Ryan Murphy’s latest network offering, Doctor Odyssey , brings viewers into the well-loved world of medical professionals through a unique lens, as this medical team works and lives on a cruise ship.
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The ABC medical drama — created by Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken — stars Joshua Jackson as Max, luxury cruise ship The Odyssey’s newest and seemingly overqualified doctor. Max joins the cruise’s two long-time, skeptical nurses on the medical team, Avery (Phillipa Soo) and Tristan (Sean Teale).
When Doctor Odyssey was first announced, the premise of American Horror Story mastermind Murphy’s next series was largely kept under wraps. Would there be a twist in store? Would the cruise ship be not what it seems? Not until the trailer dropped last month did viewers get a synopsis and first look, and begin to understand what the prolific showrunner really had in store. Recently, when chatting with The Hollywood Reporter , Murphy described the series as “a tribute to the ABC shows of my youth.”
Soo, who rose to prominence playing Eliza Schuyler Hamilton in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton , says the decision to make Doctor Odyssey her next project was easy after getting her hands on the script and knowing Murphy was steering the ship. “I didn’t know much about the story at that point. It was very much under wraps, but I’ve always been a fan of Ryan [Murphy] and the things that he makes,” Soo told THR in a chat after the show premiered — and Doctor Odyssey became ABC’s most-watched drama series launch since 2020.
“I felt like this was a world that felt fun. It felt luxurious. It felt like something that, for me, personally, I was craving. Something that felt like really fun and inviting and entertaining,” she said. “I didn’t know a lot, but I had this trust truly in Ryan, and after having a conversation with him about his vision for the show and what he wanted and hoped for it, I was just so grateful to be invited to the party and was super excited from the get-go.”
For Soo, whose character Avery is the ship’s nurse practitioner, Doctor Odyssey is her first time working on a Murphy project, an experience she describes as “amazing.”
“The level of care that goes into every scene, every shot, every character. He’s got a lot going on right now. I don’t know if you’re keeping track of all of his other shows,” Soo said, referencing the six other Murphy-produced shows that that have either premiered or returned this month, including FX‘s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez , Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and FX’s Grotesquerie , along with returning series 911 on ABC and 911: Lone Star at Fox.
“I always joke that I think he has a time machine, and he’s just going back in time, traveling to different places so that he can fit all of the things that he makes into one day,” she says.
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Throughout the pilot episode, it’s clear that Soo’s Avery and Jackson’s Max have been set up for a bit of push and pull ahead, forming a “love triangle” between the two and Tristan. The actress said the three actors have a “natural connection” that comes across in the scenes.
“All three of us are very much dedicated to the work and wanting to make things clear, and wanting to make things efficient, and wanting to make things sparkly,” she explained, noting that they often use the terms glittery, glimmery and sparkly when making the show. She says that the show’s storytelling has a “lifted tone,” but that the medical emergencies are grounded.
“There is a shimmer, a glimmer, a sparkle between the three of them, that is very personal to their relationship,” Soo said. “I think that it comes easy to us because I think that’s what we bring to the table when we’re working together.”
Soo said she hopes viewers enjoy the world of the show. “I hope that they feel like they’ve taken a tiny, mini-vacation,” she said. “It’s one of those shows where it truly, in its actual context, is an escape, going on this cruise ship, leaving for a little bit and just going on an adventure. But the show itself, I hope, can also be an escape for people.”
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Doctor Odyssey airs new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.
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