If At First You Don’t Succeed… – As the opening episode of Doc begins, Dr. Amy Larsen (Molly Parker) is involved in a car accident. After surgery, Amy remembers her name and her workplace, Westside Hospital. Amy says she’s an attending physician in internal medicine. She was born in Tampa and now lives in Minneapolis. Amy says she has a nine and seven year old. Amy thinks Obama is president. 24 hours earlier, Amy Larsen calls about the Dixon autopsy. She wants Dr. Franco to call her as soon as she gets in. At the hospital, Dr. Sonya Maitra (Anya Banerjee) talks to Dr. Jake Heller (Jon-Michael Ecker) about his daughter’s Halloween costume. Sonya thinks he’s trying to get brownie points by getting coffee for Dr. Larsen.

Larsen asks about Dr. Miller who is going to be late. Jake interrupts to tell Amy they have a new patient and Sonya is having trouble with the diagnosis. They check on Jimmy and his wife Felicia (Rebecca Liddiard). Sonya tells them about the patient. Felicia believes she has a UTI since she gets them all the time and they get worse with the pregnancy. Felicia says they usually give her Keflex. Amy rudely scolds her and reminds her that she didn’t go to medical school. Jimmy calls her out on being rude, but Amy just ignores him. Amy says she has a heart murmur. She also finds splinter hemorrhages on her fingernails. Amy tells Sonya what to do. When Amy leaves, Jake asks if they want a great doctor or a warm and fuzzy one. Amy complains about Richard Miller (Scott Wolf) arriving two hours later. She asks him about Bill Dixon. Richard tells her what happened after Bill coded. Amy asks him about the unsealed vial of Metoprolol she found on the crash cart.

She suggests he accidentally mixed those up. Richard reminds her that her behavior is under review so she might be trying to find someone to replace her. Amy says she ordered an autopsy. If he’s lying, he’s done there. Theodore ‘TJ’ Coleman (Patrick Walker) tells some others about his horrible date. Amy scolds Coleman for telling a patient that they’ll be fine because they don’t give false hope. Felicia tells Dr. Peter Douglas (Douglas Nyback) about her relationship with Jimmy. Felicia begins seizing. Amy tries to get in touch with her daughter Katie. Jake tells her about Felicia seconds later. The lab said it should be an hour before they have an update on her blood cultures. Amy questions that. They go to a vehicle in the garage to make out. Jake gets a message confirming that Felicia’s cultures are still negative. Amy wants a TEE. Jake tells Amy that he loves her. She returns the favor. Amy tells Felicia that she needs a TEE.

Felicia gets upset and asks Amy why she’s like this. Amy says she’ll never have to see her again after they save her life. Dr. Gina Walker (Amirah Vann) tells Amy she booked a court and Wendy is going on a retreat. Dr. Michael Hamda (Omar Metwally) reminds Amy he wanted to see her. He warns her that the complaints are adding up. He tells her to go home and get some rest. As Amy drives home, she plays on her phone causing a wreck that nearly kills her. She’s taken to the hospital. Amy thinks about going on a trip with her kids. She wakes up in the hospital and talks to Gina about how she feels. Amy learns that her family wasn’t with her. Jake catches up with Gina to ask her about Amy. Gina says everyone will meet in the department office in 30 minutes. Dr. Hamda tells Richard that he’s going to name him interim chief. Richard thanks him for the opportunity. Dr. Hamda quickly says it’s a tragedy.

Gina explains to Amy why she has no memories of the last eight years of her life. It’s unknown whether her memories will return. When Amy is allowed to see her family, Dr. Hamda enters her room. He says they got divorced four years ago. Katie (Charlotte Fountain-Jardim) comes in to see her mother. Michael has to tell Amy that they lost Danny seven years ago due to his heart. Michael and Gina speak to the other team members. They explain that Amy has no recollection of the last eight years. They learn that Dr. Richard Miller is taking over. Although Amy is going to be on their floor, it’s best to stay away from her for a while. Next, Amy suggests it’s better that she forgets since she lost her husband and son. Gina says she saved many lives and became chief. Amy learns about Danny’s death. Amy is removed from ICU and taken to a patient room. Sonya checks on Jake who tells her that he and Amy were together.

Michael and Katie talk about Amy. Nurse Liz (Conni Miu) and the others gossip about Amy. One of them mentions karma. Coleman comes in and scolds them for saying that. Amy thinks about the past before breaking down on the floor. Richard Miller goes into Amy’s office. Jake notices him approaching her computer. Richard calls Victoria to talk to her about Amy’s case and being made chief. Jake finds Amy crying on the floor. He helps her get back into bed. Next, Jake speaks to Jimmy about running a test on Felicia. Douglas puts the tube down Felicia’s throat. He doesn’t see anything and her BP begins dropping. He thinks they should pause, but Jake says they should keep going. Jake nearly kills her as a result. Douglas tells him well done. Michael checks on Amy and brings her a wheelchair. She tries to figure out why their marriage fell apart. Michael says he can’t do this there.

He explains that she built up walls and shut everyone out. He also didn’t leave. She did. Dr. Hamda learns there has been an issue with one of the patients. He speaks to Richard, Sonya, and Jake. Richard argues they put her through the test for nothing. Douglas arrives and says his attending reviewed the TEE images on the big screen. He found a mitral valve ring abscess. The patient is refusing surgery. Dr. Hamda says he’ll speak to her. During the surgery, Jake speaks to Michael about what happened. TJ visits Amy who learns he’s an intern at the hospital thanks to her. He says she’s the reason he became a doctor. He hopes she comes back. Gina interrupts and learns that Michael said Amy put up walls. Amy believes she must have if she became chief. Gina suggests the accident gives her a chance to do things differently. Sonya finds Jake and says she answered the questions honestly.

She believes Peter was right and that his allegiance to Amy was clouding his judgment. Felicia finds Amy and finds out about the accident. Jimmy and Felicia thank her for saving Felicia’s life. Amy calls Michael who insists he’ll be there for her no matter what. Amy doesn’t know what she did or who she is now. She doesn’t think she can give up being a doctor. Amy asks Michael if he’ll help her do that. Michael says he can try. Michael’s new partner is pregnant.

 

Doc Review

The opening episode of Doc left a whole lot to be desired. Two warning signs here are the fact that this is based on an Italian series and that it’s heavily Canadian. Despite being set in Minneapolis, the series is filmed in Toronto, Canada. The performances aren’t particularly strong although the dialogue certainly doesn’t help matters.

Network television tends to be the worst and that rings true here. The series started out by making Dr. Amy Larsen the worst character in the whole show. There’s a good chance some viewers were hoping she wouldn’t make it through the crash. Of course, she just had to and she also had to be right about everything.

There’s also a lot about the episode that wasn’t remotely believable. For instance, Amy would’ve needed a lot of time to recover. However, Felicia was still in the hospital by the time Amy had recovered and was running around crying like a banshee. It’s also questionable whether the hospital would’ve allowed Amy to be so disruptive.

It’s unfortunate, but it was easier to sympathize with the coworkers who did not like Amy Larsen. The series should’ve built that character to be more likable instead of making her a witch. As a result, it’s hard to care about Amy, her recovery, or her pity party when she never cared about anyone else or showed any real compassion.

The dialogue and performances only served to make this even worse. This one should be on the chopping block sooner rather than later. The opening episode scores a 3.5 out of 10. Recaps of Doc can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.