Forget ‘The Pitt,’ This New “Emotionally Powerful” Medical Drama Is Back With Season 2

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Medical dramas are incredibly common on television. Most follow a similar pattern: we see the personal struggles of doctors and nurses alongside the cases of their patients. Romantic relationships with colleagues are also a frequent theme. While some shows lean towards melodrama and feel unbelievable, others successfully capture genuine human emotion. The Pitt excels at this, but it’s not the only medical drama that does.

Fox’s surprisingly good show Doc is back for a second season. The series centers on Dr. Amy Larsen, a talented surgeon who loses eight years of her memory following a car crash. While it has many elements common to medical dramas, it feels more authentic. It’s easy to connect with Amy and understand the challenges she faces as she tries to piece her life back together. The show focuses more on Amy’s personal struggle with who she is than on the medical details. It’s also inspired by the real-life experience of a doctor who went through something similar. With so much attention going to shows on cable and streaming services, Doc often gets overlooked, but it’s one of the best medical dramas to come out in recent years, and anyone who enjoys the genre should definitely check it out.

Spoiler Alert: Minor spoilers ahead for Doc Season 1

What Happens in ‘Doc’?


Fox

Doc introduces us to Dr. Amy Larsen, the head of internal medicine at a hospital in Minnesota. Though incredibly skilled as a surgeon, Dr. Larsen struggles with connecting with people. She comes across as bossy, dismissive, and distant with both patients and coworkers. The series reveals that her tough exterior is rooted in a painful past. The unexpected loss of her son, Danny, due to a sudden illness led her to throw herself into her work and isolate herself from others. But a car accident at the start of the show offers her a chance to rebuild her life. Amy loses her memories of the past six years, including the tragedy of her son’s death. After the accident, she transforms into a much more approachable person – kind, friendly, and still a highly talented surgeon.

I’m completely captivated by this show, especially watching Amy try to piece her life back together. It’s incredible to see her fall from a position of power, all the way down to essentially being an intern again – she even has to retake her medical boards! What’s really compelling is how she deals with the people around her, coworkers and friends, when she can’t remember if she wronged them with her strong personality. By the second season, little bits of her past start to surface. It’s not a flood of memories, but enough to make her journey of self-discovery feel so real. I love that she’s embracing this second chance and determined to become a better version of the person she used to be.

With so many medical dramas already available, it’s tough for a new one to be noticed. However, Doc distinguishes itself because the focus isn’t primarily on medicine. It’s not a show *about* a hospital; it’s a story centered around a woman who suffers memory loss and, as it happens, works as a doctor. Amy’s profession could easily have been something else – a lawyer or business executive, for example – without significantly changing the core idea of the show.

I find it incredibly moving how the idea of Amy becoming a world-class physician flips things around. Before the accident, she was the healer, the one always helping others. Now, it’s her who needs care and medical attention to piece her life back together. This really fuels her drive to get back to who she was, I think. And honestly, it’s this very thing – this role reversal – that makes Doc such a profoundly emotional story.

One of the Most Emotionally Powerful Dramas on TV


Fox

Let’s look at things from Amy’s point of view. Imagine being a doctor who feels responsible for the death of her son, even though his heart condition was treatable. Then, for years, you bury yourself in work and distance yourself from everyone you care about. After that, you lose your memory of all of it and have to experience the grief of losing your son all over again. That would be incredibly painful for anyone. On top of that, all your colleagues dislike you because of actions you don’t even remember taking. No matter what Amy did in the past, viewers understand how deeply traumatizing it must be to relive all of this. Although many medical dramas have emotional scenes, Amy’s experiences are truly unlike anything else.

The memory loss isn’t limited to her; it impacts others as well. Amy doesn’t remember divorcing her husband, Michael, after the death of their son, Danny. Following her accident, Michael remarried and started a new family. In Amy’s mind, she and Michael were still married when she regained consciousness after the crash. The confidence of her colleague, Dr. Sonya Maitra, was also damaged because the previous Amy frequently belittled her. Now, Amy wants to repair their relationship, but Sonya needs to determine if Amy’s apologies are genuine and if she can be trusted.

Even Amy’s typical workplace romance in the medical drama falls apart. Previously, Amy had a relationship with Dr. Jake Heller, but now she still longs for her ex-husband, unaware he’s already left her. Michael is possibly even more deeply affected than Amy. Both of them held him responsible for Danny’s death, because he was with Danny when it happened. Michael eventually found happiness again with his second wife, Nora, but he was understandably anxious about having another child.

Amy’s unexpected return complicates things significantly, especially since Michael had already grieved the end of their marriage and the loss of their son. Now, Amy is back to being her old self, showing no sign of the cold, distant person she had become. Even more surprisingly, she still loves Michael, seemingly having forgotten they were ever separated. Michael is deeply affected by this change in Amy, and we see him considering rekindling a relationship with the woman he believed was lost forever. These problems are much more complex than the usual Grey’s Anatomy-style drama. This demonstrates that while The Pitt is impactful, it’s not the only medical show that excels at telling emotionally resonant stories. Doc is available to stream on Netflix and Hulu.

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2025-10-05 19:18