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lizbee(Using a Shiv icon because Sophia Bush compared it to Succession, and honey, that's laughably wrong but I respect the attempt, and also I keep telling myself I'm not going to make icons for this trainwreck, that is A STEP TOO FAR.)
Making a DW post because (a)pixiedane should not be forced to stand alone before the firehose of my FEELINGS; (b) I'm trying to use DW more; (c) maybe I'll inspire people to watch it and have feelings with me, even though you absolutely should not.
So the premise of Good Sam is that Sophia Bush plays the titular Sam (her alleged "goodness" is one of the things I have FEELINGS about), a talented cardiothoracic surgeon whose boss, Griff (Jason Isaacs, 60% of the reason I'm here), is also her dad. Trust me, that is just the beginning of the HR nightmares we're about to face, because her mother/his ex-wife (Wendy Crewson, the other 40%) is the hospital's chief medical officer and above both of them in the hierarchy.
Griff gets shot in the pilot's teaser, spends six months in a coma, and when he wakes up (instantaneously, with only a couple of weeks of rehab before he's up and about and making declarations about the firmness of his ass), he finds that Sam has inherited his job (no, I know) and that she has to supervise him for three months before he's allowed to practice medicine again.
He takes this as well as any rich white male egomaniac, in that he immediately turns around and starts sabotaging his daughter's career. Shenanigans ensue.
Wow, you weren't kidding when you said this wasn't good!
I mean, it's a CBS medical drama and that is the premise. My expectations weren't high.
And yet here we are...
LOOK. The first episode was silly in exactly the way I needed (a cast of talented actors delivering straightfaced melodrama), and after a terrible third episode, it's actually picking up. Once you accept the absurdity of the premise and the fact that this is a medical drama where I don't think any of the writers care about the medicine, it's turning out to be a fun time.
Also, against my will, I have come to care about these characters.
Even the ones who aren't played by Jason Isaacs?
I did not come here to be attacked like this.
IN SERIOUSNESS, yes, Isaacs is the reason I started watching, and Griff is the main reason I'm sticking around, even though the writers have VASTLY overestimated the modern audience's tolerance for the white male asshole genius, and also I'm not even convinced he's that smart. The first couple of episodes had me going, "Okay, this asshole is worse than mirror Lorca, and he's not even taking his shirt off!"
But Isaacs is filling in the gaps where the writing falls down, and the writing is improving. And he has chemistry with everyone, which is good because Sam's love triangle is, uhhhh. We'll get to that.
The other reason I downloaded the pilot is that Sam's mother, Vivian, is played by Wendy Crewson, who was originally cast as Admiral Cornwell in season 1 of Discovery.
At least, so I surmise -- she was announced as a "female admiral" in March 2017, and did a red carpet spot where she talked about it. Obviously she made no such appearance, and though there were a couple of low-profile female admirals late in season 1, the only role that would justify an actress of Crewson's profile is Cornwell. My assumption is that the notorious production delays of the first season meant Crewson's availability changed, and the part was offered to Jayne Brook, who has worked with the then-showrunners a lot.
So I, as a good little fangirl, figured this was a fun opportunity to see what kind of chemistry Isaacs and Crewson have, and maybe get an idea of how she might have played Admiral Kat.
In that sense, Good Sam is basically a gift just for me: Vivian spends most of the first couple of episodes lecturing Griff about chains of command and basic professionalism. Soooooooo it's a lot like Kat's first appearances, and I feel like I can say that Crewson's Kat would have been a bit more of a ball breaker than Brook's, and probably wouldn't have had that last minute reprieve that saw the writers rewrite the end of "Lethe" so she lived. (But the chemistry is undeniable, I'm super glad they had the opportunity to work together after all.)
And then I started seeing the characters in their own right, and less as figures in a Discovery hospital AU, and probably my brain is better for it.
Probably.
Sooooo who are these characters and why is an entire family working in one hospital?
Oh my imaginary friend, you don't know the half of it.
We have the senior medical staff:
Liz, this show sounds like a hot mess
I DID TELL YOU.
But also I don't think it knows it's a hot mess? The tone is wildly uneven -- there's a lot of comedy music, and I do not think the writers realise how little patience the average viewer has for Griff. I mean, I am entertained by him, but I'm not the typical viewer -- and even I have a different, better version of the show that lives in my head. (I'm also very keen for someone to point out to Sam that she has solid grounds to sue the hospital for discrimination after they confirmed her as chief, then withdrew that as soon as her father woke up.)
It is improving. I would almost go so far as to say that episode 5 is almost good. The biggest problem in the earlier episodes was that Griff was the most dynamic character and everyone else was reacting to him -- and he never faced consequences for his behaviour. That finally changed in episode 4, when Sam took a more proactive role, and the ensemble outside the family and Lex started to get fleshed out.
(Can we count Lex as part of the family now? I'm on the fence, because this is gonna be a trainwreck of a relationship and the only question is how much collateral damage there'll be when it ends.)
Also it sounds like Sam is not actually good
Sam is very much a product of her parents, especially her father. She is unapologetically ambitious, which I love in a female character, and also has an ego. Like, in episode 2 she kicks a scrub nurse out of surgery after the nurse suggests calling in her father. (RIP Scrub Nurse Jodie, eviscerated in a single glance.) And she goes from shaming her father for not blowing the whistle on the faulty drug trial, to ... not blowing the whistle on the faulty drug trial -- and her reasons are arguably more self-serving.
Honestly, this is GREAT. I love a character with a blind spot. Sam is genuinely a better chief than her father -- she's more collaborative, she has soft skills, she doesn't announce her entrance by going around the room insulting people -- but she's very much a Morally Ambiguous Older Woman in the making, and I appreciate that.
(I would also appreciate it if the audience realised this.)
This is basically a soap opera, so obviously it's a problem that her romantic entanglements are so boring. (I mean, it's not a problem for me, but again, I'm not the typical viewer.) On the other hand, it means that Sam's most compelling relationships are with her parents, and her complicated friendship with Lex.
So what's the version that exists in your head?
Back around episode 3, I said that if CBS called me in to fix the show (and it's a mystery why they're not beating down my door), I would:
But mostly it boils down to "accept the inherent absurdity of the premise but with better writing, and also stop undermining your story with unnecessary 'comedy' music".
It's getting there. It's never going to be a prestige drama, even on the level of House (which I watched for a couple of season and even wrote fic for, and frankly Good Sam is close to a House AU where Cameron is his daughter instead of the default love interest -- given the force with which I did not ship House/Cameron, the appeal here is obvious). But it's CBS's only medical drama right now, and though ratings are average, it's consistently coming second in its time slot, losing out to Sophia Bush's old show. So I'm cautiously optimistic for a second season, and also I am DESPERATE to find out what Vivian and Griff are keeping from Sam.
("Sam's biological parentage is not what it seems" is just SO BORING because it makes no difference, these are the people who raised her, even if it did require a little open heart surgery along the way. Also Isaacs and Crewson are such good casting for Sophia Bush's parents, even though Isaacs is technically too young to be her father. Crewson, in an unusual twist, is older. Anyway, I'm sticking with my "they had an older child and either it died or they gave it up for adoption" theory, although I'm also open to anything involving hyperevolved lizard babies abandoned in the delta quadrant and no one can stop me.)
Do you have a conclusion?
Only that this is the television equivalent of Yalumba cask wine, which is, not coincidentally, what I like to drink while watching it: much better than it should be, but you can't share it without a twinge of embarrassment. I am watching for impure reasons (in terms of both my feelings for Jason Isaacs and my willingness to forgive The Worst Male Character) and I own that, but I'm also having a lot of fun. It's exactly what I need in this, our third year of the pandemic. And not just because it's unspeakably rare and therefore sexy when middle-aged men wear surgical masks over their noses.
Making a DW post because (a)
pixiedane should not be forced to stand alone before the firehose of my FEELINGS; (b) I'm trying to use DW more; (c) maybe I'll inspire people to watch it and have feelings with me, even though you absolutely should not.So the premise of Good Sam is that Sophia Bush plays the titular Sam (her alleged "goodness" is one of the things I have FEELINGS about), a talented cardiothoracic surgeon whose boss, Griff (Jason Isaacs, 60% of the reason I'm here), is also her dad. Trust me, that is just the beginning of the HR nightmares we're about to face, because her mother/his ex-wife (Wendy Crewson, the other 40%) is the hospital's chief medical officer and above both of them in the hierarchy.
Griff gets shot in the pilot's teaser, spends six months in a coma, and when he wakes up (instantaneously, with only a couple of weeks of rehab before he's up and about and making declarations about the firmness of his ass), he finds that Sam has inherited his job (no, I know) and that she has to supervise him for three months before he's allowed to practice medicine again.
He takes this as well as any rich white male egomaniac, in that he immediately turns around and starts sabotaging his daughter's career. Shenanigans ensue.
Wow, you weren't kidding when you said this wasn't good!
I mean, it's a CBS medical drama and that is the premise. My expectations weren't high.
And yet here we are...
LOOK. The first episode was silly in exactly the way I needed (a cast of talented actors delivering straightfaced melodrama), and after a terrible third episode, it's actually picking up. Once you accept the absurdity of the premise and the fact that this is a medical drama where I don't think any of the writers care about the medicine, it's turning out to be a fun time.
Also, against my will, I have come to care about these characters.
Even the ones who aren't played by Jason Isaacs?
I did not come here to be attacked like this.
IN SERIOUSNESS, yes, Isaacs is the reason I started watching, and Griff is the main reason I'm sticking around, even though the writers have VASTLY overestimated the modern audience's tolerance for the white male asshole genius, and also I'm not even convinced he's that smart. The first couple of episodes had me going, "Okay, this asshole is worse than mirror Lorca, and he's not even taking his shirt off!"
But Isaacs is filling in the gaps where the writing falls down, and the writing is improving. And he has chemistry with everyone, which is good because Sam's love triangle is, uhhhh. We'll get to that.
The other reason I downloaded the pilot is that Sam's mother, Vivian, is played by Wendy Crewson, who was originally cast as Admiral Cornwell in season 1 of Discovery.
At least, so I surmise -- she was announced as a "female admiral" in March 2017, and did a red carpet spot where she talked about it. Obviously she made no such appearance, and though there were a couple of low-profile female admirals late in season 1, the only role that would justify an actress of Crewson's profile is Cornwell. My assumption is that the notorious production delays of the first season meant Crewson's availability changed, and the part was offered to Jayne Brook, who has worked with the then-showrunners a lot.
So I, as a good little fangirl, figured this was a fun opportunity to see what kind of chemistry Isaacs and Crewson have, and maybe get an idea of how she might have played Admiral Kat.
In that sense, Good Sam is basically a gift just for me: Vivian spends most of the first couple of episodes lecturing Griff about chains of command and basic professionalism. Soooooooo it's a lot like Kat's first appearances, and I feel like I can say that Crewson's Kat would have been a bit more of a ball breaker than Brook's, and probably wouldn't have had that last minute reprieve that saw the writers rewrite the end of "Lethe" so she lived. (But the chemistry is undeniable, I'm super glad they had the opportunity to work together after all.)
And then I started seeing the characters in their own right, and less as figures in a Discovery hospital AU, and probably my brain is better for it.
Probably.
Sooooo who are these characters and why is an entire family working in one hospital?
Oh my imaginary friend, you don't know the half of it.
We have the senior medical staff:
- Dr Samantha Griffith: long-suffering daughter, talented surgeon, protagonist. May not, in fact, be a "good" person. At least, I hope not.
- Dr Rob "Griff" Griffith: stereotypical surgical egomaniac. Terrible husband. Lousy father. Horrible goose. His motivations for railing against the loss of his job and the need for a proctorship range from the cliche but FINE ("surgery is the only time it's quiet in my head") to the patronising ("Sam isn't ready) to the SKETCHY (not wanting Sam to find out about some dodgy drug trials he signed off) to the interesting but wrongheaded (not wanting Sam to have to make ethical compromises) to the understandable but self-serving and shortsighted ("I want this job because it's where you are"). Once caused a car accident in which Sam was injured to the point of requiring open heart surgery. I made the mistake of googling that sort of injury right before a driving lesson.
- Dr Vivian Katz: their mother/ex-wife and boss. She thinks she is the voice of reason, but she is ALSO a messy bench who loves drama. She and Griff are keeping some sort of secret from Sam, and while the popular theory is that either she's adopted or that Griff is not her biological father, I am Team Secret Baby Given Up For Adoption Or Died Before Sam Was Old Enough To Remember. Either way, this is exactly the sort of quality parenting I enjoy in my fiction.
- Dr Rhonda Glass: Like Vivian and Griff, a foundational part of the hospital. (I assume Vivian wrote the HR policies herself...) Head of plastic surgery, and a brilliant surgeon save that her tummy tucks allegedly have a higher-than-average complication rate. Is engaged in separate feuds with Vivian and Griff, temporarily allied with Sam against them. Another drama llama and the second morally ambiguous older woman in this show. I like to think she and Vivian had a messy fling back in the day.
- Dr Asher Pyne: Vivian's trophy husband. Seriously, he's played by Sendhil Ramamurthy, who is just ten years older than Sophia Bush. He is allegedly a psychiatrist ("Psychiatry doesn't count" - Sam and Griff in unison), but seems to practice a limited form of talk therapy that mostly involves breathing exercises. Either he is a fake psychiatrist or the writers just don't know what psychiatry entails. Either way, his passive-aggressive relationship with Sam and Griff is extremely entertaining to me.
- I feel like there must be other surgeons in the cardiothoracic department, but they are invisible. Most of our time is taken up with...
- Dr Joey Costa: an aspiring plastic surgeon/Mean Gay. His long-suffering boyfriend is trying to teach him how to make friends; they just got engaged and will make a beautiful divorced couple one day.
- Dr Isan M. Shah: beautiful cinnamon roll, too pure, too good for this world. Is said to lack confidence. The resident most likely to snap and murder Griff.
- Dr Caleb Tucker: the most junior resident yet also the most arrogant. One angle of Sam's boring love triangle, and yes, she basically dated a younger version of her father. A recovering alcoholic who got sober in the aftermath of Griff's shooting. I actually don't hate him except when he's interacting with Sam.
- Dr Lex Trulie: Sam's best friend. My personal queen. Seems to be the stereotypical Supportive Black Best Friend until she's revealed in the first episode to have been sleeping with Griff. Yes, he's her BFF's dad. No, that's not a great choice, but have you seen Jason Isaacs? The latest episode reveals her own trauma from the shooting, and she addresses the fact that she has been putting Sam's needs ahead of her own. Her own needs turn out to start with fucking Griff, and again: the woman has eyes, okay? Also they have actual chemistry and seem to genuinely like each other. If I sound defensive, it's because the (tiny) fandom has declared this The Most Toxic Relationship Ever and there is a lot of subtle racism about Lex prioritising her needs ahead of a white lady's. I didn't want to ship it, but I do.
- Malcolm Kingsley: Sam's current boyfriend, and the son of a prominent donor/the chairman of the board. Nepotism: it's not JUST for rich white people! He's played by Aldis Hodge's brother, so he's very easy on the eye and charming, but literally all they talk about, even in bed, is Sam's dad. Like, did I write this? Nevertheless, he and Sam are on their way to recreating her parents' marriage, and I respect that.
- Byron Kingsley: Malcolm's dad, Griff's golf buddy, willing to do shady things to get Griff his job back.
- Helen Fletcher: billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical company, and Griff's biggest donor. When she ran a dodgy drug trial that required his sign off, he blackmailed her into giving a big payout to the three subjects who experienced side effects. Sam, on finding out, blackmails her again to support her promotion. We'll probably never see her again but I love her because she's the show's third morally ambiguous older woman, and also I love it when Sam is terrible.
Liz, this show sounds like a hot mess
I DID TELL YOU.
But also I don't think it knows it's a hot mess? The tone is wildly uneven -- there's a lot of comedy music, and I do not think the writers realise how little patience the average viewer has for Griff. I mean, I am entertained by him, but I'm not the typical viewer -- and even I have a different, better version of the show that lives in my head. (I'm also very keen for someone to point out to Sam that she has solid grounds to sue the hospital for discrimination after they confirmed her as chief, then withdrew that as soon as her father woke up.)
It is improving. I would almost go so far as to say that episode 5 is almost good. The biggest problem in the earlier episodes was that Griff was the most dynamic character and everyone else was reacting to him -- and he never faced consequences for his behaviour. That finally changed in episode 4, when Sam took a more proactive role, and the ensemble outside the family and Lex started to get fleshed out.
(Can we count Lex as part of the family now? I'm on the fence, because this is gonna be a trainwreck of a relationship and the only question is how much collateral damage there'll be when it ends.)
Also it sounds like Sam is not actually good
Sam is very much a product of her parents, especially her father. She is unapologetically ambitious, which I love in a female character, and also has an ego. Like, in episode 2 she kicks a scrub nurse out of surgery after the nurse suggests calling in her father. (RIP Scrub Nurse Jodie, eviscerated in a single glance.) And she goes from shaming her father for not blowing the whistle on the faulty drug trial, to ... not blowing the whistle on the faulty drug trial -- and her reasons are arguably more self-serving.
Honestly, this is GREAT. I love a character with a blind spot. Sam is genuinely a better chief than her father -- she's more collaborative, she has soft skills, she doesn't announce her entrance by going around the room insulting people -- but she's very much a Morally Ambiguous Older Woman in the making, and I appreciate that.
(I would also appreciate it if the audience realised this.)
This is basically a soap opera, so obviously it's a problem that her romantic entanglements are so boring. (I mean, it's not a problem for me, but again, I'm not the typical viewer.) On the other hand, it means that Sam's most compelling relationships are with her parents, and her complicated friendship with Lex.
So what's the version that exists in your head?
Back around episode 3, I said that if CBS called me in to fix the show (and it's a mystery why they're not beating down my door), I would:
- introduce a problem for Griff that he can't bully or bluster his way through -- probably a long-term complication of the shooting and coma that could prevent him from practising medicine at all
- clarify his reasons for wanting his job back, when he could simply be a diva surgeon and not worry about bureaucracy
- give him an age appropriate love interest, ideally a surgeon who is his equal for skill and ego, who can be mentor/foil/inspiration/warning for Sam
- do ... something with Sam's love interests, because they are both so boring
But mostly it boils down to "accept the inherent absurdity of the premise but with better writing, and also stop undermining your story with unnecessary 'comedy' music".
It's getting there. It's never going to be a prestige drama, even on the level of House (which I watched for a couple of season and even wrote fic for, and frankly Good Sam is close to a House AU where Cameron is his daughter instead of the default love interest -- given the force with which I did not ship House/Cameron, the appeal here is obvious). But it's CBS's only medical drama right now, and though ratings are average, it's consistently coming second in its time slot, losing out to Sophia Bush's old show. So I'm cautiously optimistic for a second season, and also I am DESPERATE to find out what Vivian and Griff are keeping from Sam.
("Sam's biological parentage is not what it seems" is just SO BORING because it makes no difference, these are the people who raised her, even if it did require a little open heart surgery along the way. Also Isaacs and Crewson are such good casting for Sophia Bush's parents, even though Isaacs is technically too young to be her father. Crewson, in an unusual twist, is older. Anyway, I'm sticking with my "they had an older child and either it died or they gave it up for adoption" theory, although I'm also open to anything involving hyperevolved lizard babies abandoned in the delta quadrant and no one can stop me.)
Do you have a conclusion?
Only that this is the television equivalent of Yalumba cask wine, which is, not coincidentally, what I like to drink while watching it: much better than it should be, but you can't share it without a twinge of embarrassment. I am watching for impure reasons (in terms of both my feelings for Jason Isaacs and my willingness to forgive The Worst Male Character) and I own that, but I'm also having a lot of fun. It's exactly what I need in this, our third year of the pandemic. And not just because it's unspeakably rare and therefore sexy when middle-aged men wear surgical masks over their noses.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-07 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-07 09:41 pm (UTC)You are making a wise and sensible choice and I salute you.