Critic’s Rating: 4.15 / 5.0
4.15
Character dives are often the strongest installments for many shows, particularly those with more procedural formatting, like Doc.
It allows the viewers to connect with characters they may not have otherwise done. It also helps us look at characters in a whole new light.
One could argue that Doc Season 1 Episode 7 aims to do this well into the series by placing the two most consistent antagonists into the forefront.
Doc’s Secondary Characters Remain Underdeveloped Near the Season’s Conclusion
We only have three episodes of Doc Season 1 remaining. I know; it’s shocking to me, too.
I’ve been getting lost in this story arc, which focuses so heavily on Amy and her journey, that it’s hitting me now that little remains in the first season.
I’m also holding out for renewal news. Doc is a perfect fit for FOX, which has very few primetime series on its mantle. Amid reality cooking series and competition shows about cooking, we have this special little medical drama that resonates with audiences.
Is it a perfect series? No, of course not. But it’s strong enough with loads of potential and can improve leaps and bounds in a sophomore season.
Doc Has a Great Cast; They Need to Put It To Better Use
At Doc’s core, it’s a series that has so much heart and makes you feel things.
Molly Parker is a phenomenal and compelling lead who draws you into her world and makes you root for her endlessly, even while acknowledging her flaws.
The series has characters that make you want to know and learn more about them and spend time with them, and that’s why we desperately need a sophomore season to finally get to flesh out the secondary characters in the manner they deserve.
I enjoy the Doc characters while recognizing that some, like Gina, are grossly underused.
Let the record show that I’ve been fawning after this woman since her incredible performance in Underground. There will never be a second where the words, “There’s too much Amirah Vann,” would spill from my lips or fingertips.
We need so much more of Gina.
But the same goes for many of Doc’s characters as the season progresses.
It becomes clearer how little we know about most of them, including fan favorites like Jake, whose background information filters through like slow-drip coffee on the fritz.
Doc Season 1 Episode 7 Aims to Delve into Sonya and Richard
Sonya and Richard have spent much of the season coming across as one-dimensional villains or antagonists for Amy.
The hour goes out of its way to dismantle that, and it’s apparent what their intentions are when they devote most of the installment to Westside’s most problematic doctors, at least to viewers.
Doc loves reiterating that people aren’t inherently “bad” but human and flawed.
We often see it in many of Doc’s cases with patients and their family members. Although, screw Ravi. It’s non-applicable there.
But we also see it with Doc’s characters. Until now, it’s easy to sympathize with and accept the flaws of characters like Amy, our protagonist, who has proven many times that she needs to work on some things, or Michael, who, too, is as flawed as it gets.
Gina and Jake’s complicity in keeping things from Amy is their most prominent flaw, among other things.
None of these characters are perfect people, and Doc doesn’t attempt to make them that, which is refreshingly honest in a way we rarely see onscreen these days.
We got to see Sonya and Richard in a new light, so they also wouldn’t be written off as solely one way.
Richard’s Troubling Family Life Explains His Poor Choices
For Richard, they spend the hour enlightening us on his home life as an explanation, not justification, for how he accidentally killed a patient and has been spending all this time trying to cover things up.
His oldest son battles mental illness, a severe case of Bipolar that results in violent outbursts that have deeply affected the entire household. It’s sad and very concerning that they couldn’t get a handle on things.
His episode in the kitchen, leading him to break all the dishes in an outburst, was disturbing. Unfortunately, the Millers should’ve handled that much earlier.
Lucas’ brothers and mother are afraid of him. He’s disrupting the household. Lucas is upset that he’s causing so much harm, and Miller’s attention splits between what’s happening at his house and work.
By stretching himself thin with both issues, he’s failing on both fronts. It’s the explanation we have for how he killed this patient, and now, Miller seems resolute about his error and how he screwed up.
Someone being aware of where they went wrong and doing something about it are different things. The hour makes us sympathize with Richard, but there’s still a question of what’s next.
If this continues to hang over his head and he sabotages Amy to keep this secret, there’s no space for sympathy. His active choices and awareness means he doesn’t redeem himself until he holds himself to account.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights and Safety
And then there’s Sonya. We posed the question some time ago on whether or not we were too hard on Sonya.
I present the question again: were we being fair to her?
Most of Doc Season 1 Episode 7 gives us background, and now we better understand her headspace and why Amy’s comments about being a terrible doctor hurt her so much.
It wasn’t so much what Amy said as it was when she said it. These harsh critiques came the morning after Ravi brutally raped Sonya, and her head wasn’t in the game. She also admired Amy, and her mother already dismissed her experience.
No, it’s not fair that Sonya spent five years harboring a grudge and directing all of her animosity toward Amy for something she had no clue about, but at least the context fills in the gaps.
Sonya’s Trauma Survivor Background Fleshes Her Out
It was Sonya’s best episode, and Anya Banerjee delivered a fantastic performance.
We could ascertain the real issue from the second Sonya walked into that room and saw Ravi. It’s tragically sad how women know; we always know.
Her flinch and recoil when he touched her hand said more than she ever could, and it was obvious she shouldn’t have been anywhere near that case moving forward.
Of course, Amy wasn’t certain and didn’t have the authority to pull her off of it. As a result, we had yet another disturbing medical incident for this pair.
Team Amnya should probably not work together because one or both of them will cross some serious lines that should result in losing their medical license.
Amy is a Girl’s Girl with Unexpected But Necessary Team-up
It was more frustrating that everyone saw how off Sonya was and didn’t know how to approach or do anything about it, but then, that’s par for the course and exactly how things went for her five years before.
Sonya nearly killing her rapist wasn’t all that surprising, but it was still jarring to see how far she went with it and how Amy and Sonya had to cover their tracks afterward.
Fortunately (I guess), he’s not dead, but things got dicey for those two, and it should probably be a point of concern that they cross so many ethical boundaries on this series to this degree and write them off easily.
At this rate, Miller should have told the truth. Nothing likely would’ve happened to him, and if something does, it may not be as fulfilling when the rules seem to vary depending on the character.
What this case did, however, was bring Sonya and Amy together, connecting as women, and it was a beautiful sight.
Sonya’s Case Should’ve Dominated Doc Season 1 Episode 7
It’s an essential turn in their relationship, and we can probably anticipate that there will be a truce and some civility between them moving forward now.
There were some other frustrating moments. I understand the motivations behind Sonya encouraging the other raper survivor to come forward, especially since she was willing to do so herself. It was a lot of pressure, too.
And things moved rather quickly as we got to Sonya with Amy and Miller’s support, telling Michael about everything and giving him the rape kit she administered herself five years before.
This storyline needed more time to breathe, maybe one that should’ve taken up the entire hour instead of splitting it with Jake and TJ’s case.
Jake and TJ’s case was interesting and a bit heartbreaking. They used it to highlight how TJ often treats everything as if it’s black and white and doesn’t always understand the nuances of grey in people’s lives.
Jake and TJ’s Case Reveals Little About Them on Doc Season 1 Episode 7
Surprisingly, this father went his entire life unaware that he had cystic fibrosis.
And the complicated nature of his son’s paternity didn’t seem like it should’ve had as much weight as TJ, in particular, was ascribed to it when the couple shared that they had an on/off-again relationship for a bit in the first place.
Through this situation, we learned that Jake’s wife was unfaithful to him, presumably, and that’s what drove them apart.
It’s a small tidbit about Doc’s Golden Boy, but I still need much more about him.
As far as the Amy/Jake relationship, I know I’m probably in the minority here, but I find the two jumping into the bed together as if it’s the old times concerning.
Amy and Jake’s Quick Reunion is Actually Concerning
I get that the chemistry is there, and it feels good for both of them, but there’s a lot to unpack, and no one is unpacking.
Amy doesn’t remember her first relationship with Jake. She’s unaware of the love that may have been between them, how she felt about their relationship, and the nature of this secret romance.
All Amy knows is that Jake was the nicest to her since all this happened, and she was in a relationship with him. It seems murky to conflate their five-month pre-amnesiac relationship with whatever they’re doing now.
Jake is thrilled to have Amy back in his life, but it’s not the same Amy, either. But they’re carrying on as if they’re picking their relationship back up from where it was, and they aren’t.
It’s something off about this whole situation for me, and it also feels like it can’t possibly end well if they managed to jump back in bed with one another this soon.
Jake may be carrying on as if they’re picking up where they left off, but it’s likely not the same for Amy, and someone is bound to get hurt. Plus, the whole secrecy of it all is an issue as well.
Over to you, Doc Fanatics.
Do you like Sonya more now that you know her past?
Do you sympathize with Miller?
Are Amy and Jake moving too fast? Let’s hear it below!
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Article by:Source: Jasmine Blu
