Doc season 2, episode 2 review: Felicity Huffman's debut

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Doc Season 2, Episode 2.

The second episode of Doc Season 2 is not kind to Dr. Amy Larsen. “Delusions of Grandeur” features some very harsh criticism of Amy, as well as reminders of how harsh she once was as Chief of Internal Medicine. The end result is that the FOX show feels like it’s going around in circles.

The cases of the week — most notably a member of a commune who believes she’s pregnant when she isn’t — are almost secondary to the personal drama at Westside Hospital. The wrinkle of the commune slash possible cult is resolved almost as quickly as it’s introduced; once the woman sent to supervise Amy’s patient is threatened with a call to law enforcement, she literally walks away from the situation. Elsewhere, a man with a very prolonged case of hiccups is mostly there to establish the competency of Felicity Huffman’s character, Dr. Joan Ridley.

It’s the introduction of Joan that is the primary storyline in the hour, which makes sense given how heavily FOX promoted Huffman’s addition to the cast. Audiences learn quickly that Joan is Amy’s beloved mentor, but then bits and pieces throughout the episode show that Joan is no better than Amy used to be. In fact, Amy recovers a memory that Joan…