The show was created by Jon Robin Baitz, Joe Baken and Ryan Murphy, and “Odyssey” feels like a lot of other Ryan Murphy shows, most especially “Nip/Tuck,” the lush, bonkers plastic surgery drama that ran from 2003-2010. But where that show was framed by the recurring prompt “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself,” “Odyssey” is a bacchanalia of self love, of acceptance, of validation. It can feel as if “Nip” got a gentle-parenting glow-up, its luridness revised for the more empowered, enlightened standards of today.
“Odyssey” is in some ways the inside-out version of “The Pitt” (streaming on Max), TV’s buzziest doctor show. Jackson’s Max and Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby are both brilliant and ethical leaders with high standards. They are both haunted by their experiences at the beginning of the pandemic, Robby by his mentor’s death and Max by the fact that he was among Covid’s earliest patients — he was hospitalized and in a coma, near death. Both Max and Robby cope admirably with a partner’s reproductive choices. Both shows indulge in a bit of medical gore, and both use a sense of “Oh no, we don’t have the resources we need” to intensify the drama. In “The Pitt,” it’s for budgetary reasons; in “Odyssey,” it’s because they’re at sea.
But “Odyssey” is only sort of a doctor show. It is better understood as a fantasy, and not just because of fan theories that the whole show is Max’s Covid hallucination, or that the characters are all in purgatory or some such. This is a show where a straight(ish) man’s No. 1 fantasy is monogamous marriage and child rearing, and not only is he a doctor and former Peace Corps volunteer, he is also always wearing an all-white naval uniform. He loves reality television and sees depth and significance in it, not just mindless fun. He loves teamwork.
He once broke his penis — on account of its being so big and the lovemaking so vigorous — but “the body is a miraculous healing machine,” he says, and the experience even made him a better doctor. He entices patients to shed their hypocrisies and walk in the light. He emerged from the pandemic as more caring, more joyful, more attuned to the world, more open. Even BookTok romances don’t go this hard.
And he’s not the only, er, dream boat. The ship’s captain (Don Johnson) tells Max that the Odyssey is “heaven” for its passengers. That’s true beyond the snazzy vacation of it all because the themed cruises also mean the characters are among their people, the like-minded folks who share their obsession with, say, little rubber duckies, wellness nonsense or May-December romances. The various liars and grifters always admit defeat, and on the rare occasions that someone dies, you always get ample warning through corny slow songs and gentle, predictable character beats.
