I love Doctor Odyssey, so I feel a huge sense of loss that it has been sunk after just one season.
Doctor Odyssey was no ordinary show! Over 18 glorious episodes, we followed the medical team of Dr Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo), and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale) as they sailed on the high-class cruise ship captained by Don Johnson’s Robert Massey.
If you missed the Ryan Murphy-created medical drama, I highly recommend it, not least for having arguably the TV moment of last year when someone’s nose fell off in a swimming pool during Plastic Surgery week (“In case of an emergency, you can use your implants as a flotation device”).
Yep, you read that correctly, and that was just one of the crazy plots! Indeed, I’d often start internet searches while watching to see if any of the medical incidents were remotely plausible — can you get iodine poisoning from eating too much shrimp?
The cast and the show’s loyal audience had the time of their lives thanks to never knowing what gloriously ridiculous thing was going to happen next.
Then there were all the great guest stars, like in Singles Week when Shania Twain turned up as a glam grandmother. And OMG, Doctor Odyssey dedicated two parts to a ludicrous storyline where orcas attacked the ship, leading to Captain Massey looking very serious and talking like they were under attack from U-boats in World War Two.
If you could level one criticism of Doctor Odyssey (on ABC in the US and Disney Plus in the UK) is that it did rather rush its plotlines, especially the whole love triangle between Max, Avery, and Tristan. It started normally enough with knowing glances between them, and then suddenly they were having a threesome! Most TV series, well, in fact, possibly all of them, would have taken a lot longer to get to this point! Or more likely, not have that scene at all.
But in a way, that was the fun of the show. You never knew quite where the plot would take you next, but you knew it was going to be fun. TV could do with more shows that simply aim to entertain you and nothing deeper.
Why was Doctor Odyssey axed?
So, unfortunately, even though I enjoyed it a lot and so did many others, we must assume the ratings simply weren’t there for ABC to make more. There has been no official statement from ABC about its reasons for ending the show.
Fans, though, can still hope that another network or streaming service picks up the show. Doctor Odyssey made a big splash and has been hugely talked about. Let’s hope one day it will set sail for a second series….