Body of Proof

I love this show! Just discovered it on Hulu and have totally binged it. I kept wondering why it didn't survive (see what I did there) until Season 3. What the heck? Axing 3 main characters and replacing them with 1 dishrag actor, terrible storylines, more graphic content...no wonder it got cancelled. How could the show not flatline 😁 when such drastic changes are made? Watch 1&2, skip 3. That's my advice.

The series is about a defamed neurosurgeon Dr.Megan Hunt who has now left her profession as a surgeon and has become the medical examiner . She uses her expertise as a brilliant neurosurgeon to solve murders. ### THIS is the review based on PILOT ###

Just by seeing a pilot one can never decide if the show is good/bad...one can only guess how it might turn out..Most reviews here seem to judge it too early.

Dana Delany was good, not excellent. She tried her best in the pilot to portray in forty minutes , how a woman would feel in her position. It is tough to make an impression in the very first episode because an actor needs to build a solid foundation upon which her character would develop richly and as something people will connect to in the coming episodes. If in some scenes she seemed to falter I feel the writers are to blame because they seem to try hard to stuff all the emotions and past story in just 40 minutes and hey don't forget, there is a murder to solve too. Her character seem to unravel in a hurry and it's not Delany's fault.

The supporting cast were okay, actually they seemed like stereotypes taken from series like house(boss of hunt seemed like cuddy), the detectives(csi and castle?) and so on...yes the writers need to develop these characters better, although the confused doctor played by Geoffrey Arend (Dr. Elliot)and the frenemy played by Middlebrooks(Dr. Curtis) were unique and entertaining.

And for the plot, I cannot think of any plot holes and as a person in the medical field I can say that the medicine part was not slouchy like some soaps ( cough..grays anatomy)and was actually convincing.

So in conclusion, I would not write off the show this early...Let's wait and see how it develops.

Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) is a self-possessed former neurosurgeon who suffered some setbacks. It's been 4 years since a car accident left her with unknown medical issues which led to her patient's death. Kate Murphy (Jeri Ryan) hired the highly skilled doctor as a new medical examiner. She works with Ethan and Curtis in the lab as well as partnering with investigator Peter Dunlop. Police detectives Bud and Sam work the cases. She is desperate to reconnect with estranged daughter Lacey Fleming.

It's been awhile since Dana Delany has led a TV show, not since China Beach anyways, that lasted more than a season. She's good enough to anchor a police procedural. There is a functional group around her. Her relationship with Lacey holds a little interest. Her abrasive character never truly found the required love interest although Peter comes close. There are some big cast changes in the third and final season and they try to pump up the action/danger. It was probably done to try to save it from sure cancellation. Both renewals were surprises. It was obvious that this show was the low man on the network. The final Hail-Mary failed.

It was often silly, with enough clichés to fill all the cheesecakes in Philadelphia, enough exposition to require a PowerPoint presentation, and enough irascible doctor/detective work to make you wonder if the main character was the love child of Monk, House, Patrick Jayne, Tim Roth, Alexx Woods, Jessica Fletcher, and maybe even Harriet Korn but by golly someone was found to have died of Lupus in the first episode, and you can't beat that with a stick!

The thing is, I love medical shows and I love detective shows, so it's hard to go wrong with a combination of the two, and how are you going to do that except by keying on the Medical Examiner? Like House, the medical part of it seems pretty accurate, and it's fun trying to beat Dr. Hunt to the diagnosis. Oh yeah, and I also enjoy shows where people notice a lot of seemingly unimportant things - it gives me an incentive to heighten my own sense of awareness.

So you've got the keep-it-simple cop, and the hunky blond guy, the hard nosed but incredibly good looking female boss, and the somewhat incompetent assistant all playing off of the irascible main character who's so good at her job you can't fire her. But at least it's a woman this time!

We started watching this series during the pandemic because of a couple of episodes of Castle in which Delany appeared. She was very good and low key as an FBI agent.

The series began with a blustery performance of an out of control, abusive, self-absorbed M. E. with tons of baggage. As with most series the characters become more bizarre as the seasons roll on. Unlike with us ordinary folk who try to correct our interpersonal shortcomings, TV characters tend to become more exaggerated.

We made it through the 2 1/2 seasons, but I trying wanted Dr. Hunt to be one of the casualties in the finale. One of the most irritating characters I ever watched.