Shows the show "Doc" on Fox borrows from*
*but is somehow still less than the sum of its parts.
I know it's based on an Italian show that in turn was based on real events but I haven't seen it as of writing this. (I'm also just remembering all these shows. I've spent enough time staring at a screen because of Doc)
Samantha Who? 2007-2009 ABC: a high powered woman who has ruined almost every relationship in her life gets amnesia and becomes a much nicer person. Now in Samantha Who?show her memory is completely wiped and she's not reverting to any specific time. So it's more like a complete stranger has taken over her life. It was a comedy which honestly suits the premise better to me. But that's probably because I saw it first. In Doc Amy has forgotten the last 8 years in which her son died and she torched almost every relationship except 1. Gina her best friend.
House MD 2004-2012 FOX: This doctor is an asshole but we all put up with them because they're always right. you'd think the difference here is gender right? I like House better because he's a man and thus has more leeway to be shitty, right? only partly because A) I'm not fully aware of how much internalized misogyny i have, so I'm sure that's a factor. And B) I actually don't like House very much and I like Amy most of the time. The big difference in these shows are the people who surround these characters make or break the show. House MD still works if you hate House, Doc stops working if hate Amy. In House MD No one really let's House's assholery slide as i recall. His love interest/boss, his best friend/love interest, and his subordinates(which sometimes includes a love interest) all tell him he's an asshole multiple times per episode. He doesn't kick them out of his life and they don't kick him out of theirs. (I think? kinda... i haven't watched this show in like 5 years and i wasn't watching chronologically at the time) Amy's remaining loved one's however(her bff, her bf), almost never called her on her bullshit when she was at her most assholish. They do after her accident when she's a normal person again but like, there's no point anymore...weaksauce much. anyone who tells her they don't like how she treats them gets cut off or cuts her off because she just won't treat them better (specifically her daughter from ages 14 to 17. the show accidentally implies that the two people she has left are there because they pushed hardest to stay despite the poor treatment. So basically her daughter didn't work hard enough for her love but a hot guy who wants to fuck her did .... The show does push the "Amy was a bad mom" idea a lot harder but I don't think the writers thought this through the "Amy Let's Jake Love Her" story implications) Basically anyone who didn't kowtow to Amy the Supreme Doctor Goddess, they're kaput. God damn i got really worked up on this one. I didn't even know that's what pissed me off about this show. hell.
Gray's anatomy/House(again)Chicago med(just any and all med procedure shows of the last 30 years): Two to three patients per episode. Alternating between dramatic and comedic every other episode or so. Usually there's some kind of lesson or emotional metaphor for the doctors to learn from. . Congratulations that's the worst anyone's done it. The cases aren't that interesting because 90% of the time Amy just knows what's wrong then fixes it. Rarely do we see her process she just the only good doctor who knows things. Would be a better show if it were less medical mysteries and more just New Amy fixing the life old Amy broke. But we actually barely get that. It's basically the premise of the show and it ran out of steam by the end of season 1.
Just Chicago Med (2015-now)this time: Military guy who is generally unsympathetic to most patients because his morals are apparently more important than treating patients this only half stolen because the writers have retconned this character in season 2 to be less of a narc. So whatever. But I'm counting it.
BONUS PREDICTIONS! Relapsed Alcoholic but Ooops it's actually Auto brewery syndrome, kid with glass bones is assumed to be abused, This is a hack show people. I'm 100% sure these will be in season 2.
*ps unimportant but annoying
So far no one on this show has called to any other character Doc so I don't get why they didn't go with something like or MD or something else more relevant to Amy's goals/character arc of wanting to keep being a doctor.
