I don’t like that it uses the same formula as House MD whatsoever. Same boss lady, same eccentric yet brilliant doc, same interns “learning” as they go. Focus on a single, “challenging” case, with a few side stories thrown in for good measure. I mean, if I wanted to watch a light-weight and more boring version of House, I’d watch something like Grey’s Anatomy.

As for involving patients in their care, of course professionals — even in inpatient psychiatric hospitals — do so. But they also have staff meetings (case conferences) in order to get other professionals’ views on a patient’s case. And yes, sometimes patients do attend those — that’s not all that extraordinary or unheard of. But that’s a different meeting than the weekly (or daily) staff meeting where the professionals are basically checking in with one another and trying to quickly flag significant issues for the day/week/whatever.

I’m willing to stick with “mental” for a bit longer and give it some time to marinate. I think it has potential and I realize that a lot of my gripes are the exact same gripes regular docs have with House MD (a show I very much enjoy, mainly because of the actor who plays House).