Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
Watson is at its best when the team is solving a medical mystery.
That’s what sets it apart from more traditional medical dramas — Holmes’ assistant uses his medical knowledge to solve mysterious ailments.
Unfortunately, Watson Season 2 Episode 11 was more procedural than mystery-oriented, which was disappointing despite an ambitious plot.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
Watson Had One of the Most Realistic Emergency Situations on TV, but It Wasn’t Enough
Every medical drama has a disaster trope — stories where structures collapse and trap people inside.
Most of the time, a vital member of the medical team is trapped in this type of situation, and the drama comes from trying to rescue them, which gets old fast.
Fortunately, Watson Season 2 Episode 11 avoided that annoying situation, instead offering an ER that felt on the verge of a crisis, with the staff triaging and Watson being asked to check for missed emergencies in the hall.
That was a big improvement — I enjoyed the realism of it all.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
However, it went off the rails once Watson learned that Marnie and Keith were trapped in the sinkhole.
I didn’t object to Watson giving Keith basic instructions, such as how to check Marnie’s pulse.
Again, this aspect was more realistic than on other shows. We didn’t have Keith doing complicated surgeries he had never heard of under Watson’s guidance, so it was plausible.
We love our medical (and other!) dramas, but we’ll call them out when we need to.
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But the installment devoted too much time to the couple’s relationship.
We didn’t need a long scene in the beginning, especially since it featured the redundant beat of Keith saying he didn’t want to leave for his trip every other second.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
Marnie being obviously pregnant and the couple falling into the sinkhole (with one mention of Keith leaving on his trip) would have been sufficient.
People In Crisis Don’t Act Like Keith Did
It aggravated me that Keith asked Watson for advice when he found the divorce papers.
The trope of the doctor giving personal advice in the middle of a medical consultation is irritating enough under normal circumstances — too many TV doctors tell their patients all about their personal lives.
But it made no sense under the circumstances.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
Keith and Marnie were trapped, and he didn’t know if they — or their baby — were going to survive.
Divorce papers should have been the last thing on his mind when he was trying to stay alive another minute.
Similarly, Watson never should have given him personal advice under the circumstances.
Did Keith’s focus on the divorce papers make sense to you?
Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your Watson-loving friends.
His patient was panicking about something irrelevant to survival when his focus needed to be elsewhere, so Watson should have told him that they would deal with that after the couple was safe.
Instead, he talked about how he wished he’d fought harder for his relationship with Mary, and it seemed self-indulgent given the circumstances.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
The Medical Mystery Came After the Rescue and Was Far Too Brief
The second half of Watson Season 2 Episode 11 offered a bona fide medical mystery.
Baby Rose had dark skin despite having two white parents, but wasn’t the product of an affair, and she also had a mysterious fever that could kill her while her mother was in surgery.
This type of story is Watson‘s bread and butter, but it came too late in the episode because of the overfocus on Keith and Marnie as a couple.
As a result, the hour rushed this fascinating question.
Watson had one team meeting where everyone threw out ideas, took one look at the baby, and diagnosed her with a genetic disorder. Case closed.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
If only we’d cut some of the fat from the couple’s storyline, we could have spent more time on this story.
I Also Have a Bone to Pick With Ingrid’s Subplots
We had two parallel stories: one of Shinwell finding redemption and the other of Ingrid finding relapse.
The Shinwell story was fine, though it seemed odd to be having that conversation in the middle of a crisis.
Still, I appreciated that Shinwell’s boss or girlfriend, whichever she is this week, accepted his story and the guilt that came with the fact that he had contributed to somebody’s murder.
Ingrid got no such acceptance, though, and it sucks.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
It’s believable that Bec would sue Ingrid to punish her for breaking up with him — that’s consistent with the type of stalking he’s been doing all along, even if it does distract from the midseason cliffhanger of him setting a trap for Sasha.
The hospital’s response, however, strains credibility.
I agree there’s a conflict of interest, but the idea that “we have to keep providing care to the guy who is suing us” makes no sense, and, liability-wise, it seems they’re opening themselves up to trouble by doing so.
He could re-interpret any comment by the therapist as an attempt to take the hospital’s side, so he definitely is the one who should have been moved to a different group.
Ingrid’s mental health issue has never quite seemed like it was treated realistically, and transferring her to another therapist just for the sake of making the audience wonder if she’s going to relapse and hurt that cute EMT doesn’t help.
(CBS/Colin Bentley)
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If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of more traditional medical shows like Chicago Med and Grey’s Anatomy.
Watson airs on CBS on Sundays at 10/9c and streams on Paramount+ on Mondays.
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