Carol’s Second Act possesses a dynamic duo: Patricia Heaton’s Dr. Carol Kenney and Ito Aghayere’s Dr. Maya Jacobs. No other combination on the show produces as much energy. Carol continues to have boundless enthusiasm and confidence, though she gets her first real shake in “You Give Me a Fever” with an elderly patient after a barrage of tests she orders against Dr. Jacobs’s orders fail to turn up any problems.That said, no one can stay mad at Carol long. Episode three “The Zebra” puts Carol into direct conflict with her fellow interns when they ditch her to compete for the ability to help with a rare medical case. She gets vengeance in her own way and eventually forgives them.
Jean-Luc Bilodeau’s Dr. Daniel Kutcher breaks through in these early episodes largely through sharp timing. His awareness of his character is translating into more confident performances, and he gets to play off the more experienced leads, with Daniel committing cardinal sins against both Jacobs (whose midweek snack he unknowingly pilfers) and Nurse Dennis (Cedric Yarbough notably raises the quality of the show). The latter offense results in some delightful passive aggression from Nurse Dennis who thwarts Daniel’s attempts Sabrina Jalees and Lucas Neff get some fun moments with their characters. They’re on as much of a learning curve too, with both of them having difficulty not looking at the camera in the second episode.
The show is managing to be pleasant with a gentle tone. That is potentially to its detriment. Some shows try too hard to be funny. This one is exerting minimal effort with its stories and character interactions. The writers seem reluctant to dig too deeply into more than one misadventure per episode, so the second and third episode quickly become uneven. However, the third episode is the strongest so far, even if does rehash Gilani and Sommers’s episode one conflict. And when Carol’s patient crashed, the serious turn of events was jarring.
Best Moments:
Dr. Jacobs: You will be treating a patient.
Dr. Kenney: A patient! A real live patient?!
Dr. Jacobs: Yes, the patients will always start out alive.
Dr. Frost: Usually it’s pneumonia pneumonia pneumonia but not today!
Dr. Kutcher: It’s a bran muffin with cranberries. It’s a cranbran.
Dr. Jacobs (effusive with joy) I’m impressed. You managed to find a muffin that’s worse than no muffin.
Dr. Kenney tricking Caleb into doing the lion’s share of her punishment paperwork! Carol is her most lovable self when she’s sneaky.
