Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Review: TNT's 'Monday Mornings's offers a refreshingly restrained David E. Kelley

'Harry's Law' creator dials back his usual quirks for new hospital drama

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Feb 4, 2013 9:00 AM

Alfred Molina in "Monday Mornings."

Credit: TNT

When you’re blessed with more natural talent in your chosen field than all but a handful of human beings in history, it’s easy to get bored and start goofing around. You see it with athletes all the time. Sometimes, they’ve already established their Hall of Fame bonafides by the time they start doing weird things, like that season when Wilt Chamberlain decided he was going to lead the league in assists (and did), just to prove he could, or when Michael Jordan quit the NBA to chase after curve balls in the baseball minors for two years.

A lot of the time, though, you’ll see a player decide that it’s all coming so easy to them that they don’t have to work as hard at the fundamentals, and that people would rather see something flashy than something effective. Everyone said Vince Carter had the tools to be the next Jordan, and Carter could dunk with anyone, but he never had Jordan’s focus, and never became as great as we thought he could be.

This isn’t limited to sports, of course. Many of the best writers in TV history have had trouble getting out of their own way, whether it’s David Milch disappearing down a metaphysical rabbit hole on “John From Cincinnati” or Aaron Sorkin writing women on “The Newsroom.”

But in terms of a disappointing Vince Carter-esque talent-to-production ratio, the champ may be David E. Kelley, whose new TNT medical drama “Monday Mornings” debuts tonight at 10.

Kelley’s among the most gifted wordsmiths and dramatists to ever grace the medium. In terms of fictional oratory — Kelley’s a former lawyer who has mostly specialized in courtroom dramas — there are Kelley and Sorkin at the top, and then there’s everyone else. When you watch a Kelley-run show when the pistons are all firing — his early days running “L.A. Law,” “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope” or “The Practice” in particular — it’s easy to convince yourself this is one of the best things to ever air on television.

The problem is that Kelley seems to gets bored, quickly, and begins piling on sensational plot twists and quirky comedy — within a season, “Ally McBeal” was nothing but a collection of behavioral tics with occasional musical interludes — just to keep himself interested. And his shows always suffer for it. In its first couple of seasons, “The Practice” was a lean, mean work of art, but pretty soon there were serial killers and odd hijinks and eventually the whole thing morphed into “Boston Legal,” which mixed Kelley-style wackiness with courtroom scenes that were mainly an excuse for James Spader to deliver political position papers.

His previous series, “Harry’s Law,” felt almost like a parody of a Kelley show (among other pieces of calculated weirdness, in the early days, its main character practiced law in an abandoned designer shoe store while her assistant continued to sell the shoes), though it rated very well among older viewers, many of whom no doubt enjoyed seeing gray-haired Kathy Bates raising hell in court.

With “Monday Mornings,” though, it feels like Kelley woke up one day and decided to remind everybody what he could do when he stopped playing the fool. It’s not perfect, but it’s easily the most restrained — and satisfying — Kelley series since those first couple of years of “The Practice.”

For the first time in a while (unless you count his embarrassing, never-aired “Wonder Woman” pilot for NBC), Kelley’s working with source material: the novel of the same name by CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who works as a producer on this series. The setting is a fictional hospital, Chelsea General, and the focus on the surgeons who work there: Alfred Molina as the all-knowing chief of surgery, Ving Rhames as the head of trauma, Jamie Bamber and Jennifer Finnigan as a pair of cocky neurosurgeons, Keong Sim as a surgeon from Korea; and Bill Irwin as an obnoxious transplant specialist, among others. We follow their cases, and at times their personal lives, but the heart of the series are the M&M conferences (for Morbidity & Mortality), where the surgeons all gather to discuss the bad outcomes and how they might have been avoided.

(The cast, in other words, includes Doctor Octopus, Marcellus Wallace, Apollo Adama and Mr. Noodle. Not bad.)

It’s in the M&M conference room where you can see why Kelley was drawn to this show. He’s done medical series before (including “Doogie Howser, M.D.”), but the courtroom has always been where he and his characters felt the most comfortable. Here, he’s essentially making a legal drama where all the characters happen to have medical license, and where Molina gets to act as both prosecutor and judge, while the other surgeons are left to speak up in their own defense.

It’s a great role for Molina — better, for instance, than when he actually played a district attorney on “Law & Order: Los Angeles” — whom Kelley and director Bill D’Elia wisely allow to work in his native English accent. His character rarely rises from his seat in the M&M room, yet his position, his passion, and his facility with language make him tower over every other doctor in the conference, even though most of them are being played by actors with their own impressive resumes. (It’s a pleasure, for instance, to hear Kelley’s words spoken in the rich cultured tones of Irwin, playing the token jerk that every Kelley workplace show must have.)

Though D’Elia gets a bit cute in some of his visual choices — the doctors are frequently crowned in halos, to make the whole God complex thing more overt — on the whole, “Monday Mornings” is a very buttoned-down, classical hospital drama. (Which makes it an ideal fit for TNT, which has built a brand on making the kinds of shows most of the broadcast networks stopped doing 15 or 20 years ago.)

The cases occasionally seem macabre (in one episode, Irwin’s character is shocked to discover that an organ donor missing half his skull isn’t as dead as he seems) but never to the point where it feels like Kelley is just trying to hold our attention. And there are some humorous moments (the other doctors like to gamble on how quickly Rhames can, Sherlock Holmes-style, diagnose a case that’s stumped the rest of them), but not usually in a way that feels forced.

And because I wasn’t spending so much time dwelling on Kelley’s weaknesses, it became easy to be reminded of how great his strengths are. There’s nothing in “Monday Mornings” that isn’t formulaic — the tearful wife pleading with the doctor to save her husband, the doctor who cares so much that he keeps doing CPR long after he’s clearly lost the patient, etc. — but it’s well-executed formula, from a writer demonstrating a well-honed command of structure and dialogue, rather than trying to impress us with some outrageous character traits.

The Korean doctor — whose limited grasp of English goes hand in hand with a brusque, unsentimental bedside manner to make all his patients (and some colleagues) uncomfortable — walks the knife edge between Good Kelley and Bad Kelley. But Sim gives an understated performance, and the writing in the early going makes the man less a cultural stereotype than a doctor show archetype (fitting comfortably alongside Dr. Craig on “St. Elsewhere” and Dr. Benton on “ER”) with a different accent.

I give every new David E. Kelley show a chance — yes, even “girls club” and “The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.” — because I want to see what he’s capable of achieving at his best, even as I know he’ll inevitably give in to his worst impulses. It’s entirely possible that “Monday Mornings” goes full cartoon within a season. But at the start, it’s the show I keep hoping Kelley makes each time I watch one of his pilots.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Monday Mornings, David E. Kelley, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, Jamie Bamber, Bill Irwin, Jennifer Finnigan

alynch

"unless you count his embarrassing, never-aired “Wonder Woman” pilot for NBC"

Hold up. Did that thing leak online when I wasn't paying attention, or did you just get to see it through your magical critic superpowers?
February 4, 2013 at 10:36AM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall The latter. I know someone who knows someone, etc., who slipped it to me. Ordinarily, I pay little attention to unsold pilots, but everything I'd heard about this one made me feel like I had to see it for myself. And it was all I had feared, and more.
  February 4, 2013 at 10:52AM EST
- Shawn Mahone And there we have it! Alan Sepinwall is the Saul Goodman of TV!
  
  Also i think you meant either President Adama or Admiral Adama (did he make either of those ranks? I think he did)!
  
  Also I think you are totally right about Sorkin and Kelley being at the top of dialogue. I rewatched the first 4 seasons of the West Wing and I also have seen every episode of Boston Legal and know just how excellent those 2 shows were in their prime. Man was West Wing excellent when it got going...it was not their fault that a few years later we could did not end up with a White House that consisted of those wonderfull characters.
  
  Great Stuff!
  February 4, 2013 at 11:59AM EST
- Interrogation Bear The pilot leaked and is still "available" online.
  February 4, 2013 at 2:36PM EST
- mgrabois Shawn, no, he meant Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber).
  February 4, 2013 at 11:17PM EST
- http://bit.ly/10nZwRi
  March 30, 2013 at 7:59PM EST
MaggieG

I've worked in healthcare for many years, this could be a fantastic show, showing physicians and surgeons' humanity. Patients rarely get to see that side. I'm looking forward to. Dougie Howser was an excellent series on the medical and human levels and that's what I'm expecting here. By the way, I agree completely with your assessment of Kelley.
February 4, 2013 at 11:17AM EST Reply to Comment
XantaKlaus

I'm a big fan of Chicago Hope and Kelley (I know he did not run this show for very long), so I will definately watch it. I've just seen the first three seasons of Chicago Hope on DVD (thanks to an UK release) and Monday Mornings will air three days after the US broadcast in Germany. I'm curious how the two shows resemble each other.
February 4, 2013 at 12:35PM EST Reply to Comment
- pamelajaye me too. I was thinking last night that this show should be coming, looked it up and it was coming today.
  I got worn out toward the end of BL, loved some of the silliness but never liked how Alan Shore changed from his persona in tP.
  I hope this show is more than just M&M. I need hospital drama (though I can deal with some closing arguments). I've been desperate enough to watch Mob Doctor and sad Emily Owens and Cassandra can't get past high school.
  Save me - DEK! (also I need the 1st 30 eps of CH and the rest of St. Elsewhere on DVD. Region 1)
  February 4, 2013 at 2:35PM EST
- pamelajaye watched, liked, but wondered - is it arrogance or thinking someone else will catch it that causes the level of stupid errors caught this week? okay - leg ache, tylenol. but not if you are the *surgical consult* and the second one - really??
  also, at least two Grey's Anatomy fans want to know if the same Asian scrub nurse was borrowed.
  Love the multicultural in neuro - seriously missing on ostensibly color blind Grey's - but if Bob on ER couldn't be a surgeon in the US, neither can the No God doctor. There are licensing tests, yes? Aren't they in English?
  February 5, 2013 at 1:47AM EST
- cgeye Within two or three more episodes, I need to know where the hell risk management is with all this speaking bitterness.
  
  We had 007 who was clearly someone who has committed malpractice, but no one in that room -- even our fierce but compassionate doctor of color -- said, 'we're dimeing you out to the family and recommending that the hospital make a large cash settlement'.
  
  All that compassion, for the patients and their families, stops at that auditorium door. That negligent doctor learns nothing -- he moves to the next institution to hide him, just like a pedophile priest -- the doctors who disapprove continue to keep their mouths shut, and the mission of the morbidity and mortality meetings is one of momentary truth-telling, then the coverup.
  
  I know the cliche of Meen Hospital Administrators has been overplayed, but boy howdy would it be nice to see at least one lawyer smirk at all that sensitivity, that never, ever, affects a surgeon's wallet or malpractice coverage.
  February 7, 2013 at 2:54AM EST
Greg

How many episodes have you seen?
February 4, 2013 at 12:36PM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall 3.
  February 4, 2013 at 1:13PM EST
virginia

As a big fan of the wonderful Alfred Molina, I am very excited about this one. He's a terrific actor and brings life and fun to every piece he's in.
February 4, 2013 at 12:56PM EST Reply to Comment
KathyB

Will probably check it out.Also always hope to see Kelly at his best. First couple of season of Ally McBeal helped friends of my blow off steam from law school.Seriously addicted.Hard to do an hour long comedy.
February 4, 2013 at 2:14PM EST Reply to Comment
LDP in Cincinnati

Another doctor show + another David E. Kelley show = pass!
February 4, 2013 at 2:38PM EST Reply to Comment
Kmarko

That's great news...I always thought that as long as Kelley doesn't try to be funny (and stays away from religion) he was terrific.

Grade on this? Sounds like an A- to me...
February 4, 2013 at 2:43PM EST Reply to Comment
- WaltEagle Sounds more like a B. I wonder what a premium cable hospital show would be like.
  February 4, 2013 at 4:53PM EST
- Greg Well, there's Nurse Jackie.
  February 4, 2013 at 5:12PM EST
Matthew

What will always baffle me is how they were able to get Molina to do a TNT series. Just seems like if Molina was going to be the lead on any kind of TV series, then it would be one on HBO, not TNT. But I am glad to hear that the show is good and makes great work of Molina's talents.

Due to being born in 1990, I haven't really had the chance to watch any of the good Kelley, all I've really seen was the later season episodes of The Practice when they ran on FX(only occasionally), and Boston Legal, which I did like, but not loved. So I'm glad to hear that Monday Mornings will have some of the good David E. Kelley in it. Also, Lee Adama! I thought he was still stuck on Law & Order UK, so glad to see Jamie Bamber back on my TV screen.
February 4, 2013 at 5:54PM EST Reply to Comment
Louise

I love many of DEK's shows; actually my favorite was Boston Legal. Frankly, I like Kelley's quirkiness when he writes a dramedy. It will be interesting though to see what he does with a gritty drama considering it's been awhile since he has done one. Best wishes to DEK and to Bill D'Elia...may they have a success on their hands!
February 4, 2013 at 6:05PM EST Reply to Comment
Ted

There's no way I'm ever wasting another second on a David Kelly show, but just wanted to ask, are you insane with those Vince Carter comments? A many time all-star and very likely hall of famer is some kind of huge disappointment to you because he isn't considered better than the best player to ever play the game? WTF? Vince Carter has had a stellar NBA career.
February 4, 2013 at 9:26PM EST Reply to Comment
- Kmarko It's pretty commonly accepted that Vince didn't get as much out of his talent as he could have.
  February 5, 2013 at 1:22PM EST
ChampSkins

Premiere was pretty dissapointing. Not very impressed at all. I will watch the next two, as you said those were the three you watched and like the show... but if I were basing it on the pilot, I would pass.
February 5, 2013 at 10:26AM EST Reply to Comment
Kmarko

Very enjoyable pilot, and the cast is excellent. Hope it stays on.
February 5, 2013 at 1:23PM EST Reply to Comment
cadfile

I just don't know how much anyone will be entertained watching a show about Doctors making mistakes all the time. I know they aren't heroes all the time but it seems to distressing to see dead patients littering the hospital and the authorities don't shut it down.

I'll check out some more episodes but I don't think it will last unless it phases out the M&M meetings as a focus.

If that happens then it becomes another medical show. There are plenty of tropes in this show - the cocky surgeon etc...

February 5, 2013 at 5:45PM EST Reply to Comment
- pamelajaye not just mistakes - these were downright stupid mistakes. on the order of April not looking down the patient's throat mistakes - and April had an excuse! (got distracted by an with axe in head, lost her place, probably thought she'd checked already.
  February 6, 2013 at 3:29AM EST
Brian

I love your work, Alan, but I don't think your remark about David Milch was fair. The man has been responsible for three excellent series. One clunker doesn't make him someone who has trouble getting out of his own way. There isn't a writer in the world who doesn't strike out sometimes.
February 6, 2013 at 11:17PM EST Reply to Comment
Josie H.

This show is awful! So predictable and ridiculous. What a shame, so many good actors with awful scripts. I was really wanting to like this show, but it is beyond stupid. Even the background music is predictable. I kind of liked the premise of Dr's being held accountable, but the close-up's of various actors weighing in with a facial expressions is exhausting. I'm sorry I wasted my time on the second episode, but lessened learned...should have changed the channel during the Pilot...it's that bad.
February 12, 2013 at 2:13AM EST Reply to Comment
Cheryl

Why doesn't anybody ever mention Kelley's too-short-lived series. 'Boston Public'?? That was a great show with great actors & great stories
February 14, 2013 at 2:28AM EST Reply to Comment

News From Our Partners

Follow HitFix:

Follow @HitFix

Get Instant Alerts on What's Alan Watching

Latest Posts

Season finale review: 'Rectify' - 'Jacob's Ladder'

Daniel ponders a trip out of town as the terrific first season comes to a close

Monday, May 20, 2013
Review: FOX's 'The Goodwin Games' has potential it won't get to realize

Some interesting pieces in a new sitcom from the 'HIMYM' guys, but it's a dead show walking

Monday, May 20, 2013
Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 183: 'Behind the Candelabra,' 'The Goodwin Games,' 'Motive' & more

Dan and Alan also review 'Save Me,' talk about 'SNL' departures and a wacky 'Mad Men'

Monday, May 20, 2013
Review: ABC's Canadian cop drama 'Motive' gets summer off to a slow start

A police procedural that doesn't bother with whodunnit, but doesn't replace it with anything interesting

Monday, May 20, 2013

Cannes Film Festival 2013

Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Review: TNT's 'Monday Mornings's offers a refreshingly restrained David E. Kelley

Send to your friends

Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/bglq66l

Review: TNT's 'Monday Mornings's offers a refreshingly restrained David E. Kelley

Share this Post on ...

Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/bglq66l

Review: TNT's 'Monday Mornings's offers a refreshingly restrained David E. Kelley

Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

alynch "unless you count his embarrassing, never-aired “Wonder Woman” pilot for NBC"Hold up. Did that thing leak online when I wasn't paying attention, or did you just get to see it through your magical critic superpowers?

sepinwall The latter. I know someone who knows someone, etc., who slipped it to me. Ordinarily, I pay little attention to unsold pilots, but everything I'd heard about this one made me feel like I had to see it for myself. And it was all I had feared, and more.

Interrogation Bear The pilot leaked and is still "available" online.

mgrabois Shawn, no, he meant Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber).

http://bit.ly/10nZwRi

Greg How many episodes have you seen?

sepinwall 3.

virginia As a big fan of the wonderful Alfred Molina, I am very excited about this one. He's a terrific actor and brings life and fun to every piece he's in.

KathyB Will probably check it out.Also always hope to see Kelly at his best. First couple of season of Ally McBeal helped friends of my blow off steam from law school.Seriously addicted.Hard to do an hour long comedy.

LDP in Cincinnati Another doctor show + another David E. Kelley show = pass!

Kmarko That's great news...I always thought that as long as Kelley doesn't try to be funny (and stays away from religion) he was terrific.Grade on this? Sounds like an A- to me...

WaltEagle Sounds more like a B. I wonder what a premium cable hospital show would be like.

Greg Well, there's Nurse Jackie.

Kmarko It's pretty commonly accepted that Vince didn't get as much out of his talent as he could have.

ChampSkins Premiere was pretty dissapointing. Not very impressed at all. I will watch the next two, as you said those were the three you watched and like the show... but if I were basing it on the pilot, I would pass.

Kmarko Very enjoyable pilot, and the cast is excellent. Hope it stays on.

pamelajaye not just mistakes - these were downright stupid mistakes. on the order of April not looking down the patient's throat mistakes - and April had an excuse! (got distracted by an with axe in head, lost her place, probably thought she'd checked already.

Brian I love your work, Alan, but I don't think your remark about David Milch was fair. The man has been responsible for three excellent series. One clunker doesn't make him someone who has trouble getting out of his own way. There isn't a writer in the world who doesn't strike out sometimes.

Cheryl Why doesn't anybody ever mention Kelley's too-short-lived series. 'Boston Public'?? That was a great show with great actors & great stories

News From Our Partners

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever What's Alan Watching is updated

Latest Posts

Recent Activity on Facebook

Most Popular on Facebook

About HitFix

Advertise on HitFix

Subscribe to HitFix

Popular Topics

alynch

"unless you count his embarrassing, never-aired “Wonder Woman” pilot for NBC"

Hold up. Did that thing leak online when I wasn't paying attention, or did you just get to see it through your magical critic superpowers?

Greg

How many episodes have you seen?

virginia

As a big fan of the wonderful Alfred Molina, I am very excited about this one. He's a terrific actor and brings life and fun to every piece he's in.

KathyB

Will probably check it out.Also always hope to see Kelly at his best. First couple of season of Ally McBeal helped friends of my blow off steam from law school.Seriously addicted.Hard to do an hour long comedy.

LDP in Cincinnati

Another doctor show + another David E. Kelley show = pass!

Kmarko

That's great news...I always thought that as long as Kelley doesn't try to be funny (and stays away from religion) he was terrific.

Grade on this? Sounds like an A- to me...

ChampSkins

Premiere was pretty dissapointing. Not very impressed at all. I will watch the next two, as you said those were the three you watched and like the show... but if I were basing it on the pilot, I would pass.

Kmarko

Very enjoyable pilot, and the cast is excellent. Hope it stays on.

Brian

I love your work, Alan, but I don't think your remark about David Milch was fair. The man has been responsible for three excellent series. One clunker doesn't make him someone who has trouble getting out of his own way. There isn't a writer in the world who doesn't strike out sometimes.

Cheryl

Why doesn't anybody ever mention Kelley's too-short-lived series. 'Boston Public'?? That was a great show with great actors & great stories

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever
What's Alan Watching is updated