August
29, 2004
St. Petersburg Times
Medical
Investigation, 10
p.m. (debuts Sept. 10 on NBC) Making the National Institutes of Health
look like an elite commando team, this series about an emergency unit
that handles infectious disease outbreaks neatly swirls together every
cop, medical and forensics cliche on network television. Buzz factor:
Middling. If Boomtown alum Neal McDonough and The Practice expatriate
Kelli Williams can keep the breathless self-importance to a minimum,
this could be the CSI of medical shows. Will it survive? Not likely on
Friday. But people once said the same thing about CSI.
|
Deseret
Morning News
Medical
Investigation (Fridays, 8 p.m.) is what you get when you
cross-pollinate "ER," "CSI" and "S.W.A.T." Neal McDonough ("Boomtown")
and Kelli Williams ("The Practice") head a team of hotshot doctors from
the National Institutes of Health who drop out of the sky (literally,
via helicopters and planes) to solve Major Medical Crises.
Unlike "CSI," "Medical
Investigation" also investigates the team's personal lives. Which may
be a mistake, given that the big story seems to be how his work has
cost team leader Dr. Stephen Connor (McDonough) his family — a cliche
that's been done to death on TV.
"Medical Investigation" combines cutting-edge medical technology with
superhero antics that strain credulity. It's yet another show that's
mildly entertaining, if you can suspend disbelief.
|
Ventura
County Star
Neal
McDonough ("Boomtown") stars as Dr. Stephen Connor, the head of a
mobile medical team from the National Institutes of Health, which
investigates unexplained diseases and epidemics. Kelli Williams ("The
Practice") plays Dr. Natalie Durant, who works for Connor, and
Christopher Gorham ("Jake 2.0" and "Popular") is Dr. Miles McCabe, the
young rookie.
Executive producer Laurence Andries said the series emphasizes medical
accuracy with the help of former employees of the Centers for Disease
Control. "We have doctors on call. We have an EMT person on the staff.
And we all have become experts at Google to learn all the complex
medical stuff."
At the same time, Williams and McDonough have gone from playing TV
lawyers on their previous shows to doctors.
"I thank God that I have Kelli Williams next to me because Kelli's dad
is a doctor. And half the time, I have no idea what I'm saying,"
McDonough said. "So I go to Kelli, 'Kelli, what am I saying?' "
Review: "Medical Investigation" establishes what drives each character
and then quickly moves through the investigation and solution of each
disease or epidemic. The first episode examines why people are suddenly
turning blue, and the science is believable and easy to follow.
McDonough excels in showing Connor as a businesslike man who seems to
show no affection for his colleagues, but viewers will see the layer
beneath that -- the compassion Connor keeps right below the surface.
The first episode establishes Connor, who's divorced, as a caring
father who can't have a normal life with his son because of a career
that can call him away at any time.
If NBC properly promotes the "CSI" investigative aspects of this show,
it could be a hit.
|
Kansas
City Star
Over at NBC, this same conservatism is on display with "Medical
Investigation". This show revolves around a fictional government agency
that acts like a hybrid of the National Institutes of Health and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — germbusters.
"Medical Investigation" looks very professional, like a buttoned-up
"CSI". But it lacks soul. It also stands a good chance of sticking
around, which is the fervent hope of the show's executive producer,
Larry Andries, and star Neal McDonough, both of whom were involved in
another NBC drama called "Boomtown".
Bold and different, "Boomtown" broke from the standard cop-show format.
It showed the crime from the viewpoints of various characters, and it
often took the whole hour to figure out what actually went down at the
scene. When the writers got tired of doing that, they started writing
entire shows around a single person, including one episode about
McDonough's character. It lasted barely a year on NBC.
"If I'm at a party or if I'm out with other writers, people want to
talk about that show," Andries said last month at the TV critics'
get-together in Los Angeles. "I wouldn't say it failed — 12 million
people watched the show."
As for "Medical Investigation", Andries said: "This show may appear
safe, but I don't know how to do safe. It's going to be a ride."
Good luck to them, but if it's fresh thinking and gutsy ideas you want,
there seems little need to switch away from cable: HBO's "Entourage",
FX's "Rescue Me" and TNT's "The Grid" are among the summer's new cable
programs that were more engaging, more challenging, more entertaining
than anything the networks plan to bring out this fall.
Small wonder, then, that cable's overall share of the viewing audience
is well over 50 percent and growing each year.
Are the people who run the networks losing any sleep over this? Hey,
who do you think owns those cable channels?
|
Richmond
Times-Dispatch
"Medical Investigation" (previews at 10 p.m.
Sept. 9;
time-period premiere at 10 p.m. Sept. 10): There's a rash of
inexplicable deaths in New York, and a baby suffering from mysterious
bruising in Richmond, Va. Who you gonna call? The National Institutes
of Health.
Neal McDonough, who specializes in cool professionals with bad
marriages, plays the no-nonsense leader of a mobile medical team
trained to find explanations for unexplainable disease outbreaks.
Portraying his dedicated team are Kelli Williams, Troy Winbush and
Christopher Gorham plus Anna Belknap as a press liaison who will do
anything to keep the press from getting a story before she wants them
to.
Bottom line: While we're delighted McDonough has a job again, we're
still sorry it's not another season of "Boomtown." "Medical
Investigation" has all the science and special effects of today's smart
police procedurals (plus the same lack of personality) without the
bullet wounds.
|
The
Seattle Times
Cross "ER" with "CSI" and what do you get? Just
more
time in the lab. Silly premise of stopping epidemics and other
bio-threats on the fly is somewhat offset by brilliant Neil McDonough
of the late, lamented "Boomtown."
|
New
York Daily News
Other shows worth seeking and sampling: CBS' "CSI:
NY"
(you've probably already seen the pilot, starring the great Gary
Sinise), NBC's "Medical Investigation" (with Neal McDonough from
"Boomtown") and an unseen but intriguing midseason NBC entry,
"Revelations."
|
Alameda
Times-Star
Didn't hate'em
"Medical Investigation" - 10 p.m. Friday on Channel 11 (Sept. 10)
A crack team of investigators go after strange
medical occurrences around the country.
We
love
Neal McDonough ("Band of Brothers," "Boomtown"), but even those icy
blue eyes can't disguise this as any more than a "CSI" rip-off.
|
The Olympian.com
- Fifteen new dramas, many
marked by
smart writing and sleek directing. Even the small networks pitch in;
WB's "Jack & Bobby" and UPN's "Kevin Hill" are top-quality,
alongside NBC's "Medical Investigation" and ABC's "Lost."
|
Charleston.net
"Medical Investigation" is
NBC's
attempt to cash in on the "C.S.I." craze at CBS. It's the health police
on patrol for bad microbes.
10 p.m. Sept. 10, "Medical Investigation": People are turning blue,
literally, and someone needs to figure out why -- and quickly, too.
Enter a mobile medical team from the National Institutes of Health.
They drop out of the sky in a helicopter and take charge,
reconstructing where such a gruesome illness could have come from.
Consider this "DSI: Disease Scene Investigation."
|
MSNBC
News
NBC returns for fall with a
lackluster lineup
"Medical Investigation" (a "germ whodunit" as plodding and generic as
its title)
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