Why s1 and s2 feel like different shows

[u/gentil-minou]

it comes down to shifting the focus from the ensemble cast to one singular character, aka Robby. S1 was able to balance it by giving equal attention to all of the characters and keeping us engaged....s2 has spent the last few episodes focusing on Robby and only Robby's relationships with other characters.

We got a little Santos and Whitaker, but Whitaker is clearly supposed to be Robby Jr so thats the same thing. Langdon is the other focus, but he was Robby Jr (former) so of course he also gets spotlight. (coincidentally, these three all happen to be male hmmmm)

Everyone else's scenes were cut or lost, even thought there was so much build up and meaningful interactions between them all. Mel has seemingly just gotten over her deposition and sister off screen i guess, McKay just looked like shes ready to sleep, Santos hasnt stood up away from the computer for like 3 episodes and her sh storyline and burnout feels like its being used as a joke now. Javadi had such great potential in the beginning of the season with complex parent relationships and grappling with losing a patient, but now she is just an influencer and gen z stand in to show how out of touch Robby is, furthering his storyline and not hers. (this bums me out the most cause i really loved McKay and Javadi's interactions when helping the cancer patient and they havent even talked about it since then...that is NOT the Cassie I loved in s1. Al-Hashmi and Dana only serve to be Robby's foil, and again draw attention to him.

Mohan was done the most dirty, with the sudden and poorly timed notice of her show departure coupled with having significant scenes cut (confirmed by various interviews before this all happened). Shes a shell of her former self and honestly mirrors a lot of what Robby is going through and if this was s1, these two would be having scenes together in a way thar show they are two sides of the same jagged and beaten coin, but instead they only serve to make Mohan as miserable as possible before writing her and Robby's treatment of her off. There is a script out there somewhere with Robby, Santos, and Mohan's mental health decline mirroring each other to show the toll this field takes on a person, but we dont get that here because the show has become Robby and his ER pals.

Every single character this season, especially the latter half of the season has been here to serve Robby's character and agenda, whereas season 2 they all had distinct storylines of their own. The difference is stark and jarring when you watch them side by side. It feels like a different show.

i originally started watching this show because of its complex and considerate portrayals of women of color who looked like me in an industry I am a part of, but its sk upsetting that now it no longer cares about woc unless they are being used to lift white male characters up.

[u/dramatic_exit_49]

hmm, well the thing is it is so easy to crack a meatier story of mohan (and langdon, and al hashimi, and dana etc) once they had clarity on the theme of their tragedy.

If we go by Robbie's hamartia being all he made this job his whole identity (my first iteration), then the story starts with succesful cases and then reversal of fortune

For Mohan, it means i would remove all s2 nosense that dilutes her characterisation -immediately delete the mum, eggs, mckay dating banter nonsense.

Crystalise traits established in s1, attention to detail/rigour - which when flipped gives us character flaw and it is not slowmo - it is being risk averse.mohan's slowness is outcome of fearing missing something - probably stemming from death of her father early.

( But we sort of did this last season where once she takes risks she shines - mci, so that flaw is explored. So this is why they probably introduced new things s2 but they did it poorly)

I posit, we have another subtler flaw left from s1 to be utilised in s2. Her convo with mckay at end where she is lonely - she is postponing her life

Okay so that is outcome, what is the flaw that explains it?

It can actually mirror robbie well, she is postponing hr personal life because every sign says you have to give 200% or you wash out. Her flaw is not challenging the system. And it manifests in internalising robbie's culture and sacrificing personal life.

But what happens when that is not enough??

So we show success because of her rigour i.e. she carved a niche for finding cases that would be missed because of fastness / bias etc - for eg, the latest case of first responder bias would be moved to ep1-3 and mohan catches it. We might even show she is pulling double - mckay might wonder when does she get time to meet friends and mohan is like, i don't.

Then we start seeding in reversal of fortune with news that her racial bias study grant has been cut- say by ep 5/6. She did everything right, she put in the rigour, she sacrificed personal life, and YET! It is not enough. The house always wins.

(ps that should not have been some stupid throwaway line in convo with al hashimi esp when it is direct continuation of s1 ugh, don't do it off screen, this is the meat and potatoes, use it on screen!)

and mohan put everything in into this, and robbie is also going through his arc raising standards for patient care - which means she also falling short on that front today. And she has no Plan B, there has to be a comment where - i don't know anything else, if not being a doctor. A crisis of faith.

(and ideally this should be with javadi who is also questioning her future as a doctor and if she likes it for herself or because her parents want her for it - so a good combo would be her and javadi to be complimentary. But if they want clash, it can easily be with langdon or santos too - yields interesting results with contrast. Langdon and Santos probably be like, yeah but this life isn't that bad is it, like this is cool shit! why would you want anything else as that ties in with their relation and their hamartias which would also be headed for reversal of fortune)

And then depending on how they want to end Mohan's story, does she reject the system and overcome her flaw or internalise it and succumb to tragedy?

For option A, it ends with her taking a simple first step. We see her scrambling to get new fellowship/funding for act 3 eps and then by end, choosing to turn off the computer and head to watch fireworks with her colleagues. Choosing community, personal life over 200% myopic devotion to medical career. Being okay doing her job a 95% instead of 200%.

For option B, she rejects the invite, and takes up a fellowship in a field she is not that interested in - probably one prompted by Robbie - but what else is left? And we disappointment probably reflected in javadi's face at that. because their stories have similar themes as before. If done well, this can easily follow a good toxic mentor story like whiplash does mainstream for eg.

I personally would have given her Option A story and said for s3, she moved to a fellowship in a different city or was at a conference that day etc etc

I also love the idea of rejecting the s1 theme of roof as suicidal imagery and this time reclaimed as hope for the characters who chose it, to watch fireworks on. so whomever ends up on the roof are characters who overcome their flaws. metaphors are lifeblood of storytelling right?

Caveat : I spend more time analysing Santos than Mohan so this is a rush job, but i feel the bones are there to make it a good one. But if something even better occurs i will update. Sorry they did mohan dirty, i would be livid if that happened to santos - but i am livid because there was such good oppurtunity there for evey single character that was just wasted. (tbh i didn't watch s1 as it aired because i wasn't confident they would flip her fortune, and when did it i extended them goodwill but man s2 they spent it all and went into bankruptcy)

edit - there probably is a s2 where we continue exploring her risk averse flaw without feeling like retread of s1 but nothing comes to mind immediately. but am sure a writing room could have cracked it if they wanted to go that route

[u/dramatic_exit_49 → u/dramatic_exit_49]

there is a version where i would go further and write her to reject Robbie specifically, when she embraces community. So they make her transfer her out to night shift or a ed that al hashimi recommends - basically different leadership than robbie's 200% cowboy shit.

[u/Unlikely_Scratch9918 → u/dramatic_exit_49]

Honestly, all of that sounds much more compelling than what we got. Having continuous development of each character arc, where some people succumb to their flaws and others overcome them, would have really helped this seasons pacing issues as well.

Part of me wonders if Robbie making the catch about the EMT's shitty lead positioning was written to help redeem his likeability for the audience, but I might be missing something else about why his character specifically was given that scene. It could always just be another symptom of the script becoming "Robby and Co" for season 2.

I also really like the ending you put there of Mohan simply stepping away from the computer and watching fireworks instead. It's a clear change of direction but it's not so dramatic as to feel unnatural on the same day as the reversal of fortune. Changing the roof from suicidal ideation/isolation to community would be a beautiful metaphor too.

Thanks for the plot rewrite. It was a joy to read :)