| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo1h9heXZ1M
Patricia Heaton is back on TV tonight at 9:30p in the comedy Carol’s Second Act. When she played Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond, she was, well, grumpy. The same when she played Frankie Heck on The Middle. I am not knocking it, she was great in both roles. However, in this CBS show, she is very happy. She is a positive force who gets to smile in a hospital. Which sounds bad when I write it like that, but it works when you see it.
Carol Kenney (Heaton) is a recently divorced, middle-aged woman, who just graduated medical school. Tonight is her first day as an intern in a hospital. Something you rarely see, because who would start med school anytime they are over 25? Carol Kenney is who.
When she shows up to work, her fellow interns think she is their resident. You should see their reaction when they find out she is not. Especially since they all heard that the Chief Resident Dr. Maya Jacobs (Ito Aghayere) is the complete opposite. How will she react to her peppy new intern? With torture!
When it comes to her fellow interns, there is Daniel Kutcher (Jean-Luc Bilodeau). He graduated from Harvard and thinks he is ready for anything. Turns out he is just book smart and finds out he might not be as ready for the job as he thought. Thankfully, he is not alone and his new co-workers will help him.
Lexie Gilani (Sabrina Jalees) is another intern, she is more street smart. She is also there to keep everyone in check. Basically, she is there to make fun of their failures. Next week, she has a lot of fun with Kutcher. This week, she picks on Caleb Sommers (Lucas Neff). His family is well known at the hospital, so everyone knows him. Lexie finds out something about him and she is not going to let him live it down.
Back to Carol, she is a former teacher and also a mother (her daughter, played by Ashley Tisdale, is a pharmaceutical rep who sells to the hospital). Carol is going to act like a teacher and a mother to her fellow intern and the patients. Her past work and life experience makes her a better doctor. Something Dr. Jacobs sees about the intern, but that doesn’t mean she likes it.
Each week, they are going to learn more about being doctors and know they have each other’s backs during the toughest times in their lives.
There has not been a good medical sitcom in a while and this show is the two aspirins we need to feel better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLs-8cbisQQ
After Carol’s Second Act, it is time to do a 360 with Evil at 10p, a new drama from Robert King & Michelle King, who gave us The Good Wife and The Good Fight. This is not a legal drama, far from it.
Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) is a court psychologist is focused on the scientific explanation for everything. Her latest subject says he is possessed and she does not believe him. David Acosta (Mike Colter) is studying to be a priest but gets derailed from it by the Church to explain the supernatural. He is called in to look at Bouchard’s patient to see if it is true.
When Kristen won’t follow an instruction from the lawyer, who hired her, she loses her job. That is when David asks her to work with him. She tries to see if her patient is really possessed or if he is faking it. She goes in to talk with him, and this time there is something more evil about him. So evil, she walks out.
No one wants to take their work home with them, but evil is following her in her sleep. She starts dreaming about a scary creature and her patient tells her that he knows about him without her ever telling him. The creature is not only revealing himself to her but also to her daughters. Has working with the Church brought evil into her house? Or is there another explanation for the visions?
Will it make her want to work with David? Of course, she does, or we would not have a show. She and David also work with Ben Shroff (Aasif Mandvi), a carpenter who looks to see if there is a natural explanation for whatever case they are looking into.
Each week, they will try to find out if a miracle is a really a miracle or if people are really possessed or is someone controlling them? Sometimes the cause is supernatural other times it is explainable. They are just going to have to work to prove the truth and come up with a solution for each case.
Most Sci-Fi shows have a great pilot and immediately go to crap by the second one. Evil’s pilot is good. However, after watching the next three episodes, I can tell you they get so much better. I cannot remember the last time that this happened. The second and fourth episodes are especially good. Not only that, they are all very different.
While there is the procedural aspect to it, there are also some continuing storylines throughout the series like Kristen’s evil spirit taking over her house and what made David stop wanting to be a priest. Another character we will see throughout is played by Michael Emerson. I will not tell you what he does, but I will tell you he is so creepy he will give you nightmares.
I guess in a way, you might say the show will do the same. I won’t, you might. I cannot wait to see what they do next because this my favorite new drama of the fall. I am instantly hooked and I think you will be too.
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