Netflix's Medical Police series premiere recap: Wheels Up

Dr. Lola Spratt and Dr. Owen Maestro become involved in an international crisis as a unique and deadly virus begins to spread across the globe on Medical Police.

Medical Police opens with three people plummeting toward the ground from high altitude. A man yells out, “We’re not gonna make it!” This should be exciting.

A mere 18 hours earlier, Dr. Lola Spratt (Erinn Hayes) works her regular shift at Children’s Hospital (which, as everyone knows, is and always has been located in Sao Paulo, Brazil). As sufferers of a strange virus outbreak are admitted to the hospital, Lola finds something familiar about the deadly disease and throws herself into researching it.

Meanwhile, Hospital Administrator Sy Mittleman (Henry Winkler) transitions the staff to standing desks and donates all the old desks to a high-class auction planned for Saturday, the proceeds of which will benefit the hospital. Dr. Blake (Rob Corddry) needs someone to watch his snake while he’s on vacation but his go-to snake sitter, Dr. Cat Black (Lake Bell) is away in Los Angeles performing in a network talent show called Break a Leg.

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When Lola starts falling behind in her duties, Sy tells her to get back to work and forget the virus. He won’t even let her send her findings to the CDC. Against his orders, she sends her findings anyway and sets out to investigate the infection site. Unfortunately, Sy has booted her car and no one will give her a ride. As a last resort, she gets a ride from hot-shot brain surgeon Dr. Owen Maestro (Rob Heubel), counter-bribing him $12 after Sy gave him $10 not to give her a ride.

Once at the infection site, Lola and Owen are intercepted by a woman named McIntyre (Sarayu Blue). She runs a secret division of the CDC called G932, the purpose of which is to combat bioterrorism. McIntyre was impressed with Lola’s report on the virus, so she takes them to her secret headquarters where Lola can explain her findings (using a hula-hoop and a bag of dried pinto beans in a particularly unenlightening demonstration).

News comes in that there’s an outbreak in Berlin. McIntyre recruits Lola to the team as Owen proclaims that he’s “Audi RS7 with the driver-assist package” and takes his leave. As Lola prepares to board a special-ops plane, Sy somehow tracks her down and confronts her through the chain-link fence at the airfield. He says that if she doesn’t come back to work this instant she’s fired. She walks out of earshot, texting him, “I QUITE” while he texts her back, “YOU’RE FRIED.” It is difficult to explain how hilarious this scene is and how wonderfully performed and written it is. None of this is quite able to capture the absolute absurdity of this show.

Meanwhile, McIntyre has a run-in with her own boss, Director Patten (Tom Wright) of the CDC. He warns her by phone that she better watch herself on this mission and that he doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in Guam (“Ooh, what happened in Guam?” Lola asks.). They take off and head for Berlin with field op agents in tow. McIntyre promises Lola that she is in good hands and that they run a tight ship. But then Owen rounds the corner, having somehow bumbled onboard either unobserved or unchallenged when looking for an unoccupied bathroom. He’s part of the mission now.

Two of the armed operatives betray the rest of the team, shooting the other two armed operatives and the pilots. They put on the only two parachutes and prepare to kill our heroes before jumping out of the unmanned plane. There is a struggle in which one henchman dies and the second’s chute gets shot to shit. When the plane takes a violent turn, the surviving henchwoman (Megan Le) gets rammed face-first into the lavatory door, leaving the lavatory sign embedded in her cheek. The dead henchman has the only working parachute, but he goes sliding out the open door when the plane swerves.

McIntyre stays behind to navigate the crashing plane to an unpopulated area while Lola and Owen jump out of the plane to try to catch up with the last parachute. Their mission is to investigate the outbreak site and find out who’s responsible. This is where we started out. They grab on to the henchman and are able to pull the ripcord in time to land safely in the middle of Berlin. Unfortunately, they are immediately met by two cops who hold them at gunpoint, telling them to put their hands up. “Who are you,” asks a very serious cop. Lola and Owen exchange glances. Where do they start and how do they get out of this?

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This is a delightfully funny and over-the-top start to Medical Police. The jokes range from the simultaneously dumb and smart to the downright absurd, with plenty of parody and meta-humor sprinkled throughout. It is so difficult to describe the tone of Medical Police because it is a style so perfectly unique to its creators. If you’ve seen Children’s Hospital or Wet Hot American Summer, you know what I mean. The humor is so dense and detailed that there’s no way to properly capture it in a mere recap. I wish I could, because it is hilarious.

What did you think of the Medical Police premiere? Be sure to tell us in the comment section below!

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