Doctor Odyssey

So.... I'm in the UK and this show wasn't heavily marketed. I was of the belief this was a serious drama, but I watched the first couple of episodes, stuck to the screen as I couldn't believe how absolutely awful this show was.

The scripts, storyline and characters are all ludicrous and I couldn't believe the show had made it to screen.

But... by episode 3 the penny dropped. This is a Ryan Murphy wet dream. It's supposed to be this bad. It's a bit of fantasy full of beautiful people doing silly things. Once I understood that, I actually started to enjoy it.

It really isn't much more ridiculous than the Love Boat was back in the 70s and 80s. If you're able to suspend belief for an hour, you can relish in a bit of fun TV.

The show clearly has a decent budget. It looks rich on screen and the replica cruise ship they've built is fairly convincing.

I'll keep on watching.

The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy. With this series, that's what to expect.

I like the setting and the cast. The guest stars are awesome. The production is excellent. The handful of episodes I've seen so far... they've been interesting enough. A few good stories. The views are pretty (although the outside of the ship is pretty "meh" in the long shots).

But honestly - there's just too much debauchery and too many intimately contracted diseases being dealt with (eeew, right?). The stories could be played out without so many icky symptoms among the guests. I'll keep watching but I hope this series can find a way to tell fun stories without the ick factor.

I do not normally watch medical dramas, but this one caught my attention with the added element of it being on a cruise ship. And it is just that, a medical drama on a cruise ship. Which made it stupidly awesome. Certain things are made better with an added element of cheese, like the Golden Bachelor/Bachelorette. This show is so cheesy and stupid that I will probably keep watching it anyway. It's a perfect, ridiculous, brain cell killing, destress show. Overused jokes? Check. Major plot holes? Check. Nonsensical storytelling? Check. It's basically perfect, if you can handle cringing for an hour.

This is actually terrible.

3 stars for the all-in game ness of the players, despite a script that should be pulped for recycled toilet paper.

Near the beginning of episode one, the new doctor onboard tours the Odyssey, a lavish 5 star cruise liner. We tour right along with him. It's a sumptuous, fantasy of a ship. At one point, the doctor is led down a hall of burnished walnut, walking in a kind of formation and I thought "Bones!!!?!'" . And 'oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if this show took a turn toward Star Trek or even The Orville?'.

Not only did Doctor Odyssey choose the path more commonly taken, the single first script was packed with every cliche, trope and bit of bad dialog it could scrape from the bottom of Ryan Murphy's shoe.

Ugh.

I watched the entire first episode and I promise you, it just gets worse and worse.

I feel badly for the talent caught up in this mess.

So I'm rooting for this show because I adore Joshua Jackson. Mighty Ducks, Dawson's Creek, Fringe. I've been a fan for awhile. With that said, this show has potential, but it needs some major work. I like that Dr. Bankman seems teachable and is quick to humble himself. His backstory however, just lazy. Seriously, that's what they came up with. The whole patient zero thing, earned an eye roll. The situation with, Avery was cringey and forced. I'm glad of how it went but did the first episode really need it. Then the supposed tension with Tristian, again was forced and unnecessary. For this to be a major network show, the writing seems amateur.

As far as the technical stuff, I've never been on a cruise so I just take it for what it is. However, the whole 3 hours from land, but no medevac helicopter, has me questioning what the writers really thinks of their intended audience. I may not know much about ships, helicopters and medicine, but even that seemed far fetched.

I'm really hoping this gets better fast. Otherwise, it won't last.