Don't let [Dr. OZ's] presence dissuade you from enjoying what's otherwise an almost freakishly absorbing series.

This eight-episode series eventually moves to multiple dramas, from some of those gunshot victims to a nurse who loses her job. And thus it remains a “med” show, which is heartening news.

NY Med continues to do an excellent job of creating a tone that mixes humor with real drama.

It's telegenic, adrenaline-pumping drama, edited to manipulate as well as inform. (Not for nothing is a fresh-faced young female urologist the first character introduced, talking about a penile surgery.) But it's also real and, for that reason, far better than the "Grey's Anatomy" soap opera.

While this latest version of the show remains above that sometimes-toxic mix [stories of missing women, murderous husbands (or did he?) and obviously staged moral dilemmas], these hours prove that it is not, alas, immune to its influence.

The shortcoming of NY Med isn’t Dr. Oz (who is not around much in the early episodes); it’s that the program doesn’t trust its own best vignettes, lingering too long on emotions that speak for themselves, tarting up inherently powerful moments with syrupy music.