Intellectually I know that actors can play different characters but it’s still strange to see an actor in two current shows I’m watching. It was a little strange seeing Luke Tennie here and not on Shrinking. Also of note Geoffrey Owens as the doctor who won’t help Duke and Noah Wyle’s wife Sara Wyle as turmeric lady.
If you don’t want to be spoiled about confirmed future developments, Its been confirmed that Dr Mohan won’t appear in season 3.
At one point, Al-Hashimi wanted to use something called Aerogen to assist a patient in respiratory distress. That patient needed emergency treatment because he was no longer on Medicare and so wasn’t getting the maintenance medication. I don’t know if it was deliberate but the show seemed to be contrasting the amazing technology and treatments available while some people can’t afford the basics. The same thing happened with Orlando, the guy who left against medical advice because of existing medical debt.
What I am noticing is that more of the cast seem stressed this season. Sure, there was plenty of stress due to the mass shooting, but they were still able to do their jobs. Now, the stress is because the computer attack prevents them from doing their jobs. Only Whittaker and Mel (after the deposition) are not showing signs, and others are making mistakes, which exacerbates the stress.
I like Oglivie’s arc from know-it-all to someone completely unsure of himself. The call back to Whitaker’s first day is clever writing.
It’s not only deliberate but a bit heavy handed. Still effective.
More wild speculation from me: I’m thinking the throw away line about being at the massacre in Kabul is just that, a throw away line. Al-Hashimi’s issue is going to be neurological not psychological. Robby will find out she has a major medical issue and will feel obligated to stay.
He shouldn’t, though. His conversation with Dana suggested an unhealthy belief that without him there, everything would fall apart. He needs to understand that the workplace will survive without him.
I think it’s pretty well established that self-care is not his strong suit.
In thinking about it, it may be a thing with lead characters believing in their own importance.
If so that bespeaks to his inadequacy as a department head. His ego is huge and the department has staff that is skilled and dedicated. But professional standards are sloppy. That ultimately comes down to his role in setting the standards.
I’m sorry but Mohan should by now have been well trained. No way you don’t supervise what your medical student’s is doing. No resident should ever assume any medical student knows anything. The missed aneurysm? On her and her inadequate job is ultimately on him.
He is an awful department head.
Robby was traumatized by his experiences working through the pandemic (especially the death of his mentor during that) and the mass casualty incident at PittFest. Noah Wyle described in interviews that he received many letters from medical professionals about their experiences during the pandemic and that, in part, triggered the creation of the show.
That may be part of the explanation for why he is a horrible department head. But it is not an excuse for it.
Thing is I have known people in leadership roles not too dissimilar. Their incompetence at leadership creates a circumstance that requires their constant attention and then they are very full of how needed they are.
Season one? A very bad day. Anniversary of his mentor’s death, overwhelming crisis, personal investment in one outcome that professionalism would have been better served by having another attending manage. If it was, as Whittaker put it, seeing someone on the worst day of their life? Okay.
But this season establishes that this is how he’s been running the department in an ongoing manner.
Al-Hashimi is exactly right: there are major systems errors going on in that department. It needs a complete structural reset. Root cause analysis is the phrase. He is a very knowledgeable doctor. Good one on one with patients. Good teaching in the clinical moment. And not a person who is even thinking about how their processes are causing problems for staff, for patients, and causing avoidable catastrophic errors. He will blame the individual but never look at how the process is more the cause, and thereby never prevent the same sore of catastrophic outcome from happening again.
Al-Hashimi suggested that the day shift should have two attending physicians, which Robby seemed to object to, but as one episode recap I read pointed out, the night shift already appears to have two; Doctors Abbott and Shen. So why not the day shift as well?
That is true. Although Shen is brand new. In season 1 he was just a month or two out of residency. I don’t know if that would make a difference. I would think it would be a good idea from both a medical and teaching point of view.
First of all, how DARE you…
I heard that in Greta Thunberg’s voice for some reason.
That kind of arc was pretty common in E.R. as well (e.g. Dr. Chen in season 1).
I predict it’s going to be:
Petit mal seizures due to epilepsy
Well that what it looked like to me the first time it happened. In which case she may be honestly not knowing what he’s talking about. (Do we need to spoiler guesses and speculation?)
We haven’t been doing it so far.
Timing could match, given the time and its summer time, sundowning.
I don’t think they would normally be working at the same time. Abbott’s just working extra because of the cyberattack and the fact that it’s the night of the fourth of July.