I’ve been a medical drama woman since earlier than I spotted I used to be a medical drama woman.
This realization didn’t come till roughly two years in the past, which is probably going amusing to a lot of you who adopted my work, however I digress.
When CBS greenlit its personal medical drama that additionally served as a detective procedural, impressed by the long-lasting Arthur Conan Doyle character and starring endlessly crush Morris Chestnut, they bought my consideration.
Quick-forward to us getting three episodes into Watson Season 1, and properly, to place it mildly, it doesn’t have my consideration.
Lest anybody is inclined to field a woman in when she hates the confinements of them, genre-bending is extra interesting than something when watching a sequence.
There’s nothing higher than a present that is aware of how you can mess around with conventional formatting and classes to ship the very best of many or all worlds.
Style-bending and mixing is an artwork type, and so many sequence reach that enterprise.
Sadly, Watson isn’t considered one of them.
The irony of a sequence that goals to delve into hard-to-diagnose circumstances using a workforce of medical doctors who all battle a wide selection of psychological points is that the sequence itself suffers from the identical.
I’m 100% sure that’s not the intention of the sequence itself.
What does one even assume Watson is as a sequence? It modifications relying on the particular person you ask.
Some individuals tuned into the present anticipating some iteration of a detective-style procedural as a result of the sequence dares to evoke the names of Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, and Moriarty.
Different individuals anticipated a non-traditional medical drama — one thing akin to Home.
The Moriarty of all of it presents the sequence with extra Holmesian folklore but additionally a degree of villainy that teeters on the fantastical. It’s nearly as if Watson goals to tug from comic-book-style storytelling, like Arrow or Gotham.
We additionally see this with the institution of Watson’s workforce of medical doctors, who genuinely really feel like Knockoff variations of The Suicide Squad. Each time considered one of them seems onscreen, my mind conjures up Twenty One Pilots’ “Heathens. “
It’s like Watson tries to tug parts from many various genres underneath the guise of this elaborate interpretation of a cultist traditional, however it overexerts itself within the course of.
Watson makes an attempt to be intelligent, cool, and cheeky directly however basically fails in any respect three.
It’s not that one has to adapt to style expectations. Abnormality may be an asset reasonably than a curse. Someplace, that idea even aligns with the sequence’ theme.
It doesn’t truly really feel as if Watson is aware of how you can outline what it needs to be.
The sequence should perceive its id earlier than it may promote viewers on it. Pretend it till you make it and all of that good things.
Up to now, Watson has an excessive amount of happening, and little of it’s truly compelling. We’ve got this thriller surrounding Holmes’ loss of life, Moriarity’s involvement, and Watson’s mind points.
Someplace in there, Shinwell is begrudgingly working with a cartoonish Moriarty whose disfigurement leads to him having a hand that’s actually formed in an “M,” plotting some assault on town or one thing.
Admittedly, Randall Park’s cameo was pleasant, however that’s all there’s to say about that growth.
Amid this, Watson solves medical mysteries, a few of which don’t really feel notably mysterious underneath the area of his ex-wife, whom he chronically harasses, and with the assistance of this assortment of weird colleagues.
The sequence alludes to every of the opposite medical doctors battling one thing or one other, starting from Delinquent Character Dysfunction to pathological mendacity and no matter else in between.
It’s evident that the present goals to have a supporting forged with such distinctive personalities that Watson is intrigued by them—characters who’re mysteries of their very own.
Apart from being nice medical doctors, their uncommon traits are supposed so as to add to their appeal (and show that they’re nonetheless beneficial, succesful medical doctors regardless of their quirks).
Nevertheless, Good Minds manages to tug this tactic off a lot better.
We rapidly felt as if we knew the characters and fell in love with them. Their neurodivergence is effortlessly launched into the sequence and explored, together with in a constructive mild as “superpowers” throughout circumstances.
Because it stands, Watson is the one compelling character within the sequence, with Ingrid a detailed second. The supporting forged struggles to make their characters or the weird, convoluted writing work.
Morris Chestnut is gifted, charismatic, and able to absolutely anything. You want solely have a look at his work to succeed in this conclusion.
He’s pouring his all into the function; you possibly can see that he generally has enjoyable with it. However as a rule, it appears like he doesn’t know the way he ought to be enjoying Watson.
The remainder of the forged struggles on this regard, too. And sadly, Watson can’t depend on Chestnut’s charisma and that alone.
Over to you, Watson Fanatics (or Antis).
How do you’re feeling concerning the sequence up to now?
Is the style confusion hurting the sequence?
Ought to they’ve caught to extra traditional Holmesian storytelling or deserted it altogether and leaned into medical procedural?
Let’s hear it beneath.
Watch Watson On-line
