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7
" gives "Emily Owens, M.D. - Season 1" a 7."
Written by on 6 April 2013.
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Emily Owens, M.D. - Season 1

Is it possible for yet another medical drama to add something to this already extensive genre? The creators of the new series Emily Owens M.D. must have been asking themselves the same thing. With famous examples like Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and of course House it seems as though most has already been used: drama, comedy, or even a mix between the two. Considering this, Emily Owens M.D. can be compared to Grey’s Anatomy, since it is mostly about the main character who is struggling with herself and her love life. What’s been changed, though, is against what it’s compared. The idea is that a hospital and everything that comes along with it is in fact no different from high school, which is a perspective we have not yet encountered before.

Emily Owens (Mamie Gummer, from Off the Map, another medical drama), an insecure and clumsy doctor, realises straight from the start that there are many stereotypes which bear a very close resemblance to characters from her high school. Examples of this are her nemesis and former-classmate Cassandra Kopelson (Aja Naomi King), the evil teacher Gina Bandari (Necar Zadegan, 24) and the best friend, Tyra Dupre (Kelly McCreary). There’s also the love triangle, which consists of Emily and two men who both fancy her. The first is the tall, handsome and mysterious Will Collins (Justin Hartley, who also starred in Smallville), whom she has been in love with since med school. The second is her very sweet and caring boss Micah Barnes (Michael Rady, Melrose Place). At first Emily is entirely focussed on Will, but somewhere along the line she also picks up an interest for Micah. This is a common formula for plenty of drama, but a refreshing sense of humour keeps it interesting.

One of the strong aspects of the series is that it is a lot lighter than the other series. This is pointed out straight from the start during the intro video where butterflies are flying from an X-ray, and it shows that the series puts emphasis on personal (love) issues rather than showing the medical procedures in an OR. The comparison between the hospital and high school is very original, and also their attempt at adding more depth to the characters is nicely done. For instance, Emily’s best friend is gay and still has to come out to her dad. The nemesis does have a sweeter side and Will is not only handsome but also had to face several problems when he was younger. The downside to this is that all these things are only mentioned once or twice, so the characters stay quite flat and stereotypical (the reason for this, however, is that the series was cancelled).

Not only the characters are somewhat lacking in originality, but also the cases, patients and operations seem to have been borrowed from other medical dramas; there is a girl who’s struggling with her OCD, a couple is faced with serious pregnancy problems and also cancer is a recurring theme. It would have been more interesting if there had been more ground-breaking research, for example. Still this can be forgiven, since it is mainly about Emily and her feelings, so the patients only create the background in front of which the story is set. This has been done quite inventively; like Grey’s Anatomy every episode begins and ends with a voice over, but this time Emily also informs us about her deepest thoughts during the episode. So whenever she’s made another stupid mistake we hear her shout out things like ‘Why!?’ and so on. This adds a funny layer to the show, and makes it easier to sympathise with her, which is also the strongest aspect of the show. It demonstrates that a hospital does not only hire beautiful, perfect doctors, but also those who are not popular and will always feel a little abandoned by the others, which is a very inspiring new insight in the genre.

In conclusion, even considering the many stereotypes which the series could not avoid, the series is still interesting because of its different perspective. It is good to know that yet another medical drama can introduce an idea which has not used before, and I think that’s quite impressive. Unfortunately, though, the series has been cancelled and we will not see any more of it than just these 13 episodes. I think it’s a bad decision, since they could have extended the depth of the characters which would make it a better show altogether. Nevertheless, we will never know, and we can only guess how it would have ended, and I like to think they had more in stock but they weren’t allowed to prove it.
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