On one hand, this is actually quite an engaging sitcom, about a doctor (not a surgeon as was reported in the primary review, but an ER doctor, but who cares?) who is to medicine what MacGyver was to ...everything else in the 1980s. (The joke was MacGyver could make a nuclear weapon out of chewing gum (with the foil wrapper! The wrapper was always important.) and a pineapple. Well, Hank is the same for medicine, coming up with incredible (and incredibly silly) miracle cures to the most bizarre medical maladies to ever roll of the tongue in Latin.
On a more serious note, Hank is sometimes a pill-pushing drug mule (he regularly gives of a litany of medicines that will somehow cure these incurable conditions. Amazingly, some of the names of these medications come up again and again. For example, listen for Prednisone (actually a synthetic steroid used for allergies, rheumatic conditions and leukaemia) which he uses for a great many things other than those. He directs all of his patients into as many costly, unnecessary procedures as possible (I think every single patient Hank has ever had has needed a C-T (a much more expensive type of X-Ray), an MRI or both (because he has his own portable MRI. They are only $25-40,000 per MONTH). He alternates on different seasons as being an altruistic medicine man and a money-grubbing shyster (which begs the question: As I can't imagine his practice would do anything less than make money hand over fist (concierge doctoring to the ultra riche), how does he keep being on the verge of broke? Perhaps he needs to sell that portable MRI machine? Anyway, after Season 5 he gives in to the corporate overlords (But only the nicest of overlords? Because we know that US hospitals and HMOs really only have the best interests of their patients at heart. (Sorry. Sarcasm got away from me there :) Anyway, I haven't finished Season 5 yet, because it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe they don't go through with it, because I would think that as soon as it becomes a corporation, then all the joy of the series would bleed out of it.
One final note about cast: Hank is enjoyable, Divya is incredible, Evan is ...miscast? and Jill is missed (Hank seems to lose part of his character without her around? *sigh* Maybe he finds another love later? Wait, don't tell me!)
On a more serious note, Hank is sometimes a pill-pushing drug mule (he regularly gives of a litany of medicines that will somehow cure these incurable conditions. Amazingly, some of the names of these medications come up again and again. For example, listen for Prednisone (actually a synthetic steroid used for allergies, rheumatic conditions and leukaemia) which he uses for a great many things other than those. He directs all of his patients into as many costly, unnecessary procedures as possible (I think every single patient Hank has ever had has needed a C-T (a much more expensive type of X-Ray), an MRI or both (because he has his own portable MRI. They are only $25-40,000 per MONTH). He alternates on different seasons as being an altruistic medicine man and a money-grubbing shyster (which begs the question: As I can't imagine his practice would do anything less than make money hand over fist (concierge doctoring to the ultra riche), how does he keep being on the verge of broke? Perhaps he needs to sell that portable MRI machine? Anyway, after Season 5 he gives in to the corporate overlords (But only the nicest of overlords? Because we know that US hospitals and HMOs really only have the best interests of their patients at heart. (Sorry. Sarcasm got away from me there :) Anyway, I haven't finished Season 5 yet, because it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe they don't go through with it, because I would think that as soon as it becomes a corporation, then all the joy of the series would bleed out of it.
One final note about cast: Hank is enjoyable, Divya is incredible, Evan is ...miscast? and Jill is missed (Hank seems to lose part of his character without her around? *sigh* Maybe he finds another love later? Wait, don't tell me!)