[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Doctor Odyssey.]

The Big Picture

The ABC series ‘Doctor Odyssey’ is an enjoyable mix of intriguing characters with undeniable chemistry, medical emergencies, and personal drama.
Ryan Murphy’s latest network TV project offers escapism and excitement, with elaborate sets and exciting guest stars.
Show star and executive producer Joshua Jackson discusses the importance of a joyful work environment and how that was established among the cast and crew.

The ABC series Doctor Odyssey is the subject of much speculation conversation since it’s hard to imagine that creator Ryan Murphy is simply doing his version of The Love Boat for network television. But until any theories about possible twists are definitely confirmed, it’s a fun ride with interesting characters who have undeniable chemistry, on a luxury cruise ship where they provide escape and also save a few lives.

Finding a work/play balance is complicated for the ship’s new doctor, Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), who isn’t interested in defining his relationship with Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale), the nurses on his medical team. But for Jackson, the opportunity the series provides for him to work in the city he lives in while also taking his daughter to school before boarding their cruise ship in a soundstage is far less complicated.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Jackson discussed how much fun he’s having on Doctor Odyssey, the depth and diversity of Murphy’s imagination, whether there could be more going on than what appears on the surface, how the pair had been trying to work together for years prior to this, the opportunity for exciting guest stars, just how elaborate the sets are, the instant cast chemistry, and the importance of working on a joyful set.

Collider: I am having so much fun with this show. I had no idea that I would ever see Ryan Murphy’s version of The Love Boat, but I’m here for it.

JOSHUA JACKSON: Excellent. Yes, me too.

Since your character has shared that he was patient zero at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s led to the theory that maybe your character never actually recovered from that illness and is still stuck in a coma, and that this ship doesn’t really exist. When you hear about the theories and the observations behind them, what goes through your head? Can you confirm or deny the accuracy of this theory? What is happening here?

JACKSON: I think it is a testament to the depth and diversity of Ryan’s imagination and the shows that he puts on the air that everybody who looks at something that he’s doing is like, “Hmm, it can’t be what it looks like on its face, so what’s actually going on here?” I think that is a huge compliment to him. And I will tell you that, on set, we came up with pretty close to that same theory. I have no idea. The only brain on earth that knows the truth is Ryan’s brain. But I love this as a conspiracy theory.

Twist or No Twist, Joshua Jackson Just Wants Fans To Have Fun With ‘Doctor Odyssey’
Image via ABC

Do you think we will find out if there is more going on, at some point this season? When are we going to get answers here?

JACKSON: The only person who knows whether that’s true or not is Ryan. I don’t know that we’ll find out this season. I don’t know that we’ll find out, ever. And we might just be wrong. We definitely have the same kind of conspiracy parlor game going on, on set. So, I just want you and everybody at home who’s trying to figure out the details to know that we are on the same page. He definitely didn’t pitch it to me as a fever dream transitioning to heaven, but it also may just be that he didn’t tell me the full details.

Ryan writes television from the perspective of somebody who likes television, which I really appreciate. This is his version of a really classical format of TV that we used to do a lot of. This used to be the predominant format. And he’s trying to do his elevated version of something that we used to do very well, which is an hour of escapism on TV. It’s not meant to be gritty or heavy. It shouldn’t feel like homework. You shouldn’t feel awkward watching it. It is a simpler, lighter show than we’ve been putting on the air for a long time. His idea was, look, we’ve all been through it. We all are hopefully now coming out of this collective nightmare of COVID, and the way he described it to me is, “I wanna turn the page and I wanna exhale.”

I think that’s what the intention of this show is. Come here for an hour, enjoy yourself, and feel a little bit lighter than when you sat down to watch the show. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to create something that feels realistic enough that you recognize is at least on planet earth, unless of course, we’re all in heaven. But for now, it’s just a place to come and watch guest stars do fun things and our team figure out the cases of the week, but also figure out how to live with each other and fall in love and fall out of love. And then, at the end of every week, you just hopefully have a smile on your face.

This is also a series that allows for a wide range of cool guest stars. Is there anyone you’ve worked with in the past, or anyone you haven’t worked with but have always wanted to, that you’d love to get on the show?

JACKSON: There’s a long list of actors that I haven’t worked with that I would love to have the chance to, but I leave that in the very capable hands of Mr. Murphy because I think he has very specific ideas of who it is that he wants to populate our world. We haven’t had any duds yet, so I don’t have to worry about that part of it.

Related ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Review: Sexy Network TV Is Back, Baby!  The new ABC series sees Joshua Jackson returning to what he does best: playing a dreamy lead.

The themed aspect is very fun.

JACKSON: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. And it’s fun to work on. I’ve never worked on something like this before, where the story isn’t serialized. It’s always been that this week adds up to next week, adds up to the week after that. This is something that’s truly episodic, where every episode is its own little movie, with a beginning, middle and end, and then you move on and go to the next week, and you do it all again. So far, I’ve really found that extremely enjoyable.

I’m amused by the fact that you’re doing this show about people getting on a cruise ship to get away from things in life, and yet you’re shooting in Los Angeles where you live and not actually getting away anywhere outside of a set. What is this set like?

JACKSON: We’re having a really good time. I’ve worked for a very, very long time, and I have rarely had the opportunity to work from home. I’m also a father now, and to have the opportunity to wake up every morning, have breakfast with my daughter, drop her off at school, and then go to work, it feels very much like real life, almost like a regular job. To me, it is more exotic to stay home and work than it is to travel and work, so I really appreciated the opportunity to stay home and work.

The ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Sets Are the Most Elaborate Joshua Jackson Has Ever Worked On
Image via ABC

What can’t we tell from just seeing these sets on TV, that would just blow our minds?

JACKSON: I think that they photograph really well, so the truth is, you’re probably getting it. They are the most beautiful, elaborate standing stage sets that, in my 30 plus years of doing this, I’ve ever worked on. That is a credit to Ryan and the people that he continues to work with. It is beautifully shot, it is beautifully designed, the clothes are perfect, the design elements of hair and makeup are perfect, the special effects makeup, which is important for us with all the cases that we have, is excellent. Both of our directors of photography are great. I would like to think that part of what makes our show special is that Ryan, who hasn’t worked in network TV for a while, is more ambitious visually than your typical network television show. We really take care, collectively, to make sure that the show doesn’t just look like a standard TV show. It’s prettier. There are more attempts for cinematic visuals and we have these beautiful sets that allow us the opportunity to do that. This place that we work does not look like your average TV show.

I’ve never taken a cruise because I get really bad motion sickness, so I’m worried about what that would do to me. So, I live that out vicariously through watching this series.

JACKSON: I just had a great idea for what we should do in the off season for people who have motion sickness. We should just allow people to come to Stage 14 and have the cruise experience without actually having to be on the water.

Related Phillipa Soo Weighs In On Those ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Fan Theories: “It’s Doing Its Job” Ryan Murphy is “that you’re talking to your friends about it the next day.”

You’ve previously said that you and Ryan Murphy had been trying to work together over the years. What is the closest that you came to working together before this? What is just wrong timing, or did the project just never completely fit?

JACKSON: There have actually been two projects. One was seven or eight years ago, and one I can’t remember because it’s been a long time. One just wasn’t the right character for me, and one was just wrong timing because I was working on something else. I’ve known Ryan since back on The WB days, and I always appreciated what he put on camera. I just like the way that he approaches dialogue. It is very intentional that his characters talk fast and the scenes keep moving. You’re not supposed to stop and think on it. It’s just, get the words out and keep it pushing, and I like that. I like that, as a device on camera. And then, as he’s built out his company and the machine that’s him, and I didn’t know this until I came to work here, he works with the same group of people over and over again, and he keeps a lot of crew in L.A. employed.

I’ve never been on a show that was as ready to go on day one as this show, and it’s because most of the people here have worked together before, from the department heads down to the shooting crew to everybody. I know it makes him uncomfortable because he doesn’t like bragging about this kind of stuff, but it’s really a testament to the type of boss that he is. He recognizes that the value of his company is not just in his brains and the ability to write beautiful, sometimes outlandish things, but it’s also in retaining the talent of the people who make his shows and rewarding people by giving them solid, steady employment, especially at such a tumultuous time in the industry. That really, really speaks incredibly highly of him.

Joshua Jackson Is Grateful for the Chemistry He Has With His ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Co-Stars

Whatever ends up getting revealed or not revealed on the show, you guys have a pretty great group of actors and you all had chemistry together pretty instantly. What have you most enjoyed about finding that dynamic and playing with the relationships with Don Johnson, Phillipa Soo and Sean Teale?

JACKSON: Our producing director, Paris Barclay, did a very smart thing for Phillipa, Sean, myself and Don. Just before we started, we all got to sit down and have a conversation about how it is that we like to work, what our ambitions are for the show, and any nervousness or trepidation that we had. We basically just laid out on the table how we wanted to approach this, as a cast. It turns out that particularly Don and I have a very, very similar approach to these things. It just gave us a chance to get to know one another so that we could approach, with care and joy, how we get into every single day. And then, it’s just luck. It’s the piece that you can’t program for. There’s just no way to know if there’s going to be chemistry with people on set. Phillipa is amazing. She’s just truly a joy and so insanely talented. To have her as my leading lady, I’m incredibly lucky.

And then, to have Sean, whom I knew less, show up and be completely fearless and approach everything with joy, and be so incredibly dedicated and incredibly prepared, as my co-leading man, I’ll give credit to Ryan, but even he couldn’t possibly have known that we were going to, from day one, get along the way that we did. That allows us to play these scenes light and bright and fast and know that the other party is gonna pick up the ball when you pass it to them. I’m glad that you picked up on that because I am pleasantly amazed that we started as fast as we did, and I think we’ve kept it up as the season has gone along. That’s now how we work. We have a very joyful set on purpose. I don’t like to work for misery, and it turns out that none of my co-workers here do. Some people do. I’ve definitely been on those sets and I’ve worked with those people, and life is too short. I do not want to work like that.

Related ‘Doctor Odyssey’s Throuple Can’t Work Without This Major Change Not everyone is feeling inclined to share.

As a viewer, I can definitely say that we need more of everything on this show, but especially more of you and Don Johnson.

JACKSON: I feel that too. We wanna give you everything, but we also wanna tease you a little bit. The dynamic between Don and I, I love that guy. He’s a wonderful person to work with. But also, you don’t really get to see that dynamic between two adult males very often on camera. And so, I agree with you. I think we should do more and more of that, as much of that as possible.

Release Date September 26, 2024 Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Network ABC Streaming Service(s) Hulu Expand

Doctor Odyssey airs on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu. Check out this behind-the-scenes look:

Watch on Hulu