Doc

Why do we watch shows set in hospitals, but would rather never go to the hospital or visit a loved one there? Hospitals, along with police precincts, another mainstay setting on television, are rife with human drama. The life-and-death stakes are high, and if the show is compelling, we care about the doctors, nurses, and administrators who make up its characters.

Medical dramas are a dime a dozen, but Doc hooked me from the first episode and never let up over its 10-episode first season.

The premise is based on a true story: Dr. Amy Larsen (played by a marvelous Molly Parker), loses eight years of her life when a car crash results in her having retrograde amnesia. Honestly, amnesia is the GOAT of soapy storytelling tropes because it’s so rich in possibility.

The series begins with the horrific crash (and so do many of the episodes, which I wish would stop) and begins to tease out the backstory of why Old Amy became so hated in the hospital hallways for her cold, rude way of dealing with literally anyone, especially those lower than her on the medical staff food chain.

Watching the first episode, I wondered how they would redeem her because she was so awful. It’s a testament to the writers that they not only redeemed Amy but also made me, as a viewer, deeply care about her. (Parker delivers a nuanced and captivating performance; you buy her as the hospital’s villain, and you also buy her as a formerly kind and gracious woman trying desperately to reclaim her life.)

When Amy wakes up from her coma, she finds she is divorced from the man she loves (now married again with a baby on the way); that their daughter is now a teenager who prefers to live with her father; and that hardly anyone can stand her. She has also forgotten the traumatic loss that warped her previous personality into something bitter and snappish.

Oh, and she’s been carrying on a secret relationship with her chief resident, Dr. Jake Heller, who is as sweet as she is sour.

Another key player in the story is Dr. Richard Miller (Scott Wolf), who now has Amy’s post as chief of medicine and did something he is desperate for her to forget. He is highly motivated to sideline her as soon as possible, lest she remember and he goes down for his crime. Wolf is excellent as the chief with big secrets, conveying a woundedness that makes you understand why he did the things he did. In fact, every character is sketched in a way that exhibits their full humanity. Our faith teaches us that every person is more than the worst thing they have done, and this show reminds us of that.

As Dr. Larsen rebuilds her life and career, now shadowing the very lowlings she once belittled, she grows in humility and begins to pick up the pieces, one by one. Her phenomenal diagnostic skills sets her apart from the other docs (now all ahead of her in the pecking order), which can cause resentment if not a grudging respect.

Big questions loom as the show heads into a full second season pickup in the fall: Will Amy and her ex-husband fall in love again (because amnesia Amy never fell out of love with him)? How will Richard cope when his secret inevitably comes out? Will he and Amy’s previous friendship help him get through the disasters ahead? With grief, grace, and forgiveness as themes in this artfully acted and written drama, Doc is a worthy exploration of healing in the halls of medicine. (Rated TV-14 for blood, trauma, and preludes to sexual situations with nothing shown. Fox, Hulu, GlobalTV, and StackTV)