I haven't blogged about the last few episodes of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures because my initial supposition, that the interweaving timelines would rob the show of any real dramatic tension, turned out to be true. For example, the question wasn't if Ming would have a miscarriage but when. The show seems to be getting that as the last three episodes haven't addressed the present day in the slightest.

Last night's episode, which dealt with the 2003 SARS crisis, put Fitz then Chen in isolation and Ming in quarantine in her apartment. Gee, I wonder if any of them will die? Even after Fitz signs a DNR, it's not a question of if he'll survive. It was cool to see Chen break down the glass barrier between their rooms after a hallucinating Fitz barricaded his door and started ripping off his equipment, but, yeah, Chen will get him back. 

Since Chen and Fitz seem to retain their status quo in the present, I've realized that the only interesting character is Ming. We know next to nothing about Chen's past and Fitz is only concerned with his past with Ming, but Ming's the fascinating one. The potential villain I pointed out? He's Ming's older cousin who raped her when she was 13. Remember how we've only met Ming's dad? Her mom wasn't around growing up, and last night we learned that she was a married woman who wouldn't leave her husband for love. Somehow, she was able to carry to term and leave Ming with her father to be raised. (And then returned to her husband? How does that work?) I do know some of what will happen next with Ming, but her inner world, in part because it's Fitz and Chen's fantasy sequences that we're regularly treated to, remains a mystery. Fitz and Chen can posture and joke and write all they want. Ming's the real deal. 

It seems that last week's episode was not, in fact, the pilot but episode two. Which makes last night's episode number three. It's odd because "Code Clock" feels like the show is finally getting off the ground, introducing a villain (I'd like to tell you either the actor or the character's name, but there is very little in the way of complete information about the series on the internet. I think the character is Dr. Yi) and something of a mentor in Stephen McHattie (character name? No idea).

I'm still not sold on the show's complicated narrative structure. We started out in the present, where a drunken Chen finds and reads Fitz's old love letters to Ming. Later, Fitz shows up to talk to Chen, and they get into a fight. We flashback to an M&M from their first year residency about a code that Fitz ran when the senior failed to show up. During the M&M, we flashback not only to the code but also to the code from multiple points of view: Fitz, Chen, a nurse named Sharon. So we have present day, flashback, flashback within the flashback, and -- wait for it -- fantasy sequences. Not in a Ming-rides-a-unicorn way, but within each story there are fake outs where people say something, and we cut to discover that the line is what they wanted to say rather than what is actually said. Add in Fitz's conversations with dead people (for real), and you've got a whole lot going on at once.

So you can imagine how strange it is that the show still feels slow and lyrical. It's maybe building to something, but I can't tell what yet. The code itself, fractured as it was, was a great sequence. Rather than the heart-pounding-what-will-happen jolt ER specialized in back in the day, we felt the painful, exhausting work the staff put into trying to revive the patient over the course of 14 minutes. For now, that's something.    

While other people were watching 24 or the Golden Globes, I checked out the première of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures on HBO. Pilots are such a pain in the ass that it almost seems unfair to judge a show by them, but, as a pilots go, this one was pretty solid. Of the three main characters, we get to know Fitz (Shawn Ashmore) the best, which is to say the least: for everything we learn about him, it's perfectly obvious that there are two pieces we're missing. That said, the leads are solid, and the show seems content -- for now -- to let Toronto play itself.

I can't decide if the show's flashbacks-upon-flashbacks conceit is working in its favour dramatically. We know from the outset that Chen (Byron Mann) and Ming (Mayko Ngyuen) are married, and Fitz has returned to the scene as their sperm donor. We flashback to five years earlier, a.k.a. "the first time Fitz came back," to learn that Chen and Ming are dating, Ming and Fitz have unresolved issues regarding their med school relationship (to which we also flashback), and Chen is jealous of/worried about said issues. But when Chen proposes at the end of the episode and Ming hesitates, where's the dramatic tension there? I know they get married eventually. Chen's narration told me so at the outset. Yes, there's still a story to tell there, and yes, this dramatic conceit could pay off in the show's favour, Memento-style, but it still makes me nervous. I like the show well enough to keep tuning in but not much beyond that. 

Most importantly, and I sincerely hope this was not lifted directly from Vincent Lam's 2006 Giller Prize-winning text, someone pulled a Damon and actually said out loud, "dot dot dot." People, for the love of peace, do not start saying "dot dot dot." You can imply an ellipsis with a shrug of the shoulders, a lift of the eyebrow, or a shift of the eyes. You do not need to spell it out. Some chick, who I can't tell if she will be recurring, says to Chen that she's going to go powder her nose and that's his cue to leave or run, adding "and if you're not [here], dot dot dot." Dot dot dot? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"And if you're not, I'll take some other dude home with me"? "And if you're not, I will set fire to your car"? "And if you're not, space aliens will take my brain"? I hope that was a one-off and not something I can look forward to.