Dr. Charles and Dr. Manning disagree on how to handle a patient who they discover is poisoning herself. Dr. Rhodes throws some serious accusations at Dr. Bekker. Dr. Halstead has suspicions about Natalie's new boyfriend. Dr. Choi tends to Bernie.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of NBC's Chicago Med.
"More Harm Than Good" was written by Eli Talbert & Daniel Sinclair and directed by Milena Govich
The doctors at Chicago Med are forced to make difficult decisions all the time. It's a part of their job. They have the responsibility to inform their patients about their treatment options. However, they also have to respect the decisions made by their patients. It can be insanely complicated though. There are plenty of legal ramifications. Plus, there is the systematic failings of the doctors believing they always know best. They understand how to treat the problem in front of them but they may not be able to treat the person behind the condition. That's a very tricky line for them to balance. It has often led to many sanctimonious moments where the doctors push the boundaries of the law in order to give their patients the help they believe they clearly need. None of these doctors are perfect. They make bad calls all the time. The show uses it to better flesh out their personal lives and the drama that is currently happening there. But this season has aggressively pursued this idea that all of the characters are essentially burning out and believing they always know best. Ethan believes he knows better than Emily and Bernie about their complicated lives. He is willing to give tough love even when Bernie is in the midst of a health crisis. Connor believes that Ava made a costly mistake when she was operating on his father. That means another surgery needs to be performed. Natalie believes that she has to push the drugs on her patient to counteract the drugs she already took to die from suicide. And Will believes that his patient is part of an organ harvesting network where his kidney is being sold to a wealthy individual who can bypass the system to get it. Moreover, Will sees Natalie's new boyfriend, Philip, as being completely deceitful about who he truly is. These characters are all high and mighty with their beliefs and trying to convince others to do exactly what they want. And yet, they all get that thrown right back in their faces. Sure, some of them are absolutely right which only puts things into starker context about how difficult it is to gauge what's a responsible reaction to have in these situations. Bernie is never going to change. Ethan apologizes but still sees him as the same guy who his sister is blindly in love with for some reason. Meanwhile, the show truly is suggesting that Philip is nefarious because he made up having a ranch in order to seem cool to Owen. That's odd and still feels like it's being projected out of Will's own imagination. He was proven wrong when it came to his patient who doesn't speak English. Sure, it's strange that there is no one who can translate and ensure that this is completely consensual before the transplant surgery takes place. That seems like the due diligence the hospital needs to do at a bare minimum. But there is nothing sketchy going on there. Meanwhile, Ava calls Connor out for how horrible he has been acting. He has been turning more and more into his father. It's enough for Ava to question why she stays at the hospital where she is subjected to these attacks seemingly every day. That's horrifying. And Natalie may not have prevented a suicide after all. She may have just prolonged the inevitable. It will remain an ongoing battle. She may not even recognize how reckless she has been as of late. That too needs to come into better focus because these characters can't all continue to keep getting away with the actions they have taken this season.
