A new hourlong that (barely) combines the hospital and crime drama genres, “The Mob Doctor” comes to us from “Drop Dead Diva” writer-producers Josh Berman and Rob Wright.
It stars Jordana Spiro (“My Boys”) as a gifted surgeon who has to moonlight for the bad guys after her kid brother gambles his way into hot water with organized crime figures.
This is a great idea (or at least a great title) for a show, but the execution feels like a dose of anesthesia, with too much distraction provided by standard medical drama clichés and not enough actual mob doctoring.
I’d like to see a series about somebody like that fellow in “Breaking Bad” who was charged with patching up Gus, Mike and Jesse following their Mexican poolside showdown with Don Eladio. “The Mob Doctor” is so not that show. “The Mob Doctor” is just dull.
... from the pilot one thing is sure: the writers never encountered the adage “less is more." … The pilot is so packed with generic scenes of medical crises and mob muscle-flexing that it feels as if the creators went to a buffet of past series and desperately piled everything they could reach onto the mob doc’s plate. …
... the pilot teeters between odd and simply ridiculous …
... Someone needs to take a scalpel to the script and cut out the melodrama. The show should focus less on catty hospital politics and more on the inherently compelling conflict of a person who has good reason to do bad things, a la “Breaking Bad.” …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Despite being jam-packed with plot twists, character reveals, surprises, a car chase, a couple of dead people and a lot of cell phone calls followed by "I have to go," it is a constant struggle for a viewer to avoid being bored to tears. …
... It’s never good news when you start to watch a new show and can’t get past quibbling with the whole concept …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
Fox's preposterous organized crime/medical show combo platter "The Mob Doctor" manages to be silly and sappy. ... Not grounded enough to be taken seriously and not clever enough to be truly funny, there's only one prescription for "The Mob Doctor": fuhgettaboutit.
Some TV series get by through sheer force of will. They embrace their inner stupidity and race along, figuring you’ll never catch up. Take Fox’s “The Mob Doctor,” whose title tells you everything you need to know about this show …
... why bother trying to separate the bad from the worse when it's all awful. Which is what happens when you concoct a show out of leftover scraps instead of new ideas.…
... even with a few unexpected twists, this show is about as typical as TV gets. … there's nothing initially compelling enough to warrant regular visits, much less house calls. …
... trying to reinvent the wheel has led to a truly flat idea. … Mostly, it's a hospital drama -- and a rote one at that. The side job stitching up bad guys seems tacked on for no reason, like racing flames on a Prius. Yeah, yeah, it's different. It's not just a hospital drama. See, she's a doctor and she works for the … oh, never mind.
9 p.m. Monday. Fox.
