Monday Mornings

It's the strongest medical series since House arrived on Fox for an eight-season run that ended last spring. The genre badly needs a transfusion. And at last, here's a strong one.

It’s not perfect, but it’s easily the most restrained--and satisfying--Kelley series since those first couple of years of “The Practice.”

There isn't a bad performance in the bunch.... Veterans Molina and Irwin stand out for especially complex and nuanced performances.

The cast is solid and admirably diverse.... While never as engaging as Grey's Anatomy nor clever enough to make us forget the void left by House's departure, Mornings at least does no harm.

The cases often seem more obvious than intriguing; the emotions feel forced; much of the dialogue is trite. The cast is unusually diverse, and that's worthy of high praise.

It’s just that we’ve seen most of this before, and despite its creative pedigree and a solid cast--fronted by the always reliable Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina--there’s not enough to set Monday Mornings apart from “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” et al.

Monday Mornings spends a fair bit of time probing controversial and ethically complex issues like organ donation, informed consent, health insurance and advance directives. But that, coupled with a cast of characters who don't become all that compelling after three episodes, isn't enough to elevate the series above the rest of the pack.

It's the program's central device--the prolonged trial-like exchanges between Hooten and whoever might have tripped up--that overwhelm the more promising elements, and keep "Monday Mornings" from being worthy of a Monday-night appointment, despite the tonal compatibility with its "Dallas" lead-in.

Monday Mornings doesn’t break major new ground in TV medical dramas. It has a couple of nice twists and does a couple of familiar things well.

Most of Mornings is stock melodrama, and apart from Molina, not all that well acted. [18 Feb 2013, p.43]

Not all the cases turn out badly, but enough do that the show takes on a rather grim formula.... That's a lot of talent to work with and the good news is that Monday Mornings shows signs of finding its voice by episode three.

It’s a straightforward piece of work that, with some deepening of characters and a few detours from too well-trodden plot paths, could be a decent addition to the TNT lineup.

The M&Ms are brutal and might have set Monday Mornings apart as a psychological examination of regret and human error. But in the three episodes sent for review, producers David E. Kelley and CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta (adapting this from his 2012 novel) instead overdose on the same sappy storylines we've seen before.

If this show is to breathe, someone should take a scalpel to the malignant melodrama. [8 Feb 2013, p.69]

There are few likable characters here, the centerpiece M&M meetings should be what sets the series apart but is actually bogging it down into nonsense.

Full-fledged human beings are slow to emerge; the characters are long on attitude but short on detail.... The show could use some of the quirkiness that has enlivened Kelley shows such as "Picket Fences" and "Boston Legal."

Monday Mornings, TNT’s new hospital drama from David E. Kelley, takes what might have been a fresh angle and overdoses it with the usual sappy storylines and cheap, melodramatic editing style.

It's a typical David E. Kelley creation in all the wrong ways: ensemble drama as a steel-cage match of emoting and moralizing, with lectures and grand gestures given precedence over coherent storytelling. His usual saving graces, sharp characterization and unforced humor, aren't in evidence through three episodes.

Drama requires more than mere stenography. It requires creating full-blooded characters we're willing to believe, giving them lines we think some human being might actually say, and hiring actors who are able to say them without allowing us to see any artifice underneath. At those tasks, Gupta, Kelley and most of their cast have failed.

The dynamic here is already tired.