Doctor Odyssey Series Premiere: Joshua Jackson Charms in New Medical Adventure

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

Welcome aboard the Odyssey!

We’ve got Joshua Jackson, as charming as ever, Don Johnson in all his dapper glory, and a very intriguing twist on the standard medical drama.

Doctor Odyssey has a little something for everyone!

At this point in his career, Joshua Jackson has played every role. Lately, it has felt like he’s been more evil than not, but this series gives him a chance to play a solid guy who’s devoted his life to helping.

Max Bankman is not only an accomplished doctor but also a man looking to make a change. He comes on board the Odyssey as the new lead doctor and settles in quickly when he has a flurry of cases to contend with on his first day.

The series wastes little time getting into the action with various medical mishaps that could happen on a cruise ship or at any other time.

I was apprehensive when I first heard about a medical drama set aboard a cruise ship. How many emergencies could there be on a boat? Well, a lot more than you think.

Max comes onto the ship to meet an already established duo of nurses, Tristan and Avery, and the way they are less than impressed with him to start plays funny, but it doesn’t last very long.

Especially for Avery, played by a sultry and confident Phillipa Soo, who has her guard up relatively high to start but melts pretty quickly after hearing about Max’s former fractured penis while the three of them are performing surgery.

I’m not joking even a little bit.

The entirety of the show hinges on the doctor and the nurse’s chemistry and buying into their interactions and stories. And so far, so good, in the sense that their separate dynamics work, and it leads to some great interactions between the three of them in varying degrees of stressful situations.

Tristan is perhaps the weakest character of the three, only because he’s placed in the posturing role opposite Max, with whom he’s a bit intimidated.

And I would be, too! Joshua Jackson comes in looking like that, with a swell of charisma following behind him, and you expect people to just blindly accept it?

A little passive-aggressive back and forth between the new guy and the old vet is par for the course in a scenario like this, but they took it to a place I wasn’t expecting when they introduced the love triangle angle, which didn’t seem wholly necessary.

So be it if they want to do a will-they/won’t-they with Max and Avery. Their chemistry wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but you could see a little spark underneath the mutual respect and clear attraction.

On the flip side, I felt like Avery, who sees Tristan as a little brother. Their vibe and banter feel more sibling-like than romantic, but that could also be because Avery has never allowed herself to see him in that way due to their jobs.

It feels like a terrible decision for either man to get involved with Avery, especially considering how closely the three work together, but this is a Ryan Murphy production, so ethics and all that be damned!

Outside of those three, the other main is Captain Robert Massey, who seems a little obsessed with his boat and tries to make it some magical, heavenly place for his passengers.

It’s a great sentiment, but is it realistic?

Everyone goes away to have a good time, forget about their responsibilities for a bit and just enjoy life. And it seems like the people aboard that ship are truly living the high life, but Robert’s also putting a lot of pressure on his staff.

When he and Max were having that conversation at dinner, it felt like a talk they should have had during the interview process because Max looked as if he was hearing that spiel for the very first time.

For a pilot, things move along at a slower pace, but that may be because it follows 9-1-1, which typically has fast-paced hours.

But even with a slower pace, there are many exciting moments, namely the final rescue, which saw Max morph into a lifeguard doctor.

If the show wants to catch on, it should mix some of the ridiculous with the serious because we have enough serious medical dramas on television. Let this be a little fun and more lighthearted.

There’s no reason why a real lifeguard and someone equipped to make a rescue like that couldn’t have jumped into the water. Then Max could have saved the passenger who fell overboard. But then we wouldn’t have gotten the dramatics of Joshua Jackson swimming and dripping with water as he spat out directions in the OR.

Saying the hour is predictable might be underselling it, but it’s not as if it’s chock full of surprises. The big reveal that Max was the FIRST person in the United States to be infected with coronavirus certainly is one of those moments that takes you by surprise.

Throughout the whole hour, Max keeps alluding to the need to have more fun. He never explicitly says that, but he’s also pretty upfront about wanting to find a work-life balance, which usually indicates that the person is working too much.

I have mixed feelings about the need for Max to be the first COVID-19 patient and what that will mean for the overall narrative. Will this be a throwaway character trait that pops up once in a blue moon when Max needs to relate to someone?

Or does this become his defining trait, as much a part of who Max is as his Hawaiian shirt collection?

Time will certainly tell, as will time tell just what kind of show Doctor Odyssey turns out to be.

This isn’t a series that breaks the mold, but it’s a different spin on an old classic, and that’s typically not a bad thing.

Doctor’s Notes

• It’s always lovely to see Rachel Dratch in anything! She’s always such a delight, and I love the play on her and her husband being those unlucky people who can’t catch a break while they’re supposed to be having the time of their lives.

• Only on a Ryan Murphy show would someone detail the way they fractured their own penis while helping someone who fractured theirs.

• Tristan being a playboy, but also being hopelessly in love with Avery is something for sure. Does he love Avery, or is she just the closest he’s ever gotten to a woman?

• Ronda not letting Tristan charm her but being instantly smitten by Max? Is this foreshadowing for the eventual end of the love triangle?

Doctor Odyssey has finally made landfall after an intense promotional push, and I’m curious what you guys thought about the first hours.

Will you be turning in next week?

What worked for you, and what didn’t?

Make sure to leave all your thoughts below so we can discuss them!

You can watch Doctor Odyssey on Thursday at 9/8c on ABC.