TV Series Lounge

I believe most are surprised with the season finale of Off the Map. I mean the title itself “There’s a Lot to Miss About the Jungle” proves that we will miss the jungle a lot if the series doesn’t come back for season two. There are lots of unanswered questions and they will remain to be the same if ABC decides to cut this show.

TV Fanatic: I still thought Ben was an ass, despite his grudging acceptance of Mina and his heroic bridal carry of Ryan through the jungle to get her to the airport on time. He was insulting to Mina until he realized that his negativity might affect her patient. Even when he supported her he obviously didn’t believe his own words.

When Ryan decided she was done fighting, Ben simply couldn’t let go. Ryan hated NY. She hated being poked and prodded. She’s tired of being a patient. Ryan knew her odds were poor and she wanted her final days to be at the clinic, her home.

Ben didn’t fight her. I wished he would have. That would have been more honest. Not only was Ben willing to keep his wife on life support for years because he couldn’t let her go, he’s also willing to sanction murder to keep Ryan alive. That’s exactly what his old friend the organ donor was making clear to Ben.

When you pay for a black-market kidney, you tell yourself that the donor’s still walking around with one working kidney. When you pay for a heart, there’s no such illusion. Ryan would be horrified if she ever found out that her life was saved through because someone else was purposefully killed.

Mina was as strong as ever. I loved it when Ben was trying to give her a pep talk and Mina called him out on firing her. Somehow the woman who doesn’t like kids managed to get a bunch of school children to assist her with surgery and then carried the patient until they found a ride. It appeared she accomplished it through shear force of will.

Lily’s desperate run to the farm had my heart pounding. I expected to see the barn on fire but finding Mateo shot was a shock. Even though I don’t believe Lily and Mateo are a long term couple, their final scene together was desperately tragic.

I was a little unclear on Otis’ intent with the new passport. Did that mean he’s applying for citizenship in that country? I suppose the important part was that he took steps to prove to Zee that he’s in this for the long haul.

Finally, Tommy manned up and told Mina that he loved her. Although Mina didn’t respond verbally, at least she didn’t let go.

 If you hope to find out if Ben will really go through with his plan, if Mateo will live or die, and what Tommy and Mina’s fate will be, then contact ABC and ask for a season two. What do you think?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

This week’s Off the Map “Hold on Tight,” features Ryan makes a tough call, Mina stands her ground, and Ben falls further than I thought possible.

TV Fanatic: How wonderful is Ryan? Beneath those fresh from the beach tresses and that sunny smile beats a heart of steel. If only she was physically that strong. She had the guts to give it to Keaton straight. “I don’t want to end up like her.”  His wife has been on life support for years. That isn’t what Ryan wants if it all goes wrong. She tells him with a mixture of directness, humor, and love that is fairly remarkable. She’s not pushing anyone away. She’s simply making some hard decisions and taking control of her own care.

Part of that decision is to hand her care over to Mina. Ryan knows that Ben and Zee are too close to be objective but Mina is just far enough removed to follow her directives. Mina has grown so much since the start of the season. She’s strong and professional. She’s calm under pressure yet still feels enough to let the emotions hit her once the emergency is over.

Then there’s Ben. Part of me wants to sympathize with him. His wife was shot. She’s been on life support for years but is he unable to make the tough call because he loves her so much he can’t let her go or because her trust fund is keeping the clinic alive? Honestly, I don’t think Ben knows the answer to that question.

The truth is every week I like Ben a little less. He’s so concerned about his incapacitated wife that he forces the doctors to pump her full of antibiotics to keep her alive yet he doesn’t notice Ryan is pale and out of breath when she’s standing in front of him. However, Mina noticed it pretty quickly.

Ben’s angry that his wife was shot. He’s bitter that he can’t bring her back. He’s distressed that Ryan is ill and he’s infuriated that she doesn’t want him to have control of her care. But he can’t vent his anger at Abby or at Ryan so he lets loose on the one person left standing, Mina. He blames her. He yells at her. He even fires her but his lowest point comes when he dredges up the child patient she lost back in the States. One of my favorite moments is the disgusted look Otis shoots him when he throws that at her.

To be honest, no matter what happens with Ben moving forward, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to truly like this character after tonight’s episode.

Mina, on the other hand was a stand out. She didn’t yell back but she didn’t back down. Ryan is her patient and Mina takes that responsibility seriously. Ben’s not about to bully or scare her off. I look forward to how this plays out in the season finale.

In other stories, Charlie’s mother wanders back into his life and it’s heartbreaking. Charlie believes Tommy when he says he’ll fix her and Tommy certainly wants to but schizophrenia isn’t something you can cure with a pill or a surgical procedure. It isn’t that Theresa doesn’t want to be Charlie’s mom, it’s that her chemically imbalanced brain won’t let her.

As this plot unfolds, Tommy is able to step up for his friend. The name “Little Dove” is a sweet way to add a touch of humor to a difficult story.

In the only lighthearted story this week, Lily wakes up in Mateo’s bed and tries to avoid her walk of shame past his mother.  No such luck. She’ll have to get up way before that gorgeous sunset to sneak past the residents of a working farm, whether she agrees with the cash crop or not.

Otis and Zee’s roles were much smaller tonight but when Zee fell apart after almost losing Ryan on the table, Otis was there for her. It was the warm, fuzzy moment I needed amongst all of the angst.

I don’t know if the coming week’s finale will wrap up some of this drama or leave us hanging. Either way I’m anxious to see what’s in store for our jungle docs next.

I’m really not sure what will happen on the season finale of Off the Map. Will it wrap up the drama ? Or give us another set of questions? The interesting part is that the season finale is titled “There’s A Lot to Miss About the Jungle.”

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Episode 11 of Off the Map “Everything’s as It Should Be” is definitely an emotional episode.It brought several relationships full circle, only some of them weren’t where they hoped to be.

TV Fanatic: First things first, Otis and Zee got back together. Woohoo! Zee finally realized that second chances won’t wait forever. She took the jump with Otis, deciding he was worth the risk. I have to say, the supply room sex looked pretty hot. I was thrilled to see my favorite fiery couple together once again. I couldn’t imagine another pair that could have pulled off the scene where Otis demonstrated safe sexual positions to the elderly couple. Something that could have been cringe worthy was made sweet and funny by these two extremely likable characters.

Keaton’s old buddy Jonas Simpson wandered back to the clinic looking for a favor. He wanted to reconnect with Ben and get a black market organ transplant done on the side. Unfortunately the clinic docs caught on too late. Simpson pocketed ten grand, the patient died, the organ donor never got paid, and the entire debacle put the clinic in jeopardy.

Although that whole story line was good drama, what I liked best was that it brought into focus what I’ve never liked about Keaton. He’s playing all sides and getting away with it. He’s the martyr with the brain dead spouse but he’s also the guy keeping her alive to milk her trust fund to keep the clinic open. Yes, he justifies it by saying that the clinic was Abby’s dream but that doesn’t make it right. When Jonas accused him of using Abby as his personal ATM, it stung because it was too close to the truth.

My other issue was that when his buddy kept bringing Abby up in front of Ryan, Ben let him do it, over and over again.  Even though he knew how much it hurt Ryan. If he feels that guilty about having a girlfriend while his wife has been in a five year coma, then let Ryan go. And if not, then man up and stop letting some jerk make her feel like dirt.

When Ben told Ryan that he knew what he was doing wasn’t right but that he couldn’t let Abby go, it wasn’t entirely clear what that meant.

Does he want to keep things the way they are or is he dumping Ryan in the hopes of easing his guilty conscience? Can he simply not handle the thought of taking his beloved wife off of life support or is it the clinic he can’t risk losing?  Ben’s life is an emotional disaster zone and he’s going to have to make some tough choices to change it.

On a slightly lighter note, Tommy’s jealousy over Mina’s new suitor was incredibly sweet. I understood Mina’s fear. They live together. They work together.  He’s her best friend. There’s a lot to lose if their relationship goes wrong. Unfortunately jumping into bed, or the shower, with another guy probably won’t make things any better.

Lastly, Lily went back to Mateo. Ugh. I genuinely like Lily but this relationship does nothing for me. It feels like the writers are searching for something to do with her now that Ben is back with Ryan.

This is indeed one good episode for Off the Map. However, ratings show that this series hasn’t really getting enough audience but I still hope that it will be renewed for another season.

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Episode 10 of Off the Map “I’m Home” poses a question, where’s home? Well, the doctors answered and acknowledged the same on this likable episode.

TV Fanatic: A hepatitis outbreak took our doctors to the local prison. Tommy got all hot and bothered contemplating a women’s prison on a remote island. That is, until he set foot inside one.

The men’s and women’s prisons were connected by the same wall. What genius designed that? Who would imagine someone would make a hole?

Somehow Off The Map managed to find a strange kind of romance in the storyline between two seriously ill prisoners spending years talking through a hole in the wall.

I loved the imagery of the sunset that Hugo finally got to see before he died. For him, Becky’s description of the sunset had become home.

I wasn’t expecting Otis to make the connection between where Becky was and where he could have ended up. Every week Otis becomes a bit more complex.

It was nice to see Zee admit she still had feelings for him, even if she still held him at arms length. I think the slow build between these two should be worth the wait.

Lily was thrilled to be back at the clinic after a few days off and she’s finally getting used to Zee’s normal abruptness. The jungle clinic crew just isn’t a touchy feely type of crowd but Lily seemed to be learning to accept that.

I didn’t think Mateo would be back. I was wrong. This time he brought along his sick mother. Somehow I liked Mom better than Mateo. It looked as though we’ll be seeing more of Mateo since Lily agreed to be his mother’s personal physician.

Ryan and Ben made it back from New York. It was sweet the way Ben tried to be what Ryan wanted. She asked him to make her feel strong.

As they both quickly realized, she’s not strong, she’s seriously ill. It was no longer about what she wanted but what she needed. She needed to understand her limitations. When reality finally hit, they leaned on one another.

Mina and Tommy were completely awkward and totally cute. Tommy couldn’t stop picturing her naked and it played havoc with their working relationship.

The best moment was when Mina admitted that she considered Tommy and Lily her home. She’s safe and comfortable with them and she didn’t want that to change. That was a huge acknowledgment for Mina. I’m entirely sure Tommy realized it.

So what is your favorite moment on this episode?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Episode 9 of Off the Map, “There’s Nothing to Fix,” features a lot of things broken. Things that made the hour so interesting and enganging.

TV Fanatic: Zee wasn’t so much shocked at finding Tommy and Mina the morning after as she was outraged that their night of wild abandon trashed her garden.

The light of day was filled with regret as word of their tryst spread throughout the clinic. I was actually hoping to see more awkward interaction between Tommy and Mina but perhaps we’ll have that in the coming weeks.

Mina then had to deal with the clinic’s most obnoxious patient. I thought it was great that not only did Mina tell him off but that he died without being redeemed one bit.

I was expecting a cheesy angry man sees the light story and was impressed when they didn’t go that way. Some people just aren’t nice. Period.

Again we saw Tommy starting to come into his own as he stood up to Keaton and treated his patient the way he thought was right. After he fought to keep that man alive all day, he wasn’t going to walk away with one more option left on the table, even if it was literally his own blood.

When Tommy admitted that he was a little woozy after giving blood, Ben told him to go get a cookie. Really? He just saved the guy’s life when Ben wanted to let him die. Seemed the least Ben could do was get Tommy that cookie, maybe even some orange juice.

Did it seem odd to anyone else that Ben had to be convinced to accompany Ryan to New York? One minute he told her how much he’s there for her and the next he handed her a ticket and wished her good luck on her trip. He knew she was scared and she hated the city. Why did Otis have to convince him to go with her? Yes, Ryan’s a strong young woman and I’m sure she could handle almost anything on her own but she was going to find out how soon her heart would give out.  Of all the times a girl could use some hand holding, that would be it. It seemed like Ben should have wanted to go from the beginning.

Thankfully Otis finally came out and told Zee that he wanted a second chance with her. He seemed positively giddy that the accident that nearly blinded him proved how much Zee still cared for him. It was kind of cute. He was definitely blindsided when Zee admitted she could never have children. As much as he’d like a child with his smile and Zee’s fire, there are certainly other options for this couple. Like the orphanage down the road filled with homeless babies. Either way, Otis and Zee have become the couple I root for every week.

The look on Lily’s face when she realized that boy drowned was haunting. Although she would have died with him if she hadn’t let him go, that’s a decision that will plague her for a long time to come. I’m not sure anything can fix that. We’ll have to wait and see.

I love how the characters reacted and for me, they are simply effective in this series.

What can you say about the episode?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Episode 8 of Off the Map,”It’s a Leaf,” gives us a lot of things. There’s a baby, a cursed mine, an explosion and a so-called drunken fling! Oh boy I can’t ask for more

TV Fanatic: “It’s a Leaf” was Mateo’s defense to Lily when she found out he was farming the cocoa leaf for cocaine. Oh, and that leaf is used to treat altitude sickness and make herbal tea.

At least Lily called him on the bullsh!t. “That’s where you make your profits? The herbal tea business.” He played it off as though it was just the family business.

Yes, the family business that got him shot and had the local police questioning Lily.

At the end Mateo gave her some smooth talk about love not being perfect or easy and how she’s worth the risk. Thankfully Lily walked away but in my opinion she should have run. Mateo’s handsome and charming and nothing but trouble.

Otis getting blinded by the gas explosion in the gold mine should have been a great segue for getting him back together with Zee but I thought he blew it.

She had tears streaming down her face because she was worried and moved by his words and then he laughed at her? Not the best way to get her to trust you.

The upside was that he made it clear he still cared about her and wanted another chance. We’ll see next week if she decides to give it to him.

As soon as Zee explained what the godmother knife meant in the birthing ritual, I knew Mina was in trouble. Then it all lead to a drunken fling between her and Tommy.

I only wished we had gotten to see the morning after scene for that tryst. I’ve got my fingers crossed for next week.

I found Tommy punching Dr. Cameron very satisfying. This supposed doctor gave Morris false hope of a cure for ALS, almost killed him with the “treatment,” tortured his already stressed out family, and charged him fifty grand for the privilege. I wanted to hit him myself.

When Ryan decided to head to New York to seek a heart transplant I was left with more questions than answers. Was Ben planning on going with her?

But after watching the episode there are lots of questions that surfaced. I hope we’ll get answers next week.

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

This week’s episode of Off The Map talks about miracles. Indeed, they happen but not in all instances. So what happened on “Es Un Milagro?”

TV Fanatic: The chopper carrying several patients crashed in the jungle. When the doctors arrived at the scene I was shocked that no one was already dead. That was the first miracle.

I loved Ryan’s conversation with God as she searched the jungle for the lost girl.

She chastised him for his twisted sense of humor. Keaton had finally chosen her just as her body decided to give in to heart failure. Timing is everything.

I was so happy she told Ben about her condition.

She could have hidden it for weeks but that would have made for a dull, cliched story. Instead we’ll get to see how she and Keaton move forward together.

Otis has turned out to be one of my favorite characters. The show left us guessing throughout the episode about whether he had taken the heroin.

Thankfully he hadn’t and he turned it over to Keaton. It had been in his pocket all day, taunting him. Otis won this round and it was a difficult battle.

Then he managed to be their for Mina when she fell apart.

We had very few of Mina’s wise cracks this week and I missed them but they would have been out of place in this story. Lynn’s death was tragic yet Mina blamed herself.

Otis could see the effect it had on her. I enjoyed Otis and Mina’s scenes together. They’re two damaged souls who have found a unique friendship.

The moment Tommy sent Charlie away I assumed he had some horrible home life. Although Keaton confirmed that Charlie’s an orphan, this story had a great twist.

Charlie wasn’t living in the hostel as Keaton believed. He’s housesitting for tourists who own timeshares. I think Tommy’s going to be crashing at Charlie’s from now on. Hopefully he’ll remember to use a coaster next time.

Lily had the least interesting story this week, until the end.

She continued to waffle about whether she should push ahead for a second date with bad boy Mateo. Did the makeout session under the waterfall really count as a first date?

When she surprised Mateo at his home it was instantly clear that he was hiding something. I kept expecting a wife and five children to come out the door. That scenario would have been simpler than the truth. Mateo farms the cocoa plant, for cocaine.

Lily’s new love interest was more of a bad boy than she thought. You’d think such a smart woman would know that a wanted criminal with a bullet wound meant trouble.

I think this is a good episode though not  a spectacular one.

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

This week’s episode of Off the Map, “It’s Good,” involves a fortuitous event. Yes, the clinic was robbed. So what now?

TV Fanatic: Ben got his wife’s latest test results and they weren’t good. No change. Has Ben decided to take Abby off of life support? He seemed to be leaning that way. He spoke to Ryan about moving on. He made it sound like he was considering moving on with her.

In true one step forward, two steps back, soap opera fashion, these two love birds faced another obstacle but Ben was still in the dark about Ryan’s medical condition.

The helicopter crash surprised but didn’t shock me. That last shot of the passengers as it took off felt as though it lasted a beat too long, a sure sign of something ominous to come.

The crash made me wonder what Ben was thinking in that moment. Ryan was supposed to be on the flight but the chopper was full. Did he experience a moment of “Oh God, that could have been you,” or did he simply slip into doctor mode? Maybe I’ll get that answer next week.

We got more info on Ryan’s illness. She was infected by assassin bugs when she was a child and now she’s beginning to experience heart failure. She seemed more concerned about how her illness affected Ben than getting treatment.

Ryan seems like a smart young woman. Having her portrayed as a lovesick romantic willing to risk her own health lessens a character I’ve grown to like.

On the upside I continued to enjoy Otis for his flaws. The way his eyes lit up when he spotted the heroin cooking on the stove felt realistic. Ben’s correct.

Even though Otis has been sober for nine months, there’s no guarantee he won’t slip again. Every day’s a fight to stay clean. It was classic addict behavior when Otis pocketed some of the drugs. We’ll have to wait for next week to find out if he used it.

When Mina stood up to the drug dealer it felt more than a little contrived but I don’t expect a lot of gritty realism from Off The Map so I was willing to let that one go. The scene showed that she was willing to put her neck on the line for her patients and colleagues and that was enough for me.

Tommy meeting his girlfriend’s father was just boring back story. His frat brother with viral meningitis didn’t wow me either but it was nice to see Cheech Marin back again.

I wasn’t impressed with the love story between Lily and Mateo. This new love interest felt forced.  Perhaps it’s being used to give Lily something to do that doesn’t revolve around Ben.

For a supposedly shy young woman, Lily hasn’t learned not to shower on the main hiking trail. Or has she’s learned that that’s where she finds the gorgeous men in this jungle.

With these developments, what do you think will happen next on Off the Map?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Lets admit it, Off the Map is getting good number of audience each week. Why? Because it’s a Grey’s Anatomy meets beautiful scenery type of TV series. So what happened on this week’s episode “I’m Here?” Read below.

“I’m Here” showcased how much these characters have begun to rely on one another and how others are reevaluating their relationships.

Angus Sinclair rolls into town with his larvae infested skin and tries to woo Zee. Seriously, only a doctor could flirt with a guy while removing puss and larvae from under his skin. I’m just hoping I don’t recall that scene the next time I eat a slice of bacon.

Zee has been assessing her relationship with Otis since the start of the season. This breakup is no surprise, Sinclair just pushed things to a head. Now we’ll see if Otis has any real feelings for Zee or if he simply moves on to his next fling.

And could that fling be Mina? They certainly make an odd couple but Mina was definitely moved when Otis shared the details of his addiction. I don’t think Otis had any idea what she was trying to tell him when she spoke with him on the porch.

I’m not entirely sure that Mina knew what she was trying to convey either but their interaction continues to be entertaining.

The amputation under water was dramatic but I was happy they didn’t dwell on the actual surgery too long. Although I’ll admit that the blood slowly floating upward in the water was an eerie sight. And I liked how it brought Tommy’s issues with his family to the forefront.

I was happy to see him send the picture back home. At least they’ll know he’s well.

Lily continues to let her naivete get the better of her. I don’t know what Mateo’s real story was but neither did she. Hopefully her trusting nature doesn’t put the clinic in jeopardy with the local police. That could be bad for everyone.

Any guesses on what is wrong with Ryan? There’s obviously more there than just the bends and from the look on her face she seems to know what it is. We’ll see how long the big reveal takes and if she confides in Ben or someone else at the clinic.

So we leave the jungle this week with Zee deciding not to kiss her bug infected suitor, Lily kissing her patient who is bleeding from an abdominal wound, and Tommy kissing the waitress who doesn’t speak English. Somehow I’m betting they’ll find a way to communicate despite the language barrier.

So what do you expect on the next installment of Off the Map?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

One good quality of a TV series is its ability to bring surprises! For this week’s episode of Off the Map, I think they definitely achieved to surprise us although some are annoyed to some transformations.

TV Fanatic: In “On the Mean Streets of San Miguel,” Abuelito, played by Ralph Waite, is a beloved, elderly man being told he has terminal cancer and then, with a couple of lines of dialogue and a frightening look in his eyes, he becomes a former Nazi soldier.

The sudden transformation was disconcerting.

How could a man who had done such good over the past half century be guilty of such evil? How could no one have seen it? As Otis said, sometimes no matter how well you think you know some one, you may not know them at all.

Mina grows on me each week but this time it wasn’t for her sarcastic wit, but for her dogged determination. She truly believed this man should have to face some sort of judgment for his crimes. That his victims’ families had the right to know he had been found.

Mina was going to keep her patient alive and if Ryan wasn’t going to help her then she better step out of the way.

Then we have Lily who seems to swing between pining for Ben to being angry with him and back again. When she sees him as the wounded widower out to save the world Lily looks at him with starry-eyed devotion.

When she sees him in a lip lock with Ryan she is hurt and jealous. But what will her reaction be once she processes Ben’s confession; That he has kept his brain dead wife alive for five years so that he can access her trust fund to keep the clinic running?

Things are definitely getting complicated in the jungle.

Next we have Ben’s fling with Ryan. If you’ve been on again / off again for a year can you still call it a fling. For someone who plays the lonely widower Ben sure doesn’t seem to be very lonely. Oh, and of course he isn’t officially a widower either. Details.

I loved Ryan and Zee’s machete therapy but the way they swung that thing made me want to duck. I wouldn’t get near these ladies when they’re angry.

Let them take it out on the jungle.

So what’s your reaction on this episode?

You can check Off The Map Season 1 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.