Critic Reviews

[Rhimes] may still be up to her old tricks, but here they seem fresh and energetic. Best of all, she has a solid young cast that pulls them off well.

This enjoyable series from the Grey's Anatomy team is sort of Doctors Without Borders--who are also without too many clothes. [24 Jan 2011, p.41]

In true "Grey's" fashion, each newbie is challenged with a case that dredges up the personal issues that brought them to this isolated spot, where, according to Ben, it's like practicing medicine in 1952 in a Third World country

"Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes brings us another soapy doctor drama, set in a lush jungle instead of a hospital.

After you watch Wednesday night's premiere of ABC's doctor drama Off the Map, you might think the title means the show hasn't quite found its path yet. You'd be right. But it's got a shot to get there, with an engaging ensemble cast and a novel premise that could prove useful.

Melodrama, rippling musculature, straight-from-a-Valentine's-Day-card dialogue: There's no reason Off the Map can't become a hit. It just has to avoid sincerity like the plague. Or gangrene.

There aren't any particularly wince-inducing moments, but nor are the various grabs for the heartstrings as successful as they are when "Grey's" is at its best. No lows, but no highs, either.

Off the Map takes few chances with plot or characters.

The real challenge for the writers is to use the show's formula without becoming so enslaved to it that they fail to allow the characters to move beyond being cliches.

So what we have here is another show in which pretty, mildly tortured people perform deeds of medical derring-do while trying to figure out how they, and various parts of their individual anatomies, might fit together.