THE MOB DOCTOR: THE PATIENT IS MORE DEAD THAN ALIVE

I watched the pilot for The Mob Doctor yesterday. What can I say, it was really bad. I've read reviews of those who's been unlucky to see this earlier, and I must admit, I could not believe the show was actually that terrible. But it was.

Dr. Grace Devlin (Jordana Spiro) is a young, ambitious, top surgeon from Chicago, who's moonlighting for mafia to pay her brother's gambling debt. From the first episode we get to know that her mother had cancer, her brother is a moron, half of her colleagues hate her, the mob boss is so dumb that he, while under investigation, himself (!) and on his own (!!!) comes to Grace's house to get her and/or her family members.

Grace Devlin

The actress choice for the main part is strange, to say the least. I understand they could not take a really pretty girl to play the doctor smart-ass, but there's nothing strong in her face, no matter how much make up they put on her. It's a face of a passer-by, you see hundreds of such every day and they don't stick. She was great in Dexter's season 6, when she played a religious maniac, very natural. She could play a victim of domestic violence or a woman tired of life and breaking bad. You know, something similar to Aniston's character in Good Girl. And can I say she has funny gait.

Jordana Spiro as Beth Dorsey in Dexter

There are two main issues with the show. First of all, all characters, even Constantine, are flat, bold and boring. Except for Grace herself; she's complex, but there's no integrity in this character. She's mad at her boss because he did not follow (or rather did not let his other subordinate follow) procedures before treating the patient, yet she forces her BF to risk his career and break the rules for a girl he just met (and she was not even nice to him), so that her father wouldn't freak out. I mean, if it's worth this risk, Grace should have reported this girl's father to children protection agency or something, and a long time ago. She risks her life and life of her siblings by not killing the witness (who's been a mobster before, so must have committed all sorts of crime) herself, but later, as she gets the upset mob boss to follow her to Constantine's house, did she not realized that he's gonna die in there? Sure, she did. So either she's a hypocrite, or the writers don't know who they want her to be.

And the second issue, a very important one, is that the show is overloaded with all this different, often unnecessary, story lines. The love story line: at least three times we hear the question about Grace's BF, namely, if he's a marrying type. We don't get to hear an answer to this and frankly, do we even give a shit? I don't think so. And then we get to meet her ex-boyfriend. Why? Is it to show that her life is deeply connected with mafia? I think flashbacks to the moment when Constantine killed her father are enough for this (btw, if the writers plan to reveal that Grace's real father is Constantine, they should drop it right now). Or is it for the sake of a classic triangle? Hardly, from how they portrayed her, Grace shows no sign of actual feelings, well, except for contempt, towards either ex or current boyfriends (none towards her siblings either, since we're on that page).

One more thing, did they have to kill that poor child just to show what a dickhead Dr. Devlin's boss is? Not that I got attached to him, because, firstly, there was too much going on besides that and secondly, from other medical procedurals, I've learned not to care for the patients (the creators of these shows though are cynical enough to kill cute secondary characters just as well) but it was enough to see how he acted at the time of operation to get that he's an arrogant a-hole. The audience is not as dumb as you hope, writers, we get hints! Also, how important to the hospital could this particular doctor be that even after patient dies his actions don't get to be at least investigated (the board won't fire him anyway, we hear)?

All in all, it's not good. They tried to appeal to everyone and failed. If they want to improve, they have to focus. And learn better both doctors' and mobsters' habits.

Score: 3/10