Good Sam

Dr. Sam Griffith (Sophia Bush) takes over as chief surgeon after her father Dr. Rob 'Griff' Griffith (Jason Isaacs) gets shot in the hospital. It's six months later. Griff wakes up from his coma and wants his job back but Sam is not about to let it go.

There is nobody to root for at the beginning. That is the central issue with this show. Sam is an annoying try-hard. Her dad is a psychopath. Her mom is full of secrets. Non of the other doctors are nice. It's a lot of unlikeable characters. I do grow to accept Sam over time but it's too little and too late. It gets cancelled after 13 episodes.

The premise is not only preposterous, it's an HR nightmare: surgeon Dad supervising resident Daughter, then same-said Daughter supervising Dad when he returns to work after spending 6 months in a coma. Meanwhile, Mom is supervising both of them, and they're both romantically (sexually) involved with other residents under their supervision. I'm sure I saw this on General Hospital... The first episode strongly smacked of House - trying to diagnose a mysterious illness, which they manage to catch in time, and perform a bleeding edge procedure to save the patient's life. And the residents vote on how to treat the patient! That's just not how medicine works in the real world.

If you like daytime soap operas you'll love this, but if you're looking for engaging drama, change the channel.

Wanted to enjoy this - Sophia Bush was a great character in Chicago PD. Here she has neither the gravitas nor the conviction to pull this role off. Some voice coaching could help her to greatly extend her acting range.

The set-up is intriguing - father/daughter conflict around the philosophy of and the actual running of a hospital. The delivery is weak with a series of exaggerated relationship drama befitting a teen show. Sooo many triangles. Father/daughter/mother, son/father/mother, father/daughter/best-friend, protagonist love triangle ... A complete mess of strands overloading the viewer each episode with no safe haven from which to tie it all together.

Now I know why I don't miss Sophia Bush on Chicago PD. I mean, Is it just me or are television shows that have some minute amount of a story without reaching into absurdity during these Covid television times just not out there when we need them the most? Sorry Sophia Bush, your even worse in this show. Cmon CBS, you can do better!

The premise seemed interesting, and with Sophia Bush and Jason Issacs at the helm, I thought I'd give it a try. The pace was super slow, the story was as compelling as a hallmark card, and Bush was just not convincing as an ambitious, smart chief of surgery. I don't think I'll continue watching this one.