A Man. And His Blog.

Yes, the pilot was solid entertainment. Yes, it is basically just “Grey’s Amazony”. But the second episode was worse than expected, though I expected the series getting worse with one single episode. I was bored throughout the 41 minutes, which didn’t have thrilling stories, which only had lame and already-seen character moments, and which didn’t even had stellar acting from the whole cast. At least the three youngsters still look good in their roles, but it wouldn’t hurt for OFF THE MAP to be cancelled soon, so that they can get a new (and better) job.

The episode really was boring. All three medical cases weren’t interesting enough for me, and they weren’t written to develop the characters. Instead they were written to fill the complete episode, so that the writers don’t have to write much about the relationships among the doctors, like between Zita (Valerie Cruz) and Otis (Jason George) - because before it looks too much like “Grey’s Amazony”, the series rather focuses on the medical cases and brings the character scenes during the first and last two minutes of the episode. The only thing is: It’s totally lame.

The Anaconda case with Brian (Adam Campbell) could have been thrilling, but somehow the logic was completely missing. I don’t know why I should have bought the premise of an Anaconda keeping Brian alive, and why it was so “normal” for the doctors to think that transporting Brian to the hospital (especially walking through the lake) wouldn’t result in complications, or (as the snake did it) the snake disappearing, bringing Brian in life-threatening danger. When they all were in the lake, I was instantly counting the seconds, until something happened, and the Anaconda vanished. Boom, it happened, and the case got even more predictable. At least the surgery part was a bit interesting, and I liked that Lily (Caroline Dhavernas) was more human during the procedure than the other docs (well, the writers still had to bring some “I love this girl” moments from Ben [Martin Henderson] to Lily).

Mina’s (Mamie Gummer) case with Bruno (Luis Chávez) and his sister (Christina Souza) could have been more interesting, when the episode would have focused more on it. The conflict between Mina and Ryan (Rachelle Lefevre) was actually interesting, and it was nice to see that Bruno actually died at the end – though the emotional moment of it was even more lame than some of Meredith’s lamest voiceovers in GREY’S ANATOMY.

Tommy’s (Zach Gilford) case with Sofia (Giselle Bonilla) was the most interesting of the episode, since he clashed with the culture of the family. But I wonder why almost everybody in the jungle speaks English (same goes with why the rookies don’t speak Spanish). But I loved the dynamic between Tommy and Papa (Cheech Marin), and some of the subtile jokes (Tommy fell on his head as a kid) were worth a smile. But the conclusion was lame. All of a sudden, Tommy sutures up Sofia, and no demons can’t get in anymore? Somehow the family was way too open-minded for such medicine, though the episode wanted to tell me that Tommy and his knowledge about modern medicine don’t have a chance with them. That he could convince them so easily was an easy way out of this culture-clash storyline. Lame.

I will give this show another episode to bring me to watch it through the season. Otherwise I’m gonna cancel it next week. 4.5/10

Where are Jennifer Lopez and Jon Voight, when you need them?

Tommy treats Brazil, though Argentina is better

I’m still trying to fight myself through GREY’S ANATOMY, which is why I haven’t found a chance to start watching PRIVATE PRACTICE. But I can surely say that I’m not fond of those medical-dramedies with romance, relationships, boyfriend/girlfriend trouble and more. Maybe the Hawaiian setting is helping me through the series. And since the pilot was pretty much solid, didn’t bore me much, or tried to cut back those rolleyes-moments, I almost can be sure that the rest of the season (and as long as the ratings are not killer: the rest of the series) will be solid. Almost like anything I’m watching on the side.

It was good that the first episode focused on the work of the three new doctors in the city of stars, rather than starting the usual who’s-sleeping-with-whom. And I hope that won’t be a major storyline in future episodes – I was already annoyed to see that Mina (Mamie Gummer) and Lily (Caroline Dhavernas) were secretly unclothing Ben (Martin Henderson) in their minds, when he was changing his clothes while showing his upper body. I actually hate those kind of scenes, since they don’t have any meaning for the story (especially here, in the pilot), and I couldn’t get really through the first couple of minutes, when the three rookies were thinking to have the best time of their life, because there is a beach and they can surf. But when the action finally began, the episode started to entertain me.

And here I hope that the writers will continue focusing on the work, rather than copying the GREY’S ANATOMY. I liked how the three youngsters were busy with their work, while the “oldies” seemed to behaved like the big bosses of the jungle clinic. While I was interested to see how Lily manages to save the guy’s life on the zipline, and interested to see how Tommy (Zach Gilford) is helping the TB family, I was clearly rolling my eyes and basically hating the experienced characters, especially Otis (Jason George), when they were talking to the newbies. Oh yeah, Otis was the most annoying character of the episode, and I still wonder how Jason George is still getting roles on ABC shows. He might have been somewhat important on ELI STONE; but every other role of his was going from annoying to irrelevant, and back to “first death of the series” material.

Despite George, the cast looks good and the characters are likable. Lily, Mina and Tommy are giving a good threesome of friends, who share the pain and happiness of the first days in the jungle. And it helps much, when all three actors are talented enough to deliver such easy-going characters. Maybe the writers will see that their cast can pull off a bit more than usual on an ABC dramedy, which is why I hope there will be some real drama on the show later. On the other hand, the older threesome Zita/Otis/Ben isn’t interesting for now – they didn’t even have proper storylines to start the series with, instead they were just the bosses, or just annoying. But every series needs some characters I absolutely hate. Moreover, I don’t think that Martin Henderson can pull off being the next McDreamy.

The medical stories were alright. I loved the zipline accident, though the whole “wife ashes” thing got a bit too stereotypical at the end. Tommy’s troubles with treating the TB family was nice also, and I liked how he got into a character developing moment, when he desperately tried to convince the father (despite the moment being cheesy). Only Mina’s hours in the clinic were a bit boring. Of course she didn’t see the asthma on the old lady, and of course she almost made the mistake, which already cost her previous life to fail.

But I’ve had a big problem with one thing: I couldn’t buy for one second that OFF THE MAP is set in South America. All the time I saw Hawaii, and all the time I asked myself why the show couldn’t just play on Hawaii. Maybe it’s not good to have two shows on the air, which are set on Hawaii, and only one show is actually playing on Hawaii. But hey, Hawaii looks still dreamy.

It was a solid series premiere, and I hope I don’t have to see much of those relationship crap, which seems to run over ABC and their dramedies. 7/10

Busy on the zipline: Lily proves herself

Going with the fan: the new threesome of friends