‘Medical Investigation’ no wonder drug

REVIEW

By Frazier Moore

updated 3:59 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2004

For no apparent reason, people in New York are turning blue and dying.

Sounds like a job for Dr. Stephen Connor and his mobile team from the National Institutes of Health, swooping in and fingering the cause (through rubber gloves, of course) before it gets out of hand.

Heroic, sure. But not very entertaining on NBC’s “Medical Investigation,” which, as dramas go, is no wonder drug. It’s as generic as its title.

(MSNBC is a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft.)

“Not all of them use pepper, but they all use salt” is the sort of torturously detailed medical investigation that is meant to build suspense. But it doesn’t. Nor does the hopped-up, clock-ticking tempo. It’s just wearying.

Along with Kelli Williams (“The Practice”) the series stars Neal McDonough (“Boomtown”) as Connor. He is: highly competent; highly driven; highly arrogant; and, of course, a lousy family man, always zooming off in an NIH chopper from his kid’s softball games to save the human population (he spends more time in the air than Superman).

Then, when he gets where he’s going, he and his minions take over.

“Do you want to make the decision that could affect the lives of 8 million New Yorkers, or do you think you better leave that one to me?” Connor barks at a hospital bigwig who bridles at these interlopers on his turf.

A virulent display of cliches, the show is a combination of “ER,” “CSI” and the flashback re-enactments of “Without a Trace.” But if the problems of “Medical Investigation” are simple enough to diagnose, fortunately, so is the treatment for this series. Viewers are advised to skip it.

“Medical Investigation” previews Thursday at 10 p.m. ET, then premieres in its regular time slot Friday at 10 p.m.

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