We cannot wait for Doc Season 2 to hit the airwaves this Fall.
It’s been one of the breakout hits of the year, record-breaking and exemplifying everything we love and crave when it comes to broadcast television.
Sometimes, it feels like broadcast is dying, but then we have gems like Doc that premiere and give us hope again.
Doc’s Sophomore Season Is Prime to Explore Its Characters Thoroughly
If you’ve been following along with our Doc coverage, you know how special this series is to us and how much our fellow TV Fanatics enjoy this series.
When we found out that FOX renewed Doc for an unprecedented 22-episode order for its sophomore season (in an age where we’re sadly seeing most network series scaling back), it thrilled us.
For one, it means we get to spend extra time with these characters and stories we’ve grown to love, and the series can expand its storytelling in exciting new ways with the breathing room to do so.
It also means we’ll have an opportunity to see Doc flesh out its characters further.
Felicity Huffman Will Join the Series in Biggest Role Since Desperate Housewives
That’s why the latest casting news for Doc Season 2 is fascinating.
The acclaimed Felicity Huffman will be joining Doc as a series regular. It marks her first full-time role on a series since the conclusion of Desperate Housewives.
She has appeared in other series since then in small-time roles, including Accused Season 2 Episode 1.
But this is something different and much bigger, as she onboards the series playing Amy’s former mentor — her professor from medical school (ignore the math), who will also join the hospital as the new Chief of Internal Medicine.
Huffman will play a badass character. Joan Ridley is double-boarded, meaning she is certified in both Internal Medicine and Surgery.
Amy’s Dynamic with Joan Leaves Us Intrigued and Wary
For that alone, the potential stories and exciting medical cases the series can explore with her seem promising.
The description of her character is “an old-school broad” with a killer sense of humor, charismatic as all hell, and someone who doesn’t have to raise her voice to get what she wants from anyone.
She’s a whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking force of nature who sounds like a real pill and a good time. She and Amy have a rich history, as Joan was Amy’s most significant mentor, and Amy was Joan’s star student.
But we will also learn that Joan has a secret of her own that she’s harboring, and it may be one of the reasons she accepted Michael’s offer at the hospital.
One thing that Doc does well is explore the messy, flawed complexities of women on screen. It’s something that we’ve raved about regarding this series, particularly with Amy.
Doc Can Expand on a Gratifying Theme of Showcasing the Complexities of Flawed But Real Women
You don’t see that type of storytelling for women, let alone “middle-aged” women, onscreen anymore, and it’s part of what makes the series so compelling.
The idea that we can get even more of that with the addition of this new character sounds promising. After Doc’s season finale, Miller left a gaping hole with his departure from the hospital.
He was the series’ antagonist, primarily because he was Amy’s direct counterpart, and there was always an underlying tension between them because he had taken over a role that was hers.
They probably needed a new way to evolve that dynamic again, and introducing a mentor with whom Amy has a complicated history is a great way to do that.
On the one hand, it’s a woman Amy admires, and she’s one of the reasons Amy is as great a doctor as she is. It isn’t a case of Amy battling it out and clashing with a peer who wasn’t anywhere near as good as she was.
However, on the other hand, it could result in Amy struggling a bit, knowing that she wants to earn her role back, but her mentor is now her superior.
The Joan Connection Can Also Give Us a Different Outlook on Amy
Doc explores its female characters well — Amy, specifically, but this will also allow the series to delve into the dynamics between female characters.
Goodness, it’ll be so great to have a series where the female characters can actually pass the Bechdel Test, and something tells me there’s so much rich history between Amy and Joan that the last thing on our minds will be how Miller screwed her over or which man she’ll end up with for the moment.
The addition of Joan could be a great way to peel back more layers about Amy, as we have another person who knew her before her accident, but someone who knew her at a particular point in her life.
Much of how Doc wants us to view Amy is shaped by the other characters’ perceptions of her, but Joan’s introduction broadens that scope.
Will Felicity Huffman’s Joan Overshadow Amy and the Others on Doc?
We wondered how Doc would maintain the momentum with Amy, given that the first season seemed to cover a lot of content, but it’s clear that they’re only just getting started in peeling back layers for her and reaching new depths.
Joan also already sounds like a fully realized, distinctive character who almost demands the spotlight. On top of that, Felicity Huffman is playing her.
So one has to wonder how expansive this role is, given that she’s already stepping into it as a series regular.
And with the series also needing to take more time fleshing out supporting characters around Amy during this sophomore season, should we be concerned that the addition of Joan may interfere with that to some extent?
We always have our fingers crossed that the season will expand on the dynamic between Amy and Gina.
Adding another powerful woman with a history of working with Amy to the fray could complicate things a bit, especially when the season will have to build on that dynamic and background.
The series often defines itself by all the characters and their relationships to Amy, so it’ll be interesting to see how this latest addition and dynamic will merge with what we already have going on.
What do you think, Doc Fanatics?
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