The thing that help start Neil Patrick Harris’s career is on UK Disney plus at time of writing, but does it hold up to today’s standard of show. Let’s give it a go.
About
The show centres around Doogie Howser M.D. a brilliant very young doctor who passed medical school at 14. Now 16, he starts his residency in LA with his father (also a doctor) there to keep him in check.
Show was created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley.
Pilot Scene by Scene Thoughts
This section is based around the unedited thoughts as we watch, for the full review – skip to the Our Thoughts at the end with a score out of 5.
It starts with a nervy teen on a driving test and making you double check what you are watching. Good cameo in the opening by the Janitor from Scrubs at the beginning with a blink and miss it spot.
It plays on the traditional tropes of the main character being at odds with the ones around them.
In the birthday scene, we wonder why we are still watching this.
It reached a reasonable conclusion but 23 minutes felt longer and not for a good reason.
Our Thoughts
It hasn’t aged well. The tropes it uses of kids vs adults, nerds vs jocks, strict parents – are too heavily used to get that connection to the lead character. The first few scenes peaked our interest – but this is one series to leave in 1989.
2/5 – OK, one to avoid – too heavy on tropes and the lead character had little to do to connect to the audience.
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