Doctor Odyssey – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Pilot

Episode 1 of Doctor Odyssey starts with us introduced to our central group of characters. It’s 6 hours until showtime as The Odyssey gets ready for her maiden voyage, which is the main setting for this medical drama.

Doctor Campbell is no longer with them though. He’s not dead, but he’s had to be let go after a rather unsavory incident. The Captain reminds his subordinates that they need to be on the apex of their game. If not, then they could be replaced.

With Doctor Campbell gone, Avery steps up and believes she’s perfect foe the role. She’s flanked by Tristan, who has been on the ship for 3 years. Out of 110 applicants though, the Captain is not hiring from within and he’s confident he’s found the perfect candidate.

This guy has been part of the Peace Corp, won awards and has a whole bunch of other accolades. This is Dr Max Bankman, so the Captain tasks these two to make sure he settles in without a hitch.

Max is quite eccentric and immediately stamps his authority on the ward, making changes by introducing a dialysis machine and making sure everything runs smoothly.

Now, Tristan runs under the idea of working hard and playing hard too. Max is here to try and sort his work/life balance out as well, but the pair do have different outlooks on life.

It doesn’t take long for the gang to get their first case. Burt was over by the Margarita mixer and he was feeling strange then started being sick. It seems to be an allergic reaction to something, which would normally be oral medication. However, it would appear the culprit here is shrimp. Burt basically has Iodine poisoning, having eaten way too much shrimp in a short space of time.

Max thanks the others for their deduction skills in figuring this out, and speaks to the Captain about the cruise ship incidents. The Captain retorts out that he has a duty to make sure nobody dies on the ship, and reiterates how crucial it is to make sure everything goes over smoothly.

However, that’s immediately put to the test when one of the patients ends up breaking his penis. Max knows they need to act immediately, and that includes surgery. It’s actually toe-curling and a bit cringe, especially if you know how utterly excruciatingly painful it is to “miss” and have this happen.

Off the back of this, there’s some artificial tension brought about by Tristan unhappy at Max giving him orders, despite being his boss. As for Avery, she’s curious over Max’s knowledge surrounding a broken penis.

She brings up how Tristan is a good right-hand man and that they’re all here for the same reason. While Tristan has a negative impression of him, Avery does not. There’s a bit of romantic tension here, but it’s largely dissipated as the cruise continues on.

The group stop for a while as they party it up on a little island. Whilst there, we learn that Tristan actually likes Avery, but the latter looks at him like a sibling. There’s some day-drinking and banter thrown out, eventually leading to a dance-off between Tristan and Max. The latter wins outright.

This gets Avery hot under the collar and she ends up taking Max back to the boat, where the pair hook up. Max opens up about the past, including how he had COVID at one point and  had it bad. He was in isolation for a long time and they didn’t want to risk exposing the whole hospital so he was kept on his own.

While they talk, there’s another accident on the ship. A kid gets drunk and ends up falling overboard. The Captain winds up seeing this and brings the group in to debrief them. It turns out the kid was taking drugs at the time, so he could well freeze if they don’t get him back quickly.

Trying to get him back is going to be difficult, so the Captain decides they need to alert the other ships in the area, and launch a lifeboat to get into the water and try to find him. Avery, Tristan and Max all join together as they head out, and eventually find the guy. They bring him back and everything is hunky dory.

Back on the boat, Max speaks to Tristan and apologizes for hooking up with Avery. The pair make pals again, and as the episode ends, we get a little update on all these little couples we’ve been following and patched up over time.

The Episode Review

Good grief, there are bad pilots and then there’s Doctor Odyssey. It’s hard to know where to start with this one but lets dive right in.

The script, at least for the pilot, is based on the premise of a simple medical drama set on a cruise boat with a group of eccentric workers.

It’s simple, and unfortunately it’s immediately made unrealistic by the sheer number of cases thrown at the gang immediately. We get a man overboard, allergic reactions and even a penile fracture, all of which with no build-up, no characterisation around any of the supporting characters, and nothing that helps us grow closer to the main cast.

And lets talk about that shall we? The trio at the center of this are as bland and cookie cutter as you can get. We get the dumb, charismatic male that thinks he’s all that, only to realize he’s not.

We get Avery, the smart but hotheaded female, and Max, the suave, charismatic protagonist who’s the star doctor. And of course we get the inevitable love triangle here too.

The entire script is so ludicrously bad but sometimes that can make for an entertaining watch. Not here though. This feels like a lame 80’s medical drama, packed with cliches, easy-to-resolve issues and eye-rolling moments. What an absolute mess, not even the charisma from Joshua Jackson can carry this one.

And having realized there’s at least still 12 more episodes of this to go, the race to become the worst TV show of 2024 could well be taken by this drama.