Again, the first seven minutes introduces the audience to four cases, the main character, her boyfriend, her feelings about her mother, hospital rivalries, and so on. Josh Berman and Rob Wright packed in a ton of storytelling in a scant seven minutes, and it's only when the first act begins that the lazy narration device is used once again in a 2012 Fall TV Pilot.
Grace Devlin's caught between two worlds, conflicted by her profession and obligations to the mob. The mafia spared her brother's life in exchange for medical care. Grace visits the Don to inject needles into his arm daily. The hospital world is just as chaotic and conflicting. Colleagues disobey her orders. Grace goes over her superior's head to bring justice to him running the risk of alienating herself from her colleagues. Other surgeons in rotation glare at her for being the Chief of Surgery's favorite. Jordana Spiro plays Grace with gusto and energy, and her beauty is truly stunning. Grace's boyfriend works in the hospital, so of course they clash; her mother is overbearing, so they clash too; her brother needs protection, so they clash over whether he needs protection. It all gets a tad mind-numbing.
Network writers run the risk of cramming way too much story into 42 minutes of episode. Cable is where the best shows on TV air. Networks want to match cable shows, but when they try, as FOX did with Lone Star two years ago, the numbers aren't good enough; thus, shit like The Mob Doctor is developed and picked up and ordered to season. Maybe the thinking of network writers is, "well, we can't do what cable does, but we can be more creative, create puzzles out of plot, and tell so much story despite the fragmented acts that we'll best cable this way." I don't know. I do know The Mob Doctor crammed too much story into its first episode and that nothing hit. The characters were hollow, and the human interest medical cases with the little boy and 14 year old girl blurred together and lost whatever effect they were supposed to have on the audience. The mafia elements came and went and then a dream sequence happened and then it went away until a car chase happened and somehow Grace found herself DEEPER in the mafia world after disobeying their orders.
Pilots are designed to show the audience what the series will be as a series and as an episodic series, meaning a story needs to be told in the episode, but the story should show what the series will be in weeks six and nine. Grace's important patient is a mob informant whom the mob wants killed on the table because he's due to testify in court against them. Grace volunteers to perform groundbreaking surgery on the informant. Her reputation as surgeon rests with the fate of the patient, but her brother's life is in danger should she save the informant's life. The storytelling is tight and professional but entirely uninteresting because each twist and turn is as obvious as a giant foot on the shore of an island. The resolution is the worst part of the story. Michael Rapaport is the demanding mob man who threatens Grace's mother when the informant's life is saved. He's thrown off by Grace hitting his car; he then chases her to the Don's where he publicly insults him until he's shot--absolutely contrived nonsense. Grace and her family are saved, but the old man warns Grace about the loyalties to Rapaport, so the deal isn't dead, nor is she safe.
A staple of pilots is the 'pulling back the curtain' device to close an episode. Revolution did it with the goddamn electricity/computer scene. The Mob Doctor concludes with the revelation about the mafia killing Grace's father, which kept her family safe from him, but now they're not safe with the mafia. I sat on a loveseat and sighed, put my head into my hands, and shook it, wondering why series are in love with nonsense endings. I know the intent is to get the audience to watch the following week. The ending seemed so damn forced, though. I imagine not even Josh 2.0 is happy with writing that ending.
FOX continued its wonderful tradition of releasing awesome teaser trailers for their show, which only sets up the audience for disappointment. I never expected anything from The Mob Doctor after writing my preview of FOX shows last month. Whatever I gleaned from the trailer was essentially what happened in a full episode. Move along, my friends and well-wishers; there is nothing to see in The Mob Doctor.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
I totally agree; I feel like there is a lot of potential in the plot but there’s just too much of it. I was talking to my coworker at DISH about the pilot and we tried to figure out what to take out to simplify the plot. I think the medical aspect and Grace’s job at the hospital is important, the relationships with the people at the hospital are not as important. I watched the show this morning on my DVR. My Hopper DVR had recorded Mob Doctor for me. With PrimeTime Anytime, Mob Doctor as well as all the other shows in prime time from all four of the major networks were recorded automatically. I am interested in seeing more from the doctor, but I suspect the show will flat-line by Halloween at the latest.
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