Why is the show called Monday Mornings when the conferences happen at random times?

Quick first impressions of TNT's new medical drama "Monday Mornings" (Monday nights at 10p/9p central)...

IT'S LIKE AN ONLINE RANT IN ALL CAPITALS!!!!!!! The rapid-fire death and calamity makes me wonder if Fast & Furious 6 might seem a bit quiet by comparison.


The difference between successful and unsuccessful treatment is which doctor you've been assigned. To put it another way, all plane crashes are simply due to pilot error. Fortunately, the National Transportation Safety Board got over that quaint early 20th century notion... and looked beyond popular mythology to investigate the actual causes of crashes. Someone should clue in the Monday Mornings writers.

Speaking of mythology... the show regurgitates many of the very, very tired (and quite wrong) popular ideas about medicine. In addition to the hero-or-goat, black hat/white hat caricatures of doctors, we get the usual more-is-better hooey.

One doctor is tossed out of the hospital for assuming that a runner's sore hip is probably caused by running... without tossing the poor sap into a pit of tests, including X-rays, blood draws, etc. It turns out the runner had an aggressive, advanced tumor that killed her. What're the odds? I mean that seriously... how many serious runners with hip pain end up being diagnosed with advanced cancer?

I suppose it has happened. But just imagine the harm that would be done if every doctor sent every amateur athlete with pain for scans and blood draws and other tests. Yikes. Besides a giddy surge in spending on unnecessary care (as if we aren't already seeing our economy being sucked down by health care costs), there would be emotional and physical harm done to legions of patients who simply have overuse injuries and need to take it easy for awhile or maybe go get some advice from a physical therapist.

And would someone please explain the value of having the reviews of bad outcomes occur at apparently random times (in curious disregard of the whole Monday Mornings title) and without giving the docs any opportunity to prepare? Is winging it really a valid quality improvement technique? 

I'm curious to see if Monday Mornings grabs an audience. If so, maybe I'll take another look. If not, no great loss.