“Doc” invites comparisons to another Fox medical drama in House, MD, but it’s not the last-second diagnosing or the “The Resident” style office politics nor the impossibly high-stakes second-season opener that aired last week that threatens to melt my medically-ambivalent heart. (I both admire great doctors for their skills and clear path in life,but also have experiences that makes me resent them, more than slightly.) Not so great for appointments, but kind of makes me an eager audience for most medical drama, besides the fact that it sadly remains a dependable source of disability depictions—can’t call them representation-mostly, on the mainstream airwaves. So, if blogging were like my health, I need them as much as I think they’re wrong a lot.
Maybe if I were younger when this show came out, Dr. Amy Larsen’s quest for a do-over wouldn’t pull on my heartstrings so hard, even as I know that I didn’t get a *start* to need a new start from in many ways. It’s refreshing to hear the ADA spoken of in positive terms, even if it’s only once and applied to someone who is something of a legend in her profession.(Too often, on television, and other places the thought of protecting disabled people’s rights is a pop-culture punchline—it’s been hard to imagine other civil rights laws spoken about the same way, but not so much lately, part of the reason I’m jealous of Amy Larsen for not remembering 2016. Almost wish I could say the same, but I’ve missed too much in any case.)
I won’t say the medicine doesn’t matter on “Doc”—there are all the last-second saves and ethical dilemmas we might expect—interesting scenario with the resident treating her rapist, but it may have been more effective if the show had let us know her first. I suppose it does show how Larsen’s bulldozing ahead in the wake of her son’s sudden death kept her from being a compassionate supervisor, though.(It takes a lot before we, as an audience, can forgive a woman for not being nice. Must be even harder if you don’t look like the always radiant Molly Parker.)
My younger self probably would not believe that I’m almost…rooting against Dr.
Larsen going back and taking up her full place on the hospital hierarchy…she
was very concerned with trying to be the best at all times, even in places
where that didn’t apply. She would think
it a knock on Womankind if we don’t agree that this highly-trained professional
should just get back in her slot and start plugging away again(Nor do I think
she should adopt the ex-husband’s baby and reconcile with him after the blonde
has an accident at the Plot Point factory.) But I don’t believe that work saves
anyone in quite the same way anymore and I’m not sure we should tell people it
does.
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