‘Bull’ episode 6 review: A malpractice suit almost drives Bull mad
After watching the past five episodes of “Bull” on CBS, it feels like there is one thing we can say with great assurances about our title doctor as played by Michael Weatherly: He’s got an ego, and its a particularly large one. This is a guy who follows to the beat of his own drummer, and doesn’t care much about what anyone else thinks. Leading up to trials, this sort of arrogance suits him well, since in order to be able to do something like manipulate a jury, you have to have the utmost confidence in yourself that you can pull it off.
On Tuesday night’s new episode entitled “Bedside Manner,” one thing became apparent: We were in a rare situation, one in which there was someone even more confident in their own abilities than Bull was. Terry was a surgeon in need of assistance within the midst of a malpractice suit, but his biggest problems is that he didn’t have the people skills to look sympathetic in front of a jury.
Basically, this was the sort of guy who would get in front of a jury and metaphorically hang himself. We would say that in terms of handling personalities, this was the most difficult case we’ve seen Bull tackle so far this season. Even during the trial itself, he had to figure out ways to ensure that he could get the right configuration of jurors — and do what he can to ensure that a certain one left. Was this jury tampering? Well … let’s not get held up in the finer details. Also, we’re really not sure, since we’re not entering “Bull” this season with some sort of extensive knowledge of how juries work.
The problem through most of the trial was this: In order to get this doctor out on a not-guilty verdict, they had to find a way to convince the journey that this man thought he was fallible. Send in Benny to the rescue! He, plus Terry’s wife, had the responsibility of trying to make this guy more relatable in spite of his stubbornness and frequent challenging of the strategy. Benny challenged him on the stand, and made him open up and discuss just how overwhelming it was to be in the operating room during that particular procedure, one that proved to be far more difficult than he imagined. He made it clear just how hard it was to be in his position, and why he did what he thought was right in the moment.
In the end, Benny’s help is what got him the not-guilty verdict: He presented to the jury a man who was exceptional in the ER, but pretty terrible at everything else. This lack of a bedside manner (hence the episode’s title) is in part what got him in hot water even more so than anything else that he did in the operating room.
Episode Grade: B-. As we’ve mentioned several times over with “Bull,” one of the biggest struggles with this show is that if you’re going to have the team win every week, you still have to find a way to keep people watching. “Law & Order: SVU” is a great example of a show that doesn’t always give the good guys a win and that’s what makes it thrilling to watch, because you just don’t know how it’s all going to work out. Finding new solutions to problems is the way in which to do that, and the writers are still trying to figure that out. Many of these episodes are for now entertaining, but we have a feeling they’ll blend together a month for now if they don’t find a way to shake it up.
Oh, and one other thing: Can we spend a little more time with some of the individual characters every week? There’s a difference between being a procedural and being a procedural and nothing else. The show’s too much of the latter and we want to get to know these characters so we can care about what they are doing.
Next week – We have a different client, and more individual character stories to tackle. You can read about that over at the link here. What do you want to see going forward with “Bull”? Leave us a comment below and share your opinion with us. (Photo: CBS.)