S01.E01: Pilot

[Homily]

Finally caught the pilot - I mostly liked it.  Will certainly give it another chance but it needs some work.  Hopefully it will settle down.

[Driad]

Not getting why a 50-year-old intern is such a big deal. She could easily have 20+ years to be a doctor. Plenty of people change careers.

[Homily]

I read a criticism somewhere (I think one of the reviews on IMDB) that claimed you can't get into medical school if you are over a certain age - I think they said 32.  Anyway some very young age.  But that's absolutely not true.  Perhaps some specific medical schools have age related rules but it's by no means something that is a basic truism.  I love the way people pass on opinion as fact on the Internet!

[Inquisitionist]

On 9/27/2019 at 10:43 AM, deaja said:

I liked it, but her talking style was weird.  I wondered if she'd had too much botox/plastic surgery to move her face the way she used to?

Patricia Heaton is 61 trying to pass for 10 years younger.  It was a strained stretch on The Middle and feels worse here.

[AnnaRose]

2 hours ago, Inquisitionist said:

Patricia Heaton is 61 trying to pass for 10 years younger.  It was a strained stretch on The Middle and feels worse here.

Huh.  I thought she looked a lot better here than she did on The Middle, and looked at least ten years younger to me.  I was surprised.   (Getting rid of the awful Frankie wig helped.)

[PennyPlain]

Patty Heaton is the same age I am and Patty Heaton looks WAY younger than I do.  To me she looks 50ish in fact.  I'm impressed she's prepared to play a character that's not all that far from her real age.  That gets so damn tricky in Hollywood.

[SmithW6079]

19 hours ago, PennyPlain said:

Patty Heaton is the same age I am and Patty Heaton looks WAY younger than I do.  To me she looks 50ish in fact.  I'm impressed she's prepared to play a character that's not all that far from her real age.  That gets so damn tricky in Hollywood.

61 is pretty far from 50; it's more than a decade. Plus, she's had a lot of plastic surgery.

[silversage]

I didn't recognize Lucas until I heard his voice.

[PennyPlain]

4 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

61 is pretty far from 50; it's more than a decade. Plus, she's had a lot of plastic surgery.

Not in Hollywood it's not!  I can come up with tons of examples of actors (male and female) playing characters a lot younger than their actual age.  I can also come up with lots of examples of women the same damn age (or close to it) as a male co-star who end up playing the mother or other aging character while the main male character romances the 20 yr old -- but I seriously digress 😀.  Point remains I don't know why anyone would be surprised that a 60 yr old woman is not playing the role of a 60 yr old.

[ChicagoBunny]

I really like Patricia Heaton (as an actress) and was looking forward to watching this premiere.  I was also excited to see Kyle MacLachlan and Cedric Yarbrough again.

As a former Medicine resident and now an Infectious Disease attending for several years, I was curious to see a comedic take on residency rather than all of the current medical dramas that are on the air.

There were some funny moments but a lot of inaccuracies.  I have never understood why these types of shows never consult an actual physician who has experienced residency to make it as realistic as possible.  There is no way the chief resident would be singlehandedly managing rounds without an attending.  Ultimately, the final medical decisions are made by the attending.  Speaking of which, their “Senior Attending” was conveniently absent during rounds and the way he interacted with the group was very disjointed.  It also didn’t make sense that they kept referring to each other as “doctor” during casual conversations, rather than by their first names.  The short coat vs long coat thing at the beginning was weird as residents and interns wear the same length of coat as opposed to med students who wear short coats. 

I thought the references to her age were unnecessary and irrelevant.  Many doctors enter the profession from a second career so it’s not uncommon.  I’ve supervised many residents and med students who are older than I am and it never came up, nor should it.

Some good things:  I did have to laugh at the interns freaking out over the unexpected beeping, as it is something that most of us have experienced at one time or another.  Also, Patricia Heaton did really well in the scene where she broke the bad news of the cancer diagnosis.  She was very believable and compassionate.

Overall, despite the inaccuracies, I’m willing to give it a second chance.  PH’s character has a strangely frenetic energy but definitely has potential if toned down a bit.