S01.E01: Pilot

[formerlyfreedom]

Silicon Valley tech titan James Bell enlists Dr. Walter Wallace, an exceptional veteran surgeon with a controversial past, to run his state-of-the-art hospital with an ultramodern approach to medicine.

[DrScottie]

It was pretty good. Of course, we knew that the rich guy had the same rare disease. He's right though, regardless of whether his deepest motivation is to potentially cure himself, he's doing a lot of good for others. 

[CarpeDiem54]

I enjoyed it.  Sort of a Brainiac House.  I'm in for at least the first few episodes.

[Netfoot]

There isn't enough money in the entire world that could persuade me to work for that prick.  

Plus, the technological Deus Ex Machina moments were coming thick and fast.  "Had your head cut off in an automobile accident?  Well, Mr. Prick has enough money to magically cause a new technological solution to HeadOffitis to appear in time to save you before the 45 minutes is up!"  It's going to get old fast!

[Zahdii]

I kept changing channels to watch Hogan's Heroes.  I didn't like the main character so much, he seems smug.  I get that if he's a gazillionaire at his age because of his own efforts and not because he inherited the money, that's going to give a guy a big ego, but I hope the writers tone the ego down.

I was actually a bit troubled by the headgear that allowed the comatose girls parents to get through to her, because I worry that people all over the world will think it's possible and want to know why their hospital can't get a set.  (I have a cousin that spent three months in a deep coma, and it wasn't fun wondering if she'd wake up.  She did, and made a complete recovery!)

On the other hand, it would be wonderful if there were state of the art hospitals like the one seen on the show.  All calm and serene, the walls of the rooms projecting beautiful and calming vistas for patients and visitors to admire.  Manicured zen gardens on the grounds.  Only top of the line staff, fully dedicated to their craft and their patients.  I bet the food is whipped up by a chef more used to cooking in 5 star restaurants, and even the cleaning crew is trained in Patient Relations and have PhD's in Public Health Maintenance.

[Gregg247]

When the rich guy told his staff about the company that had developed a headgear that could "hear" thoughts, I was hoping Christopher Lloyd was going to show up in the next scene with his Doc Brown haircut. LOL

I enjoyed the show because it shows people thinking big thoughts and immediately using the funds needed to make them happen.  I wonder what the overhead of that hospital is each year, and how long the billionaire can make it last.  (Although the income from patenting any new medical devices/procedures/medicines could keep them afloat indefinitely, I guess.)

EDIT: I like the fact that the billionaire is kind of a dick.  His heart is definitely in the right place, but I'm glad that everyone on this show isn't going to be depicted as some kind of saint.  Jerks can help people, too.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Gregg247

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, Zahdii said:

I was actually a bit troubled by the headgear that allowed the comatose girls parents to get through to her, because I worry that people all over the world will think it's possible and want to know why their hospital can't get a set.

Given the premise of the show, I'm willing to accept the writers pushing the technology a bit. They don't want to risk looking out of date in a few years, which is the thought I had when they talked about cancer surgery. Why doesn't this place have the techniques for getting someone's immune system to target cancer cells, or, especially apropos to the way things were written, turn off their uncontrolled growth?

[12catcrazy]

@ LoneHaranguer - maybe because the woman was pregnant they couldn't risk using something like  using immune therapy which might have injured the baby?  Also, her tumor was growing very rapidly and there might not have been the time to wait to see if immune therapy would work.

[LoneHaranguer]

I agree that immune therapy would have been a risk, but they could have name-dropped it as something they couldn't use. I don't know about the therapy that's supposed to turn cancerous cells non-cancerous, which would have given them more time. I'm just trying to suggest that with all of the gee-whiz electronics they want to throw out at the viewer, they may have forgotten to look at what's going on in biotech.

[jzygayle]

9 hours ago, Gregg247 said:

When the rich guy told his staff about the company that had developed a headgear that could "hear" thoughts, I was hoping Christopher Lloyd was going to show up in the next scene with his Doc Brown haircut. LOL

We immediately went to "Max Headroom".

[DrScottie]

11 hours ago, Zahdii said:

Manicured zen gardens on the grounds. 

Yeah, Children's Hospital in Boston had a beloved garden like that. They are tearing it apart to build another building.

[Canada]

I would kill to work in a facility like that!

[Ina123]

And, of course, the guy who asks that they pray before surgery is a wife-beater. I knew when he prayed he was gonna turn out to be a bad guy. So predictable.  <sigh>

[Mojeaux]

1 hour ago, Ina123 said:

And, of course, the guy who asks that they pray before surgery is a wife-beater. I knew when he prayed he was gonna turn out to be a bad guy. So predictable.  <sigh>

I thought, "Surely, they wouldn't trot out THAT cliche, would they?" Shorenuff.

Otherwise, I liked it.

As Gregg247 said, I did like that the billionaire was a dick, but he wasn't so much of a dick that he didn't listen to his people and change or at least TRY to change, even if he fails.

[Lostinthehouse]

"Pure Genius" ?  More like "pure idiocy."  So cliche'd, and of course everyone is cured.  Bah.  I'm out.

[MoreCoffeePlease]

Billionaire tech-guy is not good-looking enough, or charming or quirky enough to keep me watching.  Music was overdone ... this is CBS trying to be 'cool' and 'with-it'.

Also, the scene where the surgeon is practicing the procedure on 3D-printed hearts with the tumor, come on.  All these people are going to gather to watch him slice through whatever that material was?

[izabella]

I was interested enough to keep watching to the end, and will stick around for a while to see where this goes.  I like the idea of cutting edge tech and medicine meeting with major money to see what could be made possible.  I'm hoping it isn't too gimmicky.

I'm curious why they chose to make it so the new doctor's family will stay behind while he starts working.  Seemed like an odd detail.

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, MoreCoffeePlease said:

Also, the scene where the surgeon is practicing the procedure on 3D-printed hearts with the tumor, come on.  All these people are going to gather to watch him slice through whatever that material was?

And he can have as many as he likes!  Because the patient can wait 12+ hours while each one is printed.

[SlackerInc]

10 hours ago, Netfoot said:

And he can have as many as he likes!  Because the patient can wait 12+ hours while each one is printed.

Maybe they have a bunch of printers making them simultaneously?

This show took a real beating from the critics, but I checked it out anyway because of Jason Katims's involvement.  I am not going to keep watching, but that's just because the competition out there is a Murderers' Row, and the show started out behind the 8 ball with me, as I just don't watch medical dramas as a rule.  But that said, I would consider this pretty vastly underrated.  I was pretty well engaged throughout; and, I mean, what do these critics want?  House always seemed to get a lot of critical love, but I've seen it a couple times (when staying at relatives' houses as a polite captive audience), and this seems much better than that to me.

[JessDVD]

I thought this show looked interesting, at least, from the ten thousand previews on CBS so we tuned in to the first ep tonight. Generally I found it interesting and engaging, if slightly unrealistic in the technology but I can deal with that.

My 2 beefs: 1) OF COURSE praying guy turned out to be abusive. Just of course. 2) Not pictured: the EXTREMELY long road to regular life (if, of course, the road does not abruptly end) of a micropreemie! And walking said road as a single mom who's recovering from major surgery.... as much as pictures of new babies make me all dusty, a tiny bit of reality, even a brief line like "The two of you have a long road but I know you can make it through", might have been nice.

I'm in for a bit, at least.

[Blergh]

Fairly okay and I'm interested to see how it progresses since I am interested in how/whether technical advances can salvage/improve healths.

 

 JessDVD, I agree that there should have been some tiny disclaimer re 'long road ahead' for the mother who just survived very serious surgery AND will have to live without a good part of her cardiovascular system the rest of her life- as well as the extremely premature baby who, even these days, more often than not have serious physical and/or neurological issues their entire lives.

 

However; one small beef (but I'm not overlooking it): I take it that in future episodes there will be depictions of NON-abusive praying Christians as well as abusive praying Buddhists because surely they wouldn't want to broadly stereotype one religion and overlook flawed members of another faith, right? I mean abusers and nonabusers DO exist in every known religion and among  atheists.

[KLovestoShop]

What I don't like about the show is that they leave us in the lurch wondering what happens to these patients on an ongoing basis.  Does the baby ultimately survive?  Did the mother survive the heart surgery over time?  I guess I prefer to see things wrapped up in a neater bow.  

[Rae Spellman]

On 11/6/2016 at 9:47 AM, Blergh said:

However; one small beef (but I'm not overlooking it): I take it that in future episodes there will be depictions of NON-abusive praying Christians as well as abusive praying Buddhists because surely they wouldn't want to broadly stereotype one religion and overlook flawed members of another faith, right? I mean abusers and nonabusers DO exist in every known religion and among  atheists.

The black guy was also a former gang banger  who grew up dirt poor. There are plenty of black guys who grew up poor the Oakland, Richmond, and other East Bay cities who were never gang bangers. Billionaire also called Malik "homeboy." 

Edited November 27, 2016 by RaeSpellman

[Blergh]

Good call, RaeSpellman!